Malachi is the most talented male angel healer in a generation but despite his inflated ego about his talents, one thing still bothers him. Mal is an orphan and he's on the search for his mother. He returns to his childhood orphanage and the current priest working there, Tobias, tells him that despite it not being exactly within the rules, he will let Mal look at his records. However, it seems this mother's name is missing. As they dig deeper, Mal and Tobias discover a dark secret hidden among the priests which will put both their lives in danger.

The whole thing could have been an interesting longer book but as a short story; it feels rushed. If given more time, the world could have had more time to build and thusly would have been better understood. The relationship between Mal and Tobias would have had more time to develop so they have real chemistry instead of just a line drop about how they've been working together for two months. A concept with potential but not enough room to grow, I give this a 3 out of 5.

Book – Angel Fever
Author – May Ridge
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 69
Cover – Nice!
POV – 3rd person, one character
Would I read it again – Yes
Genre – LGBT, Paranormal, Short, Religion


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


I really enjoyed this one. It was a really cute story about an Angel who was searching for his mother, with the help of a human priest.

I love how the plot had a lot of little twists and turns that were all connected, logical and clever, once I was able to figure out how they were connected and where it led. The writing style was great; full of the right balance of attention to detail, characterisation and plot.

I loved Mal and Tobias. I didn't mind their naturally snarky natures, because it suited their egos and their level of superiority over each other and their kind. I liked that they were so equal in status, but we didn't know it at first, so Tobias' method of ignoring Mal's status became a nice quirk and something intriguing to keep us wondering until the big reveal. I loved the chemistry between the pair; they were so well suited and the age difference wasn't too much. Their friendship naturally evolved and became something intense.

Was there anything missing? I would have liked some chapter headings. 69 pages is a lot to read with only small scene breaks. And I would have liked to have seen Mal talk to Cassiel at least once, but certainly at the end of the story. It was something I thought the story had been building up to, but never really happened and it would have been a nice addition.

The whole 'angel fever' idea was really original, as was the entire angel/human concept. Each aspect was well written, original and cleverly plotted for the best effect. Each twist made sense, was a nice surprise when it happened and not at all predictable. It was great that the timeline stayed true to such events, not happening all at once, but with weeks or months between the adventurous parts, to give Mal and Tobias time to plot and make plans.

Overall, a really fun adventure story with a sweet purpose that proves to lead to nothing but trouble.

~

Favourite Quote

“The concern in his dark eyes made Mal tell the truth. “I'm cold and dizzy and bleeding, and I feel sick, and I'm probably going to die.”
Amazingly, the words made the corner of Tobias' mouth tilt up, the expression absurdly affectionate, and it certainly couldn't be healthy to have his heart beat that much faster when he was bleeding. “Stop being so dramatic,” Tobias told him.”

<i> *I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*</i>

The story was both not what I expected and what I expected. For I expected a story involving an Angel and a Priest, and that the Angel would be looking for his mother - with the help of the Priest. And that there had been conflict between the two species in the past. And possibly still some conflict on-going in the present.

An Angel did pop up looking for his mom. And a priest did help. But . . . I . . . for some reason I didn't expect that the Angel would be 17-I'm-almost-18 year old. Stupid of me, I know, but I just assumed that it would be an adult who was curious about his past, not some wet-behind the ears kid. One who is smug, arrogant, and very very determined to smirk at everything (I'm actually surprised that the word 'smirk' only appears 21 one times in the short story). Quite frankly the Angel was completely unlike-able. The priest? While he also seemed to like smirking, he also seemed . . . less than what I'd want to find, but he was tolerable just the same. (I suppose Eli took up that 'really arrogant, smug, extremely smirk-able, asshole priest' position - Eli being one of the side characters of the piece).

There were many things that just baffled me. Like, is this short story supposed to be part of a larger series? Because I kind of entered it and found myself confused immediately. It was hard to get a handle on the society I found. Words I know, like 'Angel', 'Priest', 'Chapel', 'Pope', 'Western Europe', 'London', kept appearing in the story . . . and yet, it was the back drop to a society and people that did not correspond to what I would naturally think of when those terms were used. For one thing the priests are not celibate, women have more power than I'd expect for anything that has a 'Pope' as the religious head, the Pope apparently lives in London, and Angels . . . appeared to be massive pricks.

I didn't really get a good handle on this culture. Just that there were three entities in it - Angels, Priests, and mundane humans. And that the Priests, I think, came from humans. And that everyone with any kind of position is forced to give up their kids to orphanages - which is also where the same people go to get people to be things like Priests and Angels. But, is there a society outside of that? Just . . . Angels who do not correspond to the concept I have for angels, priests who do not appear priest like, etc. etc. And don't get me started on how women were treated in this story (the only one with a bit of power is kind of disliked, had her <spoiler>baby stolen from her, and is a bit evil, more than a bit</spoiler>, while those without specific 'power' are seen as being 'common' and somewhat beneath contempt - at least in the only ways you see them in the story (evil, or lessor, common - like, for example, three types of Angel healers, Male (rare), It (?), and Female - with female on the bottom). And, oddly, except for that one 'Lady', the Priests side apparently had no other women in evidence except door-minders (one). I can't really go with the council part on the Angel side - only one council member was shown, it wasn't explicitly stated that no women were on it, and just because the only female seen over there was the receptionist doesn't really mean anything.

Saying all that - the story had some interesting aspects. Part of my problem is I didn't really know the society at all so I couldn't pick up on some of the things I would have in another story. Like there was kissing, but mentions that it 'wasn't really what it seemed', or maybe it was - I do not have the background to tell what's going on. I do not know enough about the people and society.

I didn't particularly like 'kid-angel' though as the story progressed I 'accepted him' more. The Priest dude . . . well, everything was from kid angel's point of view. And he didn't exactly like some of the things the priest dude did. Though, by observation, the priest dude also had some disagreeable aspects. Like when he ended up in a jail like cell with the kid, his immediate reaction seemed to be to turn to tease the kid (until he realized something that caused him to stop, but that still was his first reaction).

Oh and - we all have differing levels of 'explicit content'. I went into this story with this little note on NetGalley: 'Angel Fever contains no explicit content.' Which made me think that there would be no explicit content at all - like no touching, kissing, etc., at least not passionate type. A lot more kissing in this story than I'd expect for 'no explicit content'. Which, of course, brings us back to different levels of what 'explicit content' means. And, well, kissing is icky - you know the amount of germs the mouth contains? 'A single tooth can host 500 million bacteria.' And one of the worst things about a bite wound isn't the bite itself, it's the icky gross germs, bacteria, and the like that will infect the wound - transferred over from the mouth, from the bite (my own grandmother ended up in the hospital less because of the cat bite, but because of the germs that infected her from the cat bite).

Rating: 3.05

June 7 2017 and June 8 2017