Breaking Angelina
Paranormal Investigations #1.5
By Rita Webb, T.J. Webb
Author’s Website: http://TJandRita.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Synopsis:
I’ve never told anyone my darkest secret.
Something evil whispers in my mind. It threatens to destroy everything I care about, and now it wants me to kidnap and murder a mythical creature. Refusal means excruciating pain or sleepwalking into oncoming traffic … again.
I don’t dare refuse, even if I have to steal from my friends, sell my body, or ruin my college career. Anything to stop the feeling of its claws scraping the insides of my skull.
That’s when I hired the Hunter, a wolf-man from a magical world, to help me. A tracker for hire, an honorable man who has misplaced his honor, a twisted soul with no heart left to care.
But he has secrets of his own, and I don’t think anyone can save me from the trouble I’m in.
A New Adult dark paranormal romance
For ages 18+ due to violence, language, and some sexuality.
Review:
The story begins with Angelina performing her cheerleading routine at an away game with the squad. And at the very end…she blacks out and falls, giving herself a concussion. As she rests/recovers in the locker room, Angelina opens her eyes to find a blue-skinned woman standing over her. This woman has delicately pointed ears, blue hair short and spiky, eyes white as if she has no iris or pupil, and she’s staring right at Angelina, like a lioness fixated on her prey. Now as we find out very quickly, Angelina is the only one that can see her (or chooses to see her). This woman is called Saffyra and she is the last fae half-dragon. It seems that Saffyra is not actually talking to Angelina, but to the being(s) that are hiding within Angelina. Hmmm. And let me say, the story was odd until all components gelled, in a captivatingly twisted manner.
Hunter is an unusual character – a chimera – from another world, with issues. He still has major guilt as a result of leaving his home one day and while he was gone, his wife and two children were slain. I found that Hunter had a certain depth about him that made you want to delve further into his story. He also had much intrigue about Angelina. It would be interesting to see where their story ends up in future books. Some of the interactions between Hunter and Angelina was quite interesting (and yes…so was the intimate scene as well). It was fascinating to see the bond develop between human and chimera.
It took me a long time trying to figure out whether the voices in Angelina’s head were from mental illness or paranormal. Obviously given the genre, it was the paranormal. I found it interesting how these voices controlled Angelina into doing their bidding. Yet….eventually, Angelina did figure out that she did have some control … like when she wanted to help her friend Brianna, even though the voices were against this intervention.
Hunter – speaking about one of the paranormal beings he interacts with – I thought this high tech discussion interesting…GhostNet:
“Spyder is a tricky individual to track down. Cryptic notices on encrypted servers, all on the hidden, super-secure GhostNet. Paranoid doesn’t even begin to describe him. I’ve known him for sixteen years, and I still haven’t met him face to face.”
While I did not read the novella Playing Hooky first, I might suggest that it be best read first (?), to get better grasp of the characters. This is a stand-alone read, but it did take this reader a while to have the characters gel and catch on to the story. A bit of a history may have helped with that issue.
The descriptions surrounding the characters are well written and captivated this readers’ imagination. Not having read this genre often, I found this introduction engaging and entertaining. I shall be on the lookout for the remainder of this series.
