ARC Review: The Lost by Vicki Pettersson

The Lost by Vicki Pettersson
Series: Celestial Blues #2
Published by Harper Voyager
Published on: March 19, 2013
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 368
Format: eBook
Source: Edelweiss

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Griffin Shaw and his wife were both murdered fifty years ago. Now a minor angel, Grif's been granted permission to solve the mystery of his own death . . . if he helps the Pure angels guide those souls who might otherwise be Lost.

Souls like Jeap Yang, a drug addict in his final moments of life. Grif knows that death is coming, but he cannot intervene. However, Grif's mortal lover, reporter Katherine "Kit" Craig, isn't constrained by angelic protocol. If she can stop a death, she will.

But as Kit is about to find out, there are things more traumatic and evil than murder. A strange new drug is literally eating tweakers' flesh from their bones, and Kit's crusade to get it off the streets is set to propel her and Grif into a battle with a vicious drug cartel. They'll have to scramble to stay alive, stay together, and choose their own fate . . . before it's chosen for them.

I feel like I’m the odd woman out here but I actually enjoyed this installment more than the first one. Pettersson toned down the rockabilly and angelic aspects this time around which are, oddly enough, what make this trilogy so unique but also what annoyed me in The Taken because they were overdone. I found The Lost to be a more balanced read with equal attention given to world building and to the storyline. I enjoyed Vicki Pettersson’s dark writing style, complex characters and, the way that the past and present collide.

Pettersson seems to have gotten into the groove of things with her second crack at Celestial Blues. The world building and character development have evened out and she focuses on the action rather than on Kit’s 1950’s fashion sense. As much as I enjoy the rockabilly aspect of these books I have a low tolerance when it comes to lengthy wardrobe and hairstyle descriptions. It’s a nice little sideline but these books are shelved as Urban Fantasy not as fictional versions of Vogue magazine. Vicki did a great job of incorporating these elements this time around and I actually found myself wishing that there’d been more.

The murder investigation is well constructed and succeeded in keeping my interest the whole way through. Krokodil is an especially nasty drug and I had a vested interest in seeing the dealers caught. The cartels involved cast a wide scope of potential perps and as a result, the story kept me on my toes with trying to figure out “who done it”. There’s a great deal more romance in this installment which helped lighten up some of the grittiness and kept things interesting because not only are there murders to solve but conflict within the couple as well.

I was happy that I wasn’t bombarded with angels in this installment and found the celestial aspects much clearer and easy to comprehend. Unlike in the previous book, I was able to distinguish the different subgroups and their individual traits with ease. I also found that the dialogue between the two main characters was vastly improved. It flowed well, felt natural and more importantly, there was more of it. Grif’s still not a chatty Cathy but at least he demonstrated that he’s capable of stringing more than just three words together at a time.

The Lost is proof that all series’ deserve a second chance; Vicki Pettersson successfully convinced this on-the-fence reader that her Celestial Blues trilogy is worth the read.

Books in this series:
My Review

Recommendation:	Perfect for readers looking for something a little different.
Like this, like that:	The Grigory Legacy series by Linda Poitevin and The Asylum Tales series by Jocelynn Drake.

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