Tag: author Ava Marie Salinger

Review: Oathbreaker (Fallen Messenger #4) Ann Marie Salinger

Rating: 4.5🌈

Due to the complexity of Salinger’s world building and expanding cast of characters, I always need a bit of a review before diving back into this series. But it’s so worthwhile because the author has created a grand tale of war between good and evil beings, one that has been fought before, and now 500 years later is exploding on earth as mortals, Demi gods, mythological beings and creatures from all realms are gathering for one final chapter.

In the last novel, Edge Lines, the Fallen have started to remember their past lives before the First War, when they fell to Earth. The consequences of that recovery of a original self, means the reintegration of memory and powers. And just as much pain and guilt. For Cassius and Morgan , and for Victor.

Because the returning memories and selves brings deep deceptions and painful history to light.

All this while continuing current storylines with the characters, and investigations that carried over looking for the man/being who’s causing the chaos.

A main factor here is Theophile Serrano’s past, and his future part in the ongoing war. It is an amazing journey that really invigorated the story for me in some respects.

Just when I was thinking the story was getting a little dense in bringing in more characters and exposition, Theo’s part began and I was even more delighted with the twists that came next. It was incredibly emotional, full of action, and the ramifications from his section for the next storylines are huge.

These aren’t books you can read as standalones. They must be read in the order they are written and in the series sequence. They contain a huge amount of material that moves the arc and relationships forward in each story.

Fallen Messengers is a highly imaginative, complicated series. Oathbreaker is a wonderful installment, one I couldn’t put down until I was finished.

I’m absolutely recommending it!

Fallen Messenger series:

◦ Unbound #0.5

✓ Fractured Souls #1

✓ Spellbound #2

✓ Edge Lines #3

✓ Oathbreaker #4

◦ Harbringer #5 – TBD

https://www.goodreads.com › showOathbreaker (Fallen Messengers #4) by Ava Marie Salinger – Goodreads

Synopsis:

When the past comes calling, Cassius and Morgan have no option but to face the dire consequences of the choices they made before the Fall.

With Cassius Black’s secret operations to save the world in the last five-hundred years finally revealed by the agencies that govern the otherworldly, his status as the most vilified Fallen on Earth changes almost overnight. Unused to his newfound fame, Cassius tries to keep a low profile, but Morgan King’s reckless actions soon have them in the news again.

Forced to take a sabbatical, the pair heads to London to meet with Victor Sloan, who’s been incommunicado since his identity as the demigod who betrayed Cassius and Morgan during the War in the Nether came to light in the Spirit Realm.

Meanwhile, Theophile Serrano’s attempts to adapt to his new job as P.A. to Sion CEO Hugo Frost are derailed by the strange things that keep happening to him. Things that soon convince him that he is losing his mind.

Destinies collide when a catastrophe engendered by the dark God Elios strikes London. As past and present meet, Cassius finally comes face to face with the Guardians who were left behind in the Nether.

Will unlocking the secrets of Cassius and Theo’s past be the key to the city’s salvation? Or will the truth tear them all apart and give Elios the victory he seeks?

Oathbreaker is the fourth novel in the gay urban fantasy romance series Fallen Messengers. If you like your paranormal adventures full of action, magic, snark, and a host of steamy angels and demons, then you’re not going to want to miss this gripping, angst-filled adrenaline ride!

Content note: this book contains sensitive content that may be upsetting to some readers. Please refer to the blurb page of the eBook and the copyright page of the paperback and hardback for more information.

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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Edge Lines (Fallen Messenger #3) by Ava Marie Salinger

Rating: 4 .5🌈

It’s been a while since I read the last book in this series, so it took a bit to get back into this extremely complicated universe with its ever expanding cast of supernatural and mythological characters. This of course includes those characters challenging, complex relationships with each other which is made even more convoluted and clouded because none of The Fallen remember their past lives due to a curse.

Salinger has written not just characters but characters that have characters layered over top of them, with each character layer having a distinct history complete with memories separate from one another. One preFallen and the person they’ve become sans memories after The Fall. Does this make them completely different beings now?

I suspect that’s going to be a question the author will be addressing in her storylines.

Edge Lines sees a return of some of those memories to our characters with haunting ramifications.

The memories have been returning in bits and pieces as Cassius Black and Morgan King find themselves with new powers and titles. In the last book, it became apparent that Morgan had Fae blood and powers that now manifested in a Wind Sword and a Crown of greens. Cassius too remembered names and took on a powerful heavenly shine when he used his powers to blast demons out of the city.

Their new Demi status is only the beginning.

