Post by BloodyMonkeyZ on Jun 21, 2013 11:55:54 GMT -6
Sometimes you don’t know exactly what you are going to get with a book until you get knee deep in it. That was certainly the case for me with Angel’s Ink. I have to admit I wanted to read it based on the cover and title. The main character is a tattoo artist who mixes a little something extra into the ink to give his tattoos special attributes. I don’t know what I was imagining it would be, but it sounded pretty damn cool.
The series focuses on Gage, the aforementioned tattoo artist, who makes a mistake with a tattoo. A gal comes in his shop looking for angel wings on her back as she is dying and wants the allusion that she will be going to heaven. Gage has all manner of rare ingredients that he mixes into his ink (A bit of Leprechaun hair for good luck, that sort of thing.) He decides to use a bit of an angel feather in the ink he uses on her. And then things get really sticky.
Now the reason why I mention that I didn’t know exactly what I was reading is because this book is much more urban fantasy than horror. Gage was a Warlock who fled from the world of magic to live among normal people, but the Warlocks are not real happy about that, especially as he insists on using magic.
There are many interesting aspects to this novel, and part of me is very intrigued to read the next in the series. But it did have some problems. The main one is a stylistic approach taken by the author. She constantly feels a need to remind the reader of what is going on. Sometimes within the same page, but usually within a few pages. I bet Gage has an inner monologue wondering how he is going to get out of his current predicament (which he then proceeds to tick off each item of) every 10 pages. In a 330 page book, they could have easily cut out 20 pages. I can’t for the life of me understand why an editor would not cry foul at that. As a reader I can see maybe reminding me of something that happened 100 pages or so ago. Sometimes reminding is needed and useful, but the frequency that it was done in Angel’s Ink was insulting to me as a reader. And I am not real fond of feeling as though the author is insulting my intelligence.
I liked the story and the characters quite a bit, but that issue is enough to drag it down to a 3 star review for me. Hopefully the editor pays a little more attention for the sequel.
The series focuses on Gage, the aforementioned tattoo artist, who makes a mistake with a tattoo. A gal comes in his shop looking for angel wings on her back as she is dying and wants the allusion that she will be going to heaven. Gage has all manner of rare ingredients that he mixes into his ink (A bit of Leprechaun hair for good luck, that sort of thing.) He decides to use a bit of an angel feather in the ink he uses on her. And then things get really sticky.
Now the reason why I mention that I didn’t know exactly what I was reading is because this book is much more urban fantasy than horror. Gage was a Warlock who fled from the world of magic to live among normal people, but the Warlocks are not real happy about that, especially as he insists on using magic.
There are many interesting aspects to this novel, and part of me is very intrigued to read the next in the series. But it did have some problems. The main one is a stylistic approach taken by the author. She constantly feels a need to remind the reader of what is going on. Sometimes within the same page, but usually within a few pages. I bet Gage has an inner monologue wondering how he is going to get out of his current predicament (which he then proceeds to tick off each item of) every 10 pages. In a 330 page book, they could have easily cut out 20 pages. I can’t for the life of me understand why an editor would not cry foul at that. As a reader I can see maybe reminding me of something that happened 100 pages or so ago. Sometimes reminding is needed and useful, but the frequency that it was done in Angel’s Ink was insulting to me as a reader. And I am not real fond of feeling as though the author is insulting my intelligence.
I liked the story and the characters quite a bit, but that issue is enough to drag it down to a 3 star review for me. Hopefully the editor pays a little more attention for the sequel.
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