Until Darkness Comes (Redemption, #1)

by Melynda Price

[Raven]

Review originally posted at my blog

Olivia is one of the few people on Earth gifted with the Sight, the ability to see angels and demons. The Underworld is determined to kill her, as she is a threat to their kind, and they send Max to do the job. Luckily for her, she has her own guardian angel Liam to protect her. But Max will not give up so easily, and he will take down everything she loves to get to her.

This novel was really hard for me to rate, and as such this review may contain light spoilers. On the one hand, the story was really good and I enjoyed it completely, but some things didn't sit as well with me, leaving me liking it less. Perhaps, it has to do with my personal bias against angel/demon stories, but I am confident it was the story or the writing itself.

The story is nothing spectacular. It's actually really simple. Max wants Olivia dead. Liam is a warrior, not a real guardian, and will make sure she lives. Liam and Olivia fall for one another. Max gets more and more desperate with each attack. You are really left wondering why, if Liam is such a skilled warrior, does he not just swipe in, kill Max, and be done with it. Why Max lives as long as he does is really unexplainable.

The story focuses a lot on the relationships between the characters. The whole story is really the relationships with the angels vs demons in the background. The story opens with Olivia dating Max and you are left wondering why she stays with him, or why she got with him to begin with. It is obvious he is a short-tempered abusive type. All of her friends consider him to be a "douche", and she acts like she is unaware of their feelings. How can anyone not feel that way about him? How does this girl who is painted to be a sensible type not see it herself? I can understand her wanting to indulge in a bit of rebellion, but it just made no sense. They kept toting off about not effecting her free will and yet there is no other reason why I can see this sensible girl get with a guy like him. A desire for rebellion and a handsome face are not enough of a good cause to attract her to him. I might understand better if she were too afraid to get out of the relationship because she didn't know what he was like until they were together, but she is too strong of a person to let that happen. So it really doesn't make sense and considering that it is the beginning of the story it leaves you with a bit of a bad taste in your mouth about her. You want to like her otherwise.

The writing also bothered me a bit. There was a lot of cursing that I didn't feel was needed. That's a bit of a personal preference, but I have to say that I don't think it is really needed for angels to be running around with such language coming out of their mouths. Then there would be slang words like "cuz" following by paragraphs where the writing was classy and proper. It felt inconsistent. Then, the references to the desire of the angels seemed a bit off. The love in the story felt more like desire only and less like love. It didn't seem very angelic to me. Sure, it's more entertaining than a prude of an angel, but it was brought up so often that the angels were left being depicted as men who think only with their physical needs. A lot of the writing felt self-indulgent. I know a writer should write for themselves first because it will make your story so much better if you love and believe in it, but when it comes out to your audience, the self-indulgence shouldn't be so noticable in my opinion.

Regardless of it's faults, I did enjoy the entire story. There were many moments when things were predictable, but I still found myself hastening to get through to the next scene. The ending was horribly bittersweet. The teaser chapters for the second novel in the series just scream predictability and leave you frustrated. If you enjoy angel/demon stories, this really is a read that is worth it.