Book Review: and Falling, fly

and Falling, fly

By:  Skyler White

Publisher:  Berkley - Penguin Group

Publish Date:  Release Date:  March 2, 2010

Format:  Paperback

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  1st book in The Harrowing Series.

Recommendation:  If you like to feel love growing through a story, and with an urban fantasy setting, then you will enjoy this book.

Book Synopsis:
In a dark and seedy underground of burned-out rock stars and anels-turned-vampire, a revolutionary neuroscientist and a fallen angel must pit medicine against mythology in an attempt to erase their tortured pasts... but at what price?

Olivia, vampire and fallen angel of desire, is hopeless... and damned.  Since the fall from Eden, she has hungered for love, but fed only on desire.  Dominic O'Shaughnessy is a neuroscientist plagued by impossible visions.  When his research and her dispair collide at L'Otel Matillide - a subterranean hell of beauty, demons, and dreams - rationalist and angel unite in a clash of desire and damnation that threatens to destroy them both.

In this fractured Hotel of the Damned, Olivia and Dominic discover the only force consistent in their opposing realities is the deep, erotic gravity between them.  Bound to each other finally in a knot of interwoven freedoms, Dominic and Olivia - the vision-touched scientist and the earthbound angel, reborn and  undead - encounter the mystery of love and find it is both fall... and flight.

First Sentence:
The angel of desire is damned.

My Review and Summary:
The story of and Falling, Fly seemed to me to be a love story set in an urban fantasy world.  I loved the created connection of fallen angels to vampires.  There is a lot of mythology used in creating the story, along with scientific study of the current day.  These are two different beliefs that seem to contradict each other, and with two different people put to the test to be seen through each others eyes.

I found myself in the end enjoying all the characters.  I found myself pulling toward Dominic more in the story from the beginning.  I think, for me, I found the science easier to believe than the mythology.  I felt I could understand Dominic easier in the world based on todays.  Shortly after meeting Dominic I started to learn there is something special about him as well.  I loved this little secret Dominic has and is trying to run from.

There where passages in the beginning from Olivia's view point in which I felt confused.  There was a lot of legendary information given to help understand Olivia and where she comes from in her ways and thinking.  There where times I did not understanding why she was doing what she was doing or the reasons behind things.  For instance, Olivia made a point of mentioning she didn't work as she didn't need to, she had all the money she needed.  I was curious as to where she got this money (which by the end of the book you will find out).  But, this part of being confused was cleared up as the book went on.  I just had to learn the way of the laws and legends of the fallen/vampires.   After we got to Ireland the story really started to grip me.

I also liked the secretive magic Gaehod, the innkeeper, held in the story.  Just enough to enjoy but not over do it.

The story telling was nicely done.  You do get to see things from two point of views, Dominic and Olivia.  This helped to better understand their opposing beliefs.  I found myself wondering: Which way of thinking is correct in this world?  What do I believe.  As what I believed in the beginning started to change the more I read.  I could feel the love growing between the characters as well.  The paths that are needed to be taken in order to find what you need, or even desire.  What happens if you get what you want?  Is the grass always greener on the other side?  What do you want and what do you think you want?  Great questions to think on.

In all I enjoyed the journey I took in this book with love, mythological beliefs, and scientific beliefs.  A wonderful love story to add to the urban fantasy world.  If you are looking for a lot of action this is not the book for you, but if you want to read of an endless love blooming I would read this book.

If you would like to visit Skyler Whites website click here.



I requested this book from the Author and received my copy from the publisher as an ARC for review.
This review qualifies for my Speculative Fiction Challenge with Book Chick City.