The author is ramping up her series plot and it seems to be a wow of a series arc!

It happens over the course of the book. As Morgan and Cassius seek answers to who they were before The Fall , their enemy is making huge maneuvers to end the world order.

Salinger starts enlarging the cast of characters by bringing on more “ players “ who will have to help bring down the “big bad”. So we see the enlarging corp of fighters being assembled.

It’s more Gods and it’s fascinating as well as imaginative.

All I’ll say is I adore the Reapers!

And the author must have a huge wall of pinned cards to keep everyone and everything straight in the narrative because this is one labyrinthine series arc!

It’s just keeps getting better with each revelation.

I will say I’m not as heavily invested in Morgan and Cassius’s relationship as I am in the entire plot. Perhaps it’s a lack of chemistry for me that I find in other couples the author has created in this book.

Either way, the fantastic storylines keep me hugely entertained and engaged in the events going forward!

I need to know more! What happens next!

That’s Oathbreaker! I’ll be waiting for that to be released. It’s the series finale!

Until then, get ready. Read all the books in the order they were written and meet me at Oathbreaker!

I’m highly recommending this series and story!

Fallen Messenger series:

◦ Unbound #0.5

✓ Fractured Souls #1

✓ Spellbound #2

✓ Edge Lines #3

◦ Oathbreaker #4

https://www.goodreads.com › showEdge Lines (Fallen Messengers #3) by Ava Marie Salinger – Goodreads

Synopsis:

The Gods have come to San Francisco…

Cassius Black and Morgan King’s trip to Ivory Peaks to uncover clues about their past takes an unexpected turn when a rift materializes and war demons attack the capital. Having saved one world by the skin of their teeth, they return to Earth, only to find it has been rocked by ominous quakes bearing a close resemblance to the phenomenon that nearly destroyed the Dryad kingdom.

After defeating demons that emerge from a crevasse in San Francisco, Cassius and Morgan rescue the Wild God Pan from the bottom of a rift with the help of Victor Sloan and the city’s otherwordly. But instead of thanking them, Pan makes a startling demand: rescue his lover and prevent the Spirit Realm from being destroyed, and he will reveal the truth about who Cassius and Morgan are.

Help comes from an unexpected source when a pair of Reapers visit the city and Cassius, Morgan, and Victor soon go hunting for a missing deity who may hold the key to saving all the realms. Can they free the immortals from their prisons and find the powerful artefact that can bend the mind and will of even a God? Or will the enemy who has long manipulated them from the shadows win this war and destroy everything they have come to care for?

Edge Lines is the third novel in the gay urban fantasy romance series Fallen Messengers. If you like your paranormal adventures full of action, magic, snark, and a host of steamy angels and demons, then you’re not going to want to miss this enthralling, fun-filled ride!

Review: Spellbound (Fallen Messengers #2 by Ava Marie Salinger

Rating: 3.5 🌈

Ah, time for that all important second book in a series review. So many questions and weighted hopes hangs on this follow up novel if the author is continuing an overall series arc.

Is there continuity and character growth? Does it flow somehow out from the events of the first book? Does it empower not only the characters but our imagination in the same manner the original launches us into this journey?

Hmmm, with Spellbound, the answers are a bit mixed.

Let’s tackle them one by one.

Plots.

The storyline that takes up the majority of this novel is wonderful. It contains so much depth and emotional layering that I expected. There’s a serious mother/daughter flawed relationship built on lies, love, and a great tragedy. Eden, the daughter is so relatable in her anger, pain, and apparent maternal abandonment. Her rage is both poignant and deeply frightening. We get it. This aspect of the novel, and everything that surrounds Eden is absolutely terrific. With an exception.

Eden is a high school student. At the end of this story, she’s found herself in a serious permanent as in forever relationship. With a ancient being. Now while we are all smacking our heads over that flag, I will say the author has several characters bring up the illegality of that issue as well as the idea that she’s not emotionally ready. Ok good.

But there’s no real resolution. So perhaps that’s to be addressed in upcoming novels but Eden clearly deserves a more defined finish here. She’s a marvelous character and so is this entire element of the arc.

Which brings me to

Series Arc plots .

As best I can tell, Salinger is slowly adding bits of pieces to her overall arc mosaic much like a 1.000 piece table puzzle . You fit a bit in here, several snap in together there. So hopefully, Eden and her new Dryad Prince are part of the huge battle group that will be needed to fight the Evil whoever who is trying to do whatever. Still not a clue. But Salinger’s strengths are in her ingenious storylines and layerings. She knows how to build a suspenseful scene, and then top it off with high action.

