BEAUTY AWAKENED
by
Gena Showalter
Series: ANGELS OF THE DARK, Book 2
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format: Paperback & eBook
Purchase Links:
Amazon
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Depository | BAM
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His name is Koldo. He is scarred, powerful, his
control legendary-and he lives only for vengeance, determined to punish the
angel who viciously removed his wings. But if he yields to the forces of
hatred, he will be kicked from the heavens, eternally damned.
She is his last hope.Nicola Lane
She is his last hope.
BEAUTY AWAKENED, the 2nd installment of Gena Showalter's Angels
of the Dark series is finally here and it was so worth the wait!
The book starts off with a young Koldo at the age of 7 years
old. This was by far the most
heartbreaking chapter I have ever read.
A little boy starved for his mother's attention and love and getting
nothing but hatred and abuse in return. No
matter what he did to please her, she hated him and punished him more. We finally learn what happened to Koldo's
wings and I sat here with a box of tissues balling my eyes out through this
chapter. We also find out who his father
is and I just can't decide who was worse, his mother or father. I finally decided they were both just as
equally horrible. Poor Koldo!
Koldo is a warrior in Zacharel's Army of Disgrace, a group
of warrior angels that are in danger of falling. I loved Koldo when he
was introduced in WICKED NIGHTS but now he has my heart forever. I'm a sucker for the tortured souls and we
all know Koldo went through torture when we learned his wings were removed but
in this book we learn the full extent of the hell and anguish he went through. Koldo
was the warrior with few words and no emotions, but he does have emotions. He just covers them up and pretends to not
care because he is scared of rejection. Through everything that he has been through he
still fights for what's right and he's a hero which he proved in WICKED NIGHTS
when he made huge sacrifices to save his leader Zacharel. When he learns to open up and discovers his
feelings for Nicola he is also very possessive but in a sweet, melt your heart
kind of way.
Nicola and her twin sister Laila were born premature and
with underdeveloped hearts. They have
lived their lives not truly living at all due to fear of overdoing it and
having a heart attack. They both know
they don't have long to live but they are too weak and scared to fight. Nicola
isn't a kick ass hero like Annabell was in WICKED NIGHTS but she is awesome in
her own rights. Nicola is the stronger
sister, always looking out for and
taking care of Laila who is the weaker more afraid sister. She's easy going but not a doormat and she's
not afraid to stand up for herself and let anyone push her or her sister around. She's kind, good hearted and funny and I
really enjoyed her character.
Koldo first notices Nicola while on a mission in a
hospital. He finds Nicola leaning over a
very sick, almost dead Laila. He notices
right away that they are both being poisoned by demons who are shadowing their
every move and are filling them with toxins.
They feed on their fear, sadness, pain, doubt and any other negative
emotions and the demons are slowly killing them both. Koldo takes an
interest in Nicola and decides he's going to teach her how to get rid of the
demons and keep them away for good.
Because to have any shot at living, they need to keep the demons away
for good.
A lot of the healing Koldo teaches Nicola and Laila was all
about the power of positive thinking.
Some people may be put off by this but I truly believe that positive
thinking does help. If you think
negative thoughts then those thoughts will start to bring you down. We may not have demons sitting next to us
feeding us negative thoughts and toxins like the sisters do, but to me negative
thoughts and words are toxins. If you think
negative about yourself you start to believe it and live it. I love how Gena incorporated this into her
story.
This book is NOT full of steamy sex scenes like some of
Gena's other books. There is pretty much
one full on sex scene but there is plenty of sexual tension. Both Koldo and Nicola are virgins and Nicola
needs to take things slow otherwise her heart can give out. This book has just the right amount of sex
and tension for these two characters and I think Gena told their story
perfectly! Honestly, I get tired of the
hero and heroine jumping into the sack by the 100th page of most books. It
takes a talented author to write a romance book with only one actual sex scene
and keep it sexy but if anyone can pull it off its Gena and she totally nailed
it!
We get to see a lot of Axel and Thane is this book. While Axel acts extremely immature, you can't help but LOL at his crazy
antics and the absurd things that come out of his mouth. Thane was on a mission to take out the demons
responsible for killing someone they all cared dearly for. AND….for all you Lords of the Underworld fan
girls out there, William makes an appearance! Squee!!
Overall this book was incredible! It was heartbreaking at moments and LOL funny
the next. It was sexy without a lot of sex
and full of non-stop action. BEAUTY
AWAKENED pulled me in from the very first page and consumed me to the
last.
*ARC provided by
author in exchange for an honest review.
I give BEAUTY
AWAKENED 5 out of 5 skulls
