Fallen by Erin McCarthy

Gabriel St. John is a fallen angel, forever cursed for failing to prevent the death of a woman he loved named Anne Donovan. Anne was a prostitute who helped Gabriel, under his alias of John Thiroux, stay in a haze of liquor and absinthe, and one night while he was in a haze of absinthe, she was murdered while he was out of it in a chair. Needless to say, the humans blamed him, but he was acquitted of her murder- and sank back into an alcholic haze afterwards. But he was cursed in that any woman he spent time with grew to want him to an obsessive degree.

Now, Sara Michaels, a crime lab tech, is recovering from the murder of her own mother. The press and police blame her mother's boyfriend, Rafe, but Sara knows that Rafe isn't responsible, and resents the press for trying to blame him for the crime. He's just been declared innocent after a year-long trial, and Sara is angry at the muckrakers who seem to be intent on portraying she and Rafe as lovers behind her mother's back. The stress caused her to become addicted to prescription meds, and she's trying to overcome her addiction by helping Gabe with his true-crime book that he's writing about the old case.

She travels to New Orleans and looks over the old case files and newspaper clippings from the time of the first crime. As the original investigators did, she focuses on John Thiroux as the best suspect, but Gabriel seems adamant that Thiroux wasn't responsible. As they discuss the case and look over the old evidence, Sara becomes interested in Gabriel, and of his life before- why he no longer plays or listens to music, or even draws.

As her life crumbles around her with the news that now the police are looking at her as a suspect, she begins to see a little bit into Gabe's world as well. A sandwich shop girl who Gabe bought sandwiches from has fallen in love with him, and when she sees Gabriel living with Sara in his house, she tries to commit suicide out of her despair that her love will never be returned. Meanwhile, someone is leaving weird messages for Gabe: on Anne's tomb, and on a bottle of Absinthe left on the steps of his home.

But who could be behind the death of not only Anne, but her daughter, her daughter's daughter, and so on, right down to Sara's mother- and now, possibly Sara as well? Could it be the same man over so many years? And what will Sara do when she finds out that Gabriel is an Angel- but so is Rafe and their mutual friend, Alex. Is there any redemption to be had for Gabriel, and how can an immortal love a mortal human woman? Can there ever be a happy ending for Gabe and Sara?

I picked this book up because the depiction of the story intrigued me, and so did the picture on the cover. I just wished that the story inside was as good as the blurb on the back cover made it seem, because I found much of the story more snore-worthy than anything. It's not a long book, but in contrast to Naamah's Kiss, which I read afterwards, this book took me two days to finish. I actually started reading other books because I was so bored with it, and ended up finally finishing it by denying myself any other distractions.

I will say that the book became better towards the end, or at least, more interesting, than just two people talking, which is what it pretty much was. There's also the fairly intrusive clips from the newspapers of the day when Anne was killed, and transcripts from the trial, but the rest of it seemed pale and boring in comparison that I had to struggle to keep reading.

The ending does redeem the book somewhat, because there is a greater tension and a fight at the end that was actually somewhat suspenseful, but I can't convince myself that this book is anything I'd want to suggest to someone else as good reading. It's okay, sure, but I just can't recommend it in good conscience to another reader as anything approaching the quality of authors I routinely recommend. Not recommended.