What do you think?
Rate this book
Buffyverse Novels #49
Angel: Close to the Ground
Even if it takes an eternity, he will make amends....
MORTAL WEAKNESS
Greed. Fear. Anger. All, technically, human emotions. But Angel's a demon, not a saint, and he's not immune to human emotions. So when big-shot Hollywood studio head Jack Willitts offers him huge sums of cash in exchange for guarding his overprivileged daughter, Karinna, the Dark Avenger takes the gig. After all, as Cordy and Doyle point out eagerly - there's rent to pay. And Willitts can certainly foot the bill.
After accompanying Karinna to several trendy nightspots, Angel writes her off as a spoiled brat. Cordy thinks Angel's too personally involved in the case, but the situation is worse that they suspect. Karinna's in trouble and suddenly Angel and company are being pursued by an unidentifiable creature, bent of destroying everything between it and what it wants most in the world.
Before long, Angel finds himself trapped within a supernatural struggle for power, fame...and immortality.
MORTAL WEAKNESS
Greed. Fear. Anger. All, technically, human emotions. But Angel's a demon, not a saint, and he's not immune to human emotions. So when big-shot Hollywood studio head Jack Willitts offers him huge sums of cash in exchange for guarding his overprivileged daughter, Karinna, the Dark Avenger takes the gig. After all, as Cordy and Doyle point out eagerly - there's rent to pay. And Willitts can certainly foot the bill.
After accompanying Karinna to several trendy nightspots, Angel writes her off as a spoiled brat. Cordy thinks Angel's too personally involved in the case, but the situation is worse that they suspect. Karinna's in trouble and suddenly Angel and company are being pursued by an unidentifiable creature, bent of destroying everything between it and what it wants most in the world.
Before long, Angel finds himself trapped within a supernatural struggle for power, fame...and immortality.
308 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 2000
3 people are currently reading
314 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey J. Mariotte
161 books163 followersAlso writes as Jeff Mariotte
Jeffrey J. Mariotte is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 70 novels, including the Cody Cavanaugh western series, historical western epic Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta (with Peter Murrieta), thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil's Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, and the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet. With wife and writing partner Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell, he wrote the sf/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS and Mafia III: Plain of Jars, the authorized prequel to the bestselling video game. His most recent release is the short story collection Byrd's Luck & Other Stories, comprising five "traditional" Western tales and five horror-Western stories, two of them brand-new for this edition.
He also writes occasional nonfiction, short fiction (some of which is collected in Nine Frights), and comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes and graphic novels Fade to Black and Zombie Cop. With Marsheila Rockwell, he has published several short stories and is working on more. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, as a writer, editor, marketing executive, and bookseller.
Learn more at www.jeffmariotte.com, and follow him at https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyJMari... and @JeffMariotte on Twitter.
Also writes as Jeff Mariotte
Jeffrey J. Mariotte is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 70 novels, including the Cody Cavanaugh western series, historical western epic Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta (with Peter Murrieta), thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil's Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, and the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet. With wife and writing partner Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell, he wrote the sf/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS and Mafia III: Plain of Jars, the authorized prequel to the bestselling video game. His most recent release is the short story collection Byrd's Luck & Other Stories, comprising five "traditional" Western tales and five horror-Western stories, two of them brand-new for this edition.
He also writes occasional nonfiction, short fiction (some of which is collected in Nine Frights), and comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes and graphic novels Fade to Black and Zombie Cop. With Marsheila Rockwell, he has published several short stories and is working on more. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, as a writer, editor, marketing executive, and bookseller.
Learn more at www.jeffmariotte.com, and follow him at https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyJMari... and @JeffMariotte on Twitter.
Also writes as Jeff Mariotte
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 8, 2024
This is a book based on the television series. It takes place very early in the show's run. In this one Angel is hired to bodyguard a movie executive's daughter. Angel gets more than he bargained for.
