Friday 29 July 2011

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: The Guardian Angel's Journal - Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Release Date: 14/04/11

SYNOPSIS:

When Margot Delacroix dies at forty-two years old, she is sent back to earth as a guardian angel - to herself. Renamed Ruth, she is forced by divine mandate to re-experience and record her biggest mistakes and fiercest regrets from the beginning of her life to her untimely death. Forced from the moment of her birth to witness the cogs of fate and the stuttering engine of free will, Ruth sets out to change the course of her life, and, ultimately, to prevent her premature death. When she realises that the reasons behind her teenage son's descent into drugs and murder lay within her own actions as Margot, she makes a pact with a demon - she will give up her place in Heaven in exchange for the opportunity to save her son from his fate. But the changes she makes result in consequences no one could expect...


REVIEW:

OK this isn’t my normal type of book and when it landed I suspected that it was an error by the publisher, yet as I started I soon became engrossed in the timelines that dissect and cross in such a way that it makes the reader question their own lives as well as the characters who whilst in some respects are hard to like have a feeling of realism that they could be anyone you pass on the street.

It’s wonderfully written, it has great characters and the authors choice of words only add to the overall arc that makes this a book that was as shocking as it was questioning the human condition. All in whilst its harsh and the realism can be questioned the deeper emotional aspects within make this a story that really carries itself as something so unique and different to a great many titles out there that it really has to be read by all who want something unlike anything else. For me, this books questions as well as changes in the viewer’s condition as well as sympathies make this a title that really cannot be ignored and I really have to thank the publisher for sending this title I’d have otherwise missed.

2 comments:

j d waye said...

It's great when you come across a gem like this - something you might not otherwise pick up. I'm putting it on my "To Read" list.

Natalie said...

Wow that sounds really intriguing! It would be interesting to see how the author deals with the paradox of having the same "person" existing as 2 different states on the same timeline, both with the ability to alter it.