Got Lost in the Story and Fell Off a Cliff
*****Spoilers*****
I'm so lost but I will give it a 4. At the end of the book, even though I was reading on the Kindle app, I wanted to flip the book over to see where the rest of it was. As it was, when the end of book pop up came, I immediately closed it and manually swiped to the final page. No matter how much I hoped, the story was done. At least that I can tell anyway, no second one popped uo so it just falls off. Hopefully there's another one somewhere. In any case, the book starts off slowly, it was confusing, and the writing took a bit to get used to it was jumbled and I wasn't always sure when the scene or even perspective changed. That was really distracting and for a while I expected I wouldn't like the story at all. But then it picks up and moves at a much better pace and I couldn't put it down.
Neriah is nephilim, half angel and half human but doesn't know it at outset. She's never known her father and her mother died in a car accident but Neriah suspects her mother was really murdered. And not only that, she was sexually assaulted as a kid by her step father's friends and wants vengeance for both. She collects cover charges at a strip club, at least I think, and has a best friend named Betty who Neriah bonded with quickly. We learn she's on the run and some sinister someone keeps finding her. At some point, Neriah rents a crazy expensive apartment that came fully furnished with a mirror. Inside the mirror is Veles, a cambion, half human and half demon. In Neriah Veles sees his freedom from the mirror since he needs a nephilim to let him out and he knows no other will. Veles begins writing on the mirror from the other side and Neriah thinks she's going crazy at first but sees a spiritual woman who gives her tools for exorcising a ghost. Once Neriah realizes Veles isn't a ghost, she makes a deal with him. Veles gets out of the mirror and has to do the bidding of Neriah. She'll be able to command him until he succeeds to fulfill her request for vengeance and then sheet after that, Neriah will be his. No one knows what that means except Veles. Generally he wants to take over hell from his father Lucifer with whatever power he'd get from Neriah. Don't know how it'll work but there it is.
The other characters introduced in the book are other demons and a couple of angels. One of which is Mark and Neriah somehow begins to fall in love with him, which is smart on her end because all she got from Veles was a warning that she not fall in love with him and their relationship is nothing but a transaction. Swiftly followed by flitting and overt sexual innuendo. Frequently. I'm not sure if I was more frustrated with Veles because he couldn't admit to how he felt or for him giving her the cold shoulder after they do eventually hook up. The hookup itself was scorching I thought. Neriah and Veles do have a bond that was passed down to them from their fathers, hers Michael the archangel and Neriah thinks it's just the bond. That's all well and good but I was so surprised that she got together with Mark so suddenly and was falling in love by the end of the book. He has a sad story and she looks like his murdered wtfe, but there wasn't much there I didn't think for those kinds of feelings to be mentioned. They hooked up sure but still, it was off.
As Neriah and Veles work on her plan of vengeance, we're given more tidbits about the world and other characters. She's emerging into her nephilim form and comes upon a time of reckoning to choose hatred or forgiveness, the former will bust her down to a human, the latter will result in greater powers as she taps into her angelic side. It's interesting to watch and wait on Neriah to choose as she's confronted with her past abusers and whether the first she decides to let the demons kill or the last will be the one that pushes her off the path.
I don't remember if we ever get a description of Neriah in this book. Veles and the other demons though, we get plenty. Very interesting book, not without it's issues here and there but certainly one of the more original reads I've had in a while.