Book Review and Giveaway for Lucian Divine by Renee Carlino

LUCIAN DIVINE
by RENEE CARLINO

“My guardian angel is a drunk.”
Evelyn Casey's life is at a standstill. She's in her mid-twenties, struggling with the dating scene in San Francisco. Nothing seems to be working out, and she’s starting to think that she’ll live out her days in her crummy apartment with her overbearing roommate, Brooklyn. It's absurd, but sometimes Evey longs for a guardian angel to show up and save the day.

And then he does. Seriously. His name is Lucian and he's a guardian angel, been on the job for two thousand years. His sudden presence in her life is both good—he's brilliant, witty, and warm—and bad—he's brilliant, witty, warm, and hot as ----. But as perfect as Lucian seems, he’s got problems of his own. He’s taken up drinking and he’s brazenly inserted himself into Evey’s life, going against the greatest cosmic law ever created.

For Evey, the rules are simple: You are not allowed to hook up with your guardian angel. But sometimes fulfilling your destiny requires a leap of faith, a confrontation with God.

Yes, God as in God.

ADD TO GOODREADS

REVIEW: 3 STARS
"Angels ignored me, God ignored me, I couldn't even get a retweet on Twitter....but at least I had Evey."

Sitting down and reading this story was what I was looking forward to doing with my New Years Day....call me boring, I know, but I was excited to have a day all to myself for just reading. Going in, I knew this was a PNR book related to angels and mystical beings. Simple enough. I have read one other like this so I was excited to see another take on it. This is my third book by Renee Carlino and while I am glad I finished this one, I am confused and saddened by how I feel about it. Unfortunately, the broken flow of the wording and the gaping holes in the storyline made for a rough read for about 40% of the book. I enjoyed the book up until about 35% and then started to see the flow return around the 80% mark, but the in between part was tedious and stilted. It started out really strong and ended really strong, but I truly struggled in the middle.

From what I've read of Renee already, I know she has a penchant for writing beautiful love stories that are heartfelt and emotional with a deep meaning behind them.  This one had all that....it truly did, it just felt like it lacked a little fine tuning and content evaluation. This didn't feel like Renee's writing to me and I am hoping it was just me.

I don't know if this was supposed to be funny, but it definitely provided some giggle-worthy moments and some smiles, for sure. I also couldn't decide if it was supposed to be a serious book because while there were some serious moments, many of them left me shaking my head. Like, how did we go from happy to pissed off with our roommate? Or with Lucian? Or her mother? Where was the misunderstanding? I seriously missed what caused any of the issues that caused problems between the characters in this book. Evey's emotions were all over the place, and so were Brooklyn's. It was as if none of the reactions and emotions made any sense to me, yet there they were in word form. I had a serious case of whiplash trying to figure out how we went from best friends to hurtling insults at each other. Or from new acquaintances (although their hearts knew they were meant for each other) to being immediately in love. No buildup or discovery to their relationship, but it was written, so it shall be. So when I say that it felt stilted or disjointed, I just feel like we missed some parts of the story all together and that made reading it a little awkward. It almost felt like we were getting a line by line description about the happenings of the book instead of an actual story to sink into and absorb. I didn't feel a part of it. I didn't really connect...

I'll admit I almost quit reading this book, but it was suggested that I continue because the ending was worth it. That's the honest truth....the ending *IS* worth it and I am glad I saw it through. Some of the curiosities that surround guardian angels and who believes what were really interesting to read. I liked the little nuances Carlino threw in to make the angels more relatable, and somewhat comical. I can imagine some people might get offended about angels using Tinder to hook up with other angels, but take it for what it was worth. Some descriptions and explanations were pretty neat to imagine as seen through Carlino's words. Definitely some good with the bad.

I don't want this to be a negative review, because for all that I didn't enjoy about it, I found other things that I did like. Again, the love Lucian had for Evey was heartfelt and pure and I loved watching him work through everything going on with him. I want to gift a copy of this out because I know without a doubt that someone will love this book. To enter, go HERE.

"Love is selfish, isn't it?"
~BEE

PURCHASE: http://amzn.to/2iPToSW

~MEET RENEE CARLINO~

Renée Carlino is a screenwriter and bestselling author of contemporary women's novels and new adult fiction. Her books have been featured in national publications, including USA TODAY, Huffington Post, Latina magazine, and Publisher's Weekly. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their sweet dog June. When she's not at the beach with her boys or working on her next project, she likes to spend her time reading, going to concerts, and eating dark chocolate. Learn more at www.reneecarlino.com

~CONNECT WITH RENEE~

FACEBOOK     AMAZON     GOODREADS      TWITTER

ARC REVIEW

AFFILIATE LINKS USED