However , this didn’t move the overall arc along hugely. Did confirm new information about our main characters though.

That brings us to the aspect of characterization. What I thought worked and, frankly, what I felt didn’t.

Eden’s group and storyline. Those characters were new , including her BFF Lois and her family. All the beings that gravitated around Eden and her drama? They really worked as far as realistic emotional scenes and reactions to her dilemma. Again great job.

But, unfortunately, in what should be solid, continuing .character growth for Cassius and Morgan, our main couple and the series biggest heart as well as mystery? It felt as though we got a stripping off of layers instead of a depth of dimension.

In the first story, we saw the ages of wisdom, the compassion and pain coming through for Cassius. Now he’s a pouty, insecure lovesick being? What happened to the serious character of the other novel? He seems to have vanished, replaced by a boyfriend of Morgan’s. Who occasionally transforms into something cool. Morgan too is undergoing a bit of a metamorphosis, although into what exactly is anyone’s guess. But the gravity of these downright elemental or idk other worldly transformations seems to be missing.

Idk maybe they should actually stop having sex for a mo’ and figure out if this pertains to their missing memories, and maybe even the bad guy! Good grief.

Definitely not the same beings I liked in book one. They need to regain their gravitas, their focus, and personalities.

Almost missing main character. You all know how I feel about this. Here it’s Loki the magical cat, a main player in book one and the series arc. He lives with Cassius now. When do we see and here about him here? When the book is about 74% complete. Then Loki is mentioned as part of the growing mystery so , yes, he has to be trotted out in one scene so everyone sees he’s still around. That’s it. Done. He disappears again back into the apartment not to be mentioned again. It fed or whatever. So Loki could have starved because he’s not seen or mentioned even when they are back in the apartment. A huge change from book one when he’s a constant presence, weaving catlike around the feet or in their laps. SMH. Continuity and consistency!

All of which finally brings me to my last bit of griping. Since I had time to notice all the above, then the issues I had with the repetition of adjectives and certain author’s fondness of terms definitely continues on here.

Pls, someone either tell her about how to find and replace a word within a document, Thesauruses our old friend , (and edit) or point a great editor her way.

We are back to muscles jumping in every character’s face and often. Adrianne is saying things “leadenly”again. I pity poor Adrianne. No sex and the worst lines. A couple of female characters always “smile softly “.

There’s also a lot of “she___fill in the name___snarled,” “so and so hissed”,

Lots of hissing and no they aren’t snake shifters.

Also “growling “. Cedric growled. But it could have been and usually is another.

Plus a host of clenched whatever… jaw, fist… whatever can be clenched.

You get the idea. Salinger once she uses a word or term in a certain manner, it stays used. To the detriment of the story. And the reader’s, at least this reader’s concentration.

And that’s a shame, because the plots? Both one the book and overall series arc scale are imaginative and layered. They have grabbed my attention and the potential for a really great series shows everywhere….

But there’s some definite tidying up to be done. Both in the major characters personalities and language. I look forward to see what book three brings.

High marks mostly for Eden and her journey.

Fallen Messenger series:

Unbound #0.5

Fractured Souls #1

Spellbound #2

Edge Lines #3

Oathbreaker #4

Synopsis:

Can Cassius and Morgan overcome an elusive enemy and save a young girl’s life?

Eden Monroe has spent her entire existence believing she has no magic. Shunned by her mother Brianna and the magical bureau Hexa, she runs away from home when she is forced to embrace a future she never chose, only to fall into the hands of ghastly monsters from the Nine Hells. After being rescued by a mysterious Dryad with secrets of his own, Eden realizes there is more to her past and future than she could ever have imagined.

When San Francisco PD asks Argonaut to assist them in solving a series of strange bank robberies, Cassius Black and Morgan King uncover a disturbing plot that points to an unknown artifact hidden somewhere in the city. Their investigation soon has them crossing paths with a desperate Brianna, who seeks their help in finding her missing daughter. When the witch reveals the shocking circumstances surrounding her daughter’s birth as well as the deadly magic sealed inside the young girl’s body, the Argonaut agents realize their case is linked to Eden and the weapon of devastating power the bank robbers are after.

Can Cassius and Morgan defeat the malevolent organization behind it all and save Eden from her cursed fate? Or will the young girl suffer a destiny worse than death itself?

Spellbound is the second novel in the gay urban fantasy romance series Fallen Messengers. If you like your paranormal adventures full of action, magic, snark, and a host of steamy angels and demons, then you’re not going to want to miss this jaw-dropping, fun-filled ride!