I am not expecting great literature with tie-in novels. I want to be entertained. I want one more adventure with characters that I love and I want the book to remain true to the show. After reading this book I believe that this one did not fit in with my criteria. It fell short. The book works for the universe with elements of the supernatural. It was other areas where this book was a little off. The first time I noticed this is with the main character. There were times when I said that Angel would not say that. I also noticed this with other character's dialogue or internal thoughts. But main gripe is the story was divided into three different plots. I knew they would all have a connection at the end. I felt this connection was tenuous at best. It felt like the author knew he had to have a connection with all of them and he forced it.
Not the best example of a media tie-in novel. The author had the elements of the show but did not use them correctly. Everything felt a little off. Honestly this read as more of a fan fiction book than anything else. It fits in with this universe but it is just okay at best.
I am not expecting great literature with tie-in novels. I want to be entertained. I want one more adventure with characters that I love and I want the book to remain true to the show. After reading this book I believe that this one did not fit in with my criteria. It fell short. The book works for the universe with elements of the supernatural. It was other areas where this book was a little off. The first time I noticed this is with the main character. There were times when I said that Angel would not say that. I also noticed this with other character's dialogue or internal thoughts. But main gripe is the story was divided into three different plots. I knew they would all have a connection at the end. I felt this connection was tenuous at best. It felt like the author knew he had to have a connection with all of them and he forced it.
Not the best example of a media tie-in novel. The author had the elements of the show but did not use them correctly. Everything felt a little off. Honestly this read as more of a fan fiction book than anything else. It fits in with this universe but it is just okay at best.
May 25, 2023
This is a tie-in to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel. It's set early during the first season, the Doyle & Cordelia era if you will. It's a pretty good adventure, with more demons extant than traditional vampires, in which Angel takes a job as a bodyguard of a young Hollywood heiress. Angel seems less broody than he was on screen at the time, but Doyle struck me as accurate, and Cordelia steals the show.
February 2, 2024
Close to the Ground (Buffyverse Novels #49) by Jeff Mariotte is a fun Angel tie-in novel that's set during the first half of season one. Jeff Mariotte does a great job of getting the tone of Cordelia, Doyle, and Angel with this story. There are a few moments that would have been really cool to see on screen, especially Cordelia's studio tour guide job. That would have been priceless!
November 6, 2020
I think I read this last year, but the plot and my enjoyment level hasn't stuck in my mind at all. I'm giving it a three because I assume it was halfway decent, the really bad ones (or the really good) leave more of an imprint than the okay ones.
June 29, 2024
Engaging storyline, interesting plot and the same loveable, familiar characters from the TV show. Really enjoyed the story and how everything falls together.
October 7, 2023
This was not great.
August 11, 2023
2.5
The good thing about a rainy summer is getting a lot of reading time, as I bought a bunch of these, getting to them is nice.
This one was so so, Angel towards the end didn’t seem like Angel at all. But the flashback to his first attempt at a rescue was nice. Overall, pretty fun, but the Angel plot, the magician, and the bank robberies felt a bit scattered.
The good thing about a rainy summer is getting a lot of reading time, as I bought a bunch of these, getting to them is nice.
This one was so so, Angel towards the end didn’t seem like Angel at all. But the flashback to his first attempt at a rescue was nice. Overall, pretty fun, but the Angel plot, the magician, and the bank robberies felt a bit scattered.
January 16, 2026
Sometimes you get hits and misses with books based on a television show and characters that you know and love. Not straight up novelizations but original works.
Some of these Angel tie-in novels take the narrative part into different directions and even though there are A-plots and B-plots and maybe even a C plot, it should be far more condensed.
Characterization is actually very spot on in this novel set around the first part of the first season.
Angel is Angel, Doyle is Doyle, Cordy is Cordy and even Kate Lockley is Kate Lockley. I can hear the actors saying the words and see the faces as I read but I think Close to The Ground lived up to its title.
Some parts soared and others crashed and burned.
Kate is going after some bank robbers that don't seem to be an important plot point, but it does make a connection later. Doyle has a vision about a girl in trouble, so Angel goes to the rescue and finds that her name is Karinna Willits once he takes her home.
