This book is mostly about post-earthquake clean up, city planning, social issues and charity :/ None of it by itself is a bad subject, but more hanky panky (or at least snuggles/feels) and less city planning is always a win in a romance book, imho. Unless rubble removal makes you horny, of course. 

This book is C-wA_A-a-Z-YY!

Feels like Times Square, honestly :D 

~~~

The sheer amount of cultural references is mind-boggling.
Praetor Judy made it into this book :)

And I kept comparing Kol'daar to Cass (no actual mention of Supernatural, darn it!) - a bad-ass when he wants to be, but cute and adorable and kind and sometimes clueless. 

Metaaaaaahlll!!!



Yes, Ozzy made it, too! And the Dove! 



And, damn, talking about Mr. Crowley on that album!



Anyway, the story was heading for full 11 stars when things started going south around the last 20%, or after the Final Battle to be precise. Maybe during it's final half-hour, too. That's when the author quit crazy and spontaneous, turned on a drone and started explaining and over-explaining and then ex-plai-ning-to-death and then some just to drive the final nail in. 

After the report filing at the gingerbread castle I skimmed through the rest of the pages. The story got sappy and it dragged out for more than it had to. 

In the end I was left feeling a bit unbalanced. The badassery turned to sap, the unpredictable and unexplained turned into dissecting everything under a microscope. I really didn't care about the Song or Music Magic or how Nunzio's disability worked.

ALSO - The Burrito Incident. Someone specifically targeted Nunzio. Why? Never explained.

So, I am cutting 6.5 stars off for all the un- and over-explained instances and giving this book 4.5 stars.

Recommended :D

Seth is a healer, but with every person healed, he himself is getting closer to death. Knowing what healing in the long run entitles, he decides to break free before it's too late. "Not so fast, brother!" says handsome black man Zed with his James Earl Jones's voice, and makes Seth stay, rending him unable to leave the circus revival.

Abaddon is a soul collector. The Hell he lives in, tho I am sure hellishly horrible, sounds pretty amusing and sometimes funny. He is buried in paperwork and is under pressure to collect souls.

MCs meet, they fall in love, they suffer, they cry, they offer all kinds of sacrifices to save the other and, I don't believe this is much of a spoiler, they live to be together. All the usual works. 

Now, angels, hippy revivals, devils, soul collectors don't entice me in any way. I read this book for a challenge in which I needed a book with a devil, and only because it's Marie Sexton so I knew it would be as good as I could get. On the whole, it was 3 star-ish for me. Once again, it's me, not the book.

BUT! Just like Abaddon found a bright soul in Bible Belt, I found a bright couple of lines in this not-my-fav-trope book.

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick did if for me. I am bumping my rating up to 4. 'Cause PATS! 'Cause BRADY! =) This wasn't just bright, this was brilliant! :D And funny :)

The ending seemed as tangled as Dewy's hair at one point, and was dealt with it the same way - cut short. But on the whole - pure magic. I loved it to pieces :) 
And yeah, Vegemite... @.@  lol

I cannot say the chemistry between the MCs is perfect, I felt very little of it, considering the boys are destined for each other. I cannot claim each twist and turn to be unpredictable and non-cliche. But the writing is incredible, the world is rich and mythology quite interesting. Most important part, I want more. Much more. In the end I am rounding my rating up to 5 stars.