Spellbound

Review: Fractured Souls (Fallen Messengers #1) by Ava Marie Salinger

Rating: 4.25 🌈

Fractured Souls is the first book I’ve read by author Ava Marie Salinger but it definitely won’t be the last, if for no other reason that Fractured Souls is the first in a series.

But after reading this imaginative and gripping fantasy story (non-stop btw), I’m ready to rush headlong into the second round and more in this universe and series.

Salinger starts us off in a world where a cataclysmic event has already occurred hundreds of years ago. Then a tear in the void between worlds saw demons, angels and a host of otherly beings from all Realms fall to Earth. After much warring a peace was brokered and all species co-exist, tentatively side by side.

That’s the interesting basis that the author then starts really building her edifice upon. Salinger does so through her strong characters as they navigate her incredibly dark and complicated storyline, which includes murder, sacrifices, humor, action, surprise revelations, and just plain great plotting.

Much like her universe, we get a basic understanding of who her characters are and then the author proceeds to show us that’s just a mere outline she’s using to create something astonishing. Not just for one major character but for many as the revelations, small and large, stumble out .

What’s more remarkable is that not only is the reader highly surprised by each change or new element with regard to the characters but the characters themselves are shocked!

Yes The Fall wiped out most memories of past existence for those who survived it. Talk about a great concept! So both the readers and characters find out the new details about themselves at the same time. Love it.

Salinger has so many great details here to go along with a heinous murder spree. A series arc that’s delicious , devious, and dangerous in its own right. And characters that are just memorable in every way.

If I have a issue here it’s with the language or descriptions. While Salinger’s plots are stellar, the writing sometimes gets a little less tidy. Some characters get the same words used to describe them repeatedly.

Poor Adrianne. She comes to mind the most.

Adrianne said dully.

Adrianne said leadenly. (She does this a lot)

Adrianne snarled.

There’s also a lot of “muscles jumping in cheeks’ of both sexes when upset. Including Adrianne’s. It’s as though the author knew she didn’t want her characters muscles to “tick” so they “jump”. Often, sometimes in the same paragraph. SMH. Anyway.

The plot kept my interest glued as the pace is fast and the events occurring are action packed. Had that not been the case, verbiage like those examples above would soon drag your attention out of the storyline.

Luckily, a great concept and enough mystery keeps your mind centered on the characters.

Here there’s no demons versus angels but all factions actually work together. More or less, power struggles not withstanding. Nice change that.

Cassius Black and Morgan King are perfect for each other. And their chemistry grows along with their complicated relationship.

All the support characters are equally strong and have the potential for more growth in the future. They make up a great team, one you connect with and invest yourself emotionally in.

I’m heading now quickly over to book 2 in the Fallen Messengers series. That would be Spellbound.

I’ll let you all know what I find. This was an terrific , exciting, sexy fantasy novel. And a great start and introduction to a new author and universe.

I can’t wait for my journey to continue with both.

Definitely recommended.

Fallen Messenger series:

Unbound #0.5

Fractured Souls #1

Spellbound #2

Edge Lines #3

Oathbreaker #4

Synopsis:

Humans are dying in San Francisco. The most shunned angel on Earth may very well hold the key as to why…

When Cassius Black moves to San Francisco for a fresh start, the angel’s hopes of staying below the radar of the supernatural organizations that oversee the otherworldly and magic users in the city are dashed when he stumbles across a dead body in the sewers. His grim discovery soon puts him in the sight of the Argonaut Agency and Francis Strickland, the bureau director who knows his darkest secrets. 

Morgan King and his team of Argonaut agents have been hunting for the culprits behind a series of gruesome killings that have rocked the city all summer. Killings that bear sinister hallmarks of sacrificial rituals where the victims’ souls have been ripped from their bodies. When Fate brings Cassius in Morgan’s path, he realizes the angel everyone likes to call The Devil may very well be the only person who can help them track down the murderers.

Morgan and Cassius soon find themselves chasing down a sect of black magic sorcerers and cross paths with a mysterious warlock whose actions evoke disturbing echoes of an incident from Cassius’s past. As rumors of a potential plot to tear the Nether reach their ears, Cassius and Morgan must work together to defeat their common enemy and save the city from destruction, all while fighting their growing attraction for one another.

Fractured Souls is the first novel in the MM urban fantasy romance series Fallen Messengers. If you like action-packed paranormal adventures with romance and snark, then get this pulse-pounding book today and enter a world you won’t want to leave! 

https://www.goodreads.com › showFractured Souls (Fallen Messengers #1) by Ava Marie Salinger – Goodreads