Review: Sins of the Son by Linda Poitevin

Title: Sins of the Son Series: Grigori Legacy #2 Author: Linda Poitevin Publisher: ACE Books Format: eBook, 352 pages. Published: March 27, 2012. ISBN #: 9781937007379 / 1937007375 Genre: Urban Fantasy My Copy: received for review Rating: Buy: A detective with a secret… When homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis sees a photo of Seth Benjamin on a police bulletin, she knows that Heaven’s plan to halt Armageddon has gone terribly wrong. As the only mortal aware of Seth’s true nature, only she can save him. An exiled angel turned assassin… Aramael was a hunter of Fallen Angels until a traitor forced him into earthly exile. Now, with no powers and only a faint memory of Alex, his mortal soulmate, he will stop at nothing to redeem himself—even if it means destroying Seth in the name of the Creator. A world with little chance of redemption… As Alex’s need to protect Seth sets her on a fiery course with the determined Aramael, the coming conflict between them may push the world over the edge—and into the very chaos they’re trying to prevent.

Linda Poitevin does a wonderful job of setting the tone in Sins of the Son. There’s a prevalent sense of impending doom throughout the novel and every decision has the potential to change life on Earth forever; very apocalypse-worthy. The characters are larger than life and really come across as “other” (i.e. angels, fallen, the One). The only downside of this book for me was that the focus shifts from Sins of the Angels’ police procedural storyline to a more angelic one. Overall, I enjoyed my second foray into the Grigori Legacy but just not quite as much as my first visit.

Writing a book that revolves around heaven and hell can be tricky. It’s hard to achieve the right balance between not being overly preachy and not coming across as too mundane either. Here, Linda hits her target dead center by maintaining a harmonized storyline while still staying true to her original plot. I can only imagine the number of edits that Sins of the Son underwent in order to accomplish this! Book 2 also picks up right where the last one left off which was a huge relief considering the way that the first installment concluded. Authors and their pesky cliffhanger endings!

I loved Poitevin’s portrayal of God, a.k.a. the One. The Creator plays a much larger role in this novel and I really enjoyed her character and her crypticness. I would never expect to get a straight answer from Heaven and that’s definitely true in this tale. The One pulls out all of the stops in hopes of saving her mortal children including yanking the archangel Michael out of retirement. Many shocking truths are revealed about the eternal battle between Heaven and Hell, as well as the Creator’s relationship with Lucifer. *dum dum dum*

As I mentioned in my introduction, I felt the lack of the police procedural type plot that was prevalent in Sins of the Angels. There’s no crime to solve this time around; instead Alex is running all over Vancouver chasing after Seth, attempting to jog his memory and then finally, trying to convince him to save the human race. There’s also next to no romance related intrigue. Benjamin is a blank slate and Aramael is back to being his normal assholish self. I realize that this isn’t a love story but a bit of romance would have helped to break-up an otherwise heavier plot in my opinion. The omission of a police investigation and of a love interest just made this book too much about Heaven and not enough about humans for my tastes. Needless to say, angels are not my favorite preternaturals.

The stakes are higher than ever in Sins of the Son; failure is not an option. Be prepared to have your world turned upside down. Again! Will the apocalypse be averted?

Books in this series:
My Review

Recommendation:	For readers who enjoy tales of epic proportions where the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Like this, like that:	Madeline Black series by Christina Henry, Dark Angels series by Keri Arthur and Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh.

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