Her home happens to be a sprawling mansion up in the Hollywood Hills because her father works as the head of a major movie studio, Monument Pictures. Angel is then asked by Jack Willits if he can be the new bodyguard for his teenage daughter since the previous bodyguards were roughing her up and happened to be the ones Angel just beat the snot out off.
Angel hesitates but once he tells this to Doyle and Cordy, guess who goads him the most into taking the job? Business hasn't been booming lately but the pay Willits is offering could help them out besides getting Cordy a foot in the door to stardom. She even goes with Angel to accept the offer, and Willits does give her a job.
Cordy is now doing those studio backlot tours and not happy about it, but it is a start since there are talent agents and hunky actors walking about.
On Angel's end of things, part of him sees Karinna as a spoiled brat but the other part of him can't help but remembering a young woman vaguely similar to the redhead. A human that Angel couldn't even save the moment he first got back his soul. Maybe this time is a way to make-up for that loss towards his own redemption.
The back of the book makes it seem as if Karinna is in trouble but more of the trouble is tied towards Angel. Being a vampire with a soul makes Angel a very hot commodity to those in the dark underworld seeking immortality yet again some of those same demons and sorcerers also deal in giving mortals what they desire.
In Los Angeles and Hollywood, everyone wants fortune and fame and beauty.
Once you get to the climatic reveal at the end, it is another part of the story that makes up for what is dragging and lagging. Doyle and Cordelia keep the ending from being a complete downer, but Angel's normal "sunny" disposition makes it clear that he can't save every soul even if it does end up saving his own a little at a time.
Some of these Angel tie-in novels take the narrative part into different directions and even though there are A-plots and B-plots and maybe even a C plot, it should be far more condensed.
Characterization is actually very spot on in this novel set around the first part of the first season.
Angel is Angel, Doyle is Doyle, Cordy is Cordy and even Kate Lockley is Kate Lockley. I can hear the actors saying the words and see the faces as I read but I think Close to The Ground lived up to its title.
Some parts soared and others crashed and burned.
Kate is going after some bank robbers that don't seem to be an important plot point, but it does make a connection later. Doyle has a vision about a girl in trouble, so Angel goes to the rescue and finds that her name is Karinna Willits once he takes her home.
Her home happens to be a sprawling mansion up in the Hollywood Hills because her father works as the head of a major movie studio, Monument Pictures. Angel is then asked by Jack Willits if he can be the new bodyguard for his teenage daughter since the previous bodyguards were roughing her up and happened to be the ones Angel just beat the snot out off.
Angel hesitates but once he tells this to Doyle and Cordy, guess who goads him the most into taking the job? Business hasn't been booming lately but the pay Willits is offering could help them out besides getting Cordy a foot in the door to stardom. She even goes with Angel to accept the offer, and Willits does give her a job.
Cordy is now doing those studio backlot tours and not happy about it, but it is a start since there are talent agents and hunky actors walking about.
On Angel's end of things, part of him sees Karinna as a spoiled brat but the other part of him can't help but remembering a young woman vaguely similar to the redhead. A human that Angel couldn't even save the moment he first got back his soul. Maybe this time is a way to make-up for that loss towards his own redemption.
The back of the book makes it seem as if Karinna is in trouble but more of the trouble is tied towards Angel. Being a vampire with a soul makes Angel a very hot commodity to those in the dark underworld seeking immortality yet again some of those same demons and sorcerers also deal in giving mortals what they desire.
In Los Angeles and Hollywood, everyone wants fortune and fame and beauty.
Once you get to the climatic reveal at the end, it is another part of the story that makes up for what is dragging and lagging. Doyle and Cordelia keep the ending from being a complete downer, but Angel's normal "sunny" disposition makes it clear that he can't save every soul even if it does end up saving his own a little at a time.
