THE TEMPTATION OF ANGELS by Michelle Zink

The Temptation of Angels
Michelle Zink

Rating: D
Release Date: 03/20/12

Synopsis from goodreads.com:
Even angels make mistakes in this page-turning epic romance... 

When her parents are murdered before her eyes, sixteen-year-old Helen Cartwright finds herself launched into an underground London where a mysterious organization called the Dictata controls the balance of good and evil. Helen learns that she is one of three remaining angelic descendants charged with protecting the world's past, present, and future. Unbeknownst to her, she has been trained her whole life to accept this responsibility. Now, as she finds herself torn between the angelic brothers protecting her and the devastatingly handsome childhood friend who wants to destroy her, she must prepare to be brave, to be hunted, and above all to be strong, because temptation will be hard to resist, even for an angel. 

Michelle Zink masterfully weaves historical fantasy with paranormal romance to create a gripping tale of love and betrayal.


My thoughts on the book:

Well, I certainly expected more with this book than I got. I usually love angel stories and historical fiction, but this book fell flat for me on so many different levels. The writing was blah. That's the only way I know how to describe it. The opening scene is supposed to be intense and build suspense, I think, but it did nothing of the sort for me. I was yawning and thinking, "really? Can't we end scene and get to something interesting?" I didn't sympathize at all with Helen, and I didn't really like her or any of the other characters very much. The plot was predictable, but the mythology was a bit different. If you feel like you just can't miss an angel story, I recommend borrowing this book from your library to see if you like it first. I know some people really love this book, but I wasn't one of them. 

Every single character in Temptation of Angels was what I like to call a "cookie-cutter" character. They were all cliched and so two-dimensional that I felt like I was reading about cardboard cut outs instead of real, fleshed out characters. Helen also bores me to death. She just isn't interesting at all, and neither are her love interests. I wanted to smack Raum for being so negative, and I wanted to kick Griffin for being such a goody-goody. This book needed some originality when it came to characters. 

The plot was boring and predictable. The writing didn't help matters much. Everything felt forced, and nothing seemed natural. I just felt like Zink was trying way too hard to be eloquent, and because of that, she ended up being anything but. It took me awhile to read this book because I had to force myself to get through some of the overly long descriptions and the telling instead of showing during the supposed suspenseful scenes. 

The one original and bright spot in this novel was the mythology. It was quite different. However, the mythology is the one thing that wasn't overly explained, and I felt that it was barely touched on. I would have liked to have learned a lot more about the rules of the world I was reading about instead of what the world looked like, down to the last tree branch. There needed to be a ton of elaboration where the mythology was concerned. 

Overall, I didn't really enjoy this book, but that doesn't mean that you won't. Everyone has different tastes, and like I said, many people have enjoyed it so far. I'm a very picky reader, and I know what I like. This book, unfortunately, was not it. If you try it out, I hope you like it better than I did. The mythology has a lot of potential. I just feel that Zink needed to re-prioritize what she spends her time on when writing.