April 1, 2024
This book really felt like quite a mishmash of ideas: there's Angel working as a bodyguard for a rich teen, Cordelia working at a movie studio, Lockley investigating bank robberies, and also a mysterious demon hunting after Angel. It sort of works and propels itself along, until about two-thirds of the way through when it feels like the demon hunting Angel just bulldozes over the rest of the plot (with some very annoying Older English speak) and everything else seems to be cast off to the side.
The rest of the plots do sort of come back together and tie in, but in a way that didn't really feel super satisfying for me.
The rest of the plots do sort of come back together and tie in, but in a way that didn't really feel super satisfying for me.
August 14, 2024
Prior to finishing, I was set to give this a low score. The sentence structure was weird, and some of the characters seemed completely unnecessary. The way it all came together in the end, and the twist that was revealed really made up for it in a big way. Very well done. The sentence structure in the beginning is still rough though, so 1 star off for that.
March 8, 2018
more about the villans (demons) than Angel or any other character.
June 28, 2022
I don't know how he does it. Fights really bad demons, busts up a bank robbery and fights more demons.
January 22, 2012
I've noticed that each and every book gets better, maybe it's because the writers end up with more information from producers/20th Century Fox, or maybe it's just because with time the authors of each book get better in writing the characters.
That being said, I really did love 'Close to the Ground'. Jeff Mariotte has to be one of my favourite Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel novelists, because he seems to have a sense of the characters. When I read his books, I instantly feel like Angel, Cordelia, or Doyle would say those things.
'Close to the Ground' sees the Angel Investigations team protecting a hot shot studio head's daughter. There are lots of action, and it's the type of book that when you think everything is wrapped up, it's far from over.
The part with Cordelia and her job was hilarious, and was something I really wish we would have seen on the actual TV show. One thing that I really love about the books, is that they go into so much more deep with Cordelia and how hard it is to find fame in Hollywood. The TV show touched on it, and there were a few episodes dedicated to it, but most of the time it was forgotten.
I recommend this book, for anyone that loves a quick read/TV show tie-in.
That being said, I really did love 'Close to the Ground'. Jeff Mariotte has to be one of my favourite Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel novelists, because he seems to have a sense of the characters. When I read his books, I instantly feel like Angel, Cordelia, or Doyle would say those things.
'Close to the Ground' sees the Angel Investigations team protecting a hot shot studio head's daughter. There are lots of action, and it's the type of book that when you think everything is wrapped up, it's far from over.
The part with Cordelia and her job was hilarious, and was something I really wish we would have seen on the actual TV show. One thing that I really love about the books, is that they go into so much more deep with Cordelia and how hard it is to find fame in Hollywood. The TV show touched on it, and there were a few episodes dedicated to it, but most of the time it was forgotten.
I recommend this book, for anyone that loves a quick read/TV show tie-in.
January 2, 2014
This was my first Angel novelization I've read ... and I have to think there are better ones out there. It wasn't horrible, but there were just some basic tenets of storytelling that weren't there. I did like that it was set in the "Doyle" era of Angel, but it reminded me too much of a "Dresden Files" book, which are much better! I love "Angel," so it was nice to read a new story, but I think the characterization of Angel was a little off. He didn't even brood once! :)
July 21, 2016
This story of Angel, the vampire with a soul, is really well done! What do Angel taking a job as a bodyguard for a spoiled teen, a demon planning to take over the world, Cordelia getting a job at a Hollywood studio, and a group of tunneling bank robbers all have in common? Well, Mr. Mariotte ties it all together, and provides the readers with an excellent Angel story! Well worth reading, without a doubt! I used as many exclamation points as I did, because this novel deserves them.
May 9, 2010
Anyway, I was not overly impressed, and I thought much of the Angel characterization would have fit better for Xander. Some of his comments just didn't seem very Angel. But this is first season, perhaps I am more used to the jaded Angel from the end of the series.
July 6, 2010
Best book of my life, lovd every minute of this great book. Learned tht, well, wen life brings u death, fit back! :)
April 24, 2011
Despite being a huge fan of the show, this book was not for me.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews