Heaven and Hellsbane
Hellsbane Series,
Book Two
Paige Cuccaro
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Ebook ISBN 978-1-62266-887-8
Print ISBN 978-1-62266-888-5
ASIN: B00BFQANJG
Number of pages: 320
Word Count: 97,000
Cover Artist: Karen Phillips
Book Description:
Someone’s killing angels and turning the half human, half angel illorum warriors against their angelic supporters. If the supernatural baddy behind the attacks isn’t stopped soon, Heaven itself could fall victim. The Council of Seven has called in the best they’ve got to find the killers, and no one’s more surprised than Emma Jane Hellsbane when it’s her phone that rings.
But when her own angelic mentor—and off-limits hottie—Eli is targeted, Emma takes it personally. With Emma hot on the trail of the growing army of assassins, though, hackles start to raise around her. Everyone wants to know if she’s in it to protect all angels or just one in particular. The Council has their suspicions…and so does Emma’s boyfriend.
Now Emma isn’t just fighting off demons, rogue nephilim, and Fallen angels, but she’s defending her honor as well. The problem is even Emma Jane isn’t sure of her motives. One thing she does know: if she doesn’t figure out the killers’ identities soon, she may not live long enough to know what, or who, she really wants.
It’s all in a day’s work as Heaven’s ultimate bounty hunter.
About the Author:
Writing was never a foregone conclusion for me. I once had dreams of being a psychologist, a pediatrician, a school teacher, a photojournalist, a bartender, and/or an EMT. And then I met my husband and my world came into focus. Being wife and mother are my highest priorities and greatest joy. But escaping to the fanciful, sexy worlds twirling through my mind is an absolute necessity. Putting those worlds, and the cornucopia of characters that people them, on paper is just plain fun.
Paige lives in Ohio, with her husband, and three daughters. When she’s not writing she can be found doing the mom thing with a book in one hand and a notepad and pen in the other. Ideas come without warning and the best way to stimulate your imagination is to enjoy the imagination of someone else.
Authors Links
Holy Hellsbane! This was an awesome book, both the first and the second were amazing! I loved all he action this book is packed with. It grabs your attention from the start and never lets you go. It does that from the first chapter of book one, and your hooked from there, and the story builds and escalates and you just can’t get enough.
I really connected with Emma Jane, and I just loved Eli. I really fell in love with him in book one, and it just grew from there. Talk about the ultimate forbidden love, wow. This series takes that to a whole new level.
I do not want to give anything crucial so will do my best to keep this spoiler free for you all.
I loved how this story was not your usual nephilim and angels with demons story. It was quite different. I can say I was not fond of the part where the nephilim children of the fallen angels had to pay for the sins of their fallen fathers. That didn’t sit well with me, but I let that go, and just went with it.
I liked how tough Emma became; she also had a funny witt about her, and had that sarcastic personality at times that I found funny.
I also love how the story is not just about the forbidden love, it’s just a small part of it. There is much more going on, and loved that. It’s not all filled with sex scene after sex scene, which I do not like. In fact this is pretty mild in that area, which is a huge plus in my book.
Basically this book starts about a year or so after Hellsbane ends. Emma is now protecting Officer Dan, who we met in book one, from becoming an illorum like her (nephilim warrior after being marked) , not only because of his kids, but because she is dating him as well. Her feelings for Eli are still very complicated, she does not want to be the reason that he Falls.
War has broken out all around them, and Emma is surprised that the Fallen Angel she is after who is leading the ones that are killing angels is her biological father. So things get really interesting quick.
I won’t say more on the story, just to say it’s well written and will satisfy those paranormal lovers out there and urban fantasy too. I loved both books, and the story just gets better and better as the story progresses from book one into book two.
Check it out. I give it 5 out of 5 giant stars. I really loved both books and the series as a whole.
I was provided a copy of this book from the author for my honest review.
I have this review posted at Goodreads, here and at Amazon here.
Check out the excerpts below. I posted 2 from book 2 Heaven and Hellsnbane, one is a steamy one, the other is an action scene.
You can read both, or just the one you want.
The first is the steamy one, then the action.
Excerpt from Book 2 Heaven and Hellsbane (Steamy Scene)
Eli wrapped his arms around me from behind, holding me in the warmth of his embrace at the edge of the Canadian falls. Pale, colorful lights illuminated the massive curtain of water and a cool, misty breeze washed over us. I knew it was late, but I wouldn’t let myself worry over the exact time. Not yet. I didn’t want the evening to end. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against his chest, breathing in the soothing scent of him.
He huddled around me, his lips brushing my ear, sending a quick volley of tingles over my skin. “I’ve missed you,” he said.
I swallowed hard, drowning in the emotion at the back of my throat. “I’ve missed you too,” I said, but my voice cracked, the last of it barely a whisper.
He turned me around, one arm holding my waist, the other hand catching my chin and raising my gaze to his. “They were wrong, Emma Jane. What I feel, it’s not what they think, what they fear. It can’t be…it’s more than that. I’ve been at home—at peace with my brothers, but you have never left my thoughts. There are so many wondrous things on heaven and earth that I wanted to show you, to share with you. It seemed every moment something new would make my mind turn to ask for your thoughts and my eyes search for your face. A comfort I’d grown accustomed to without realizing. A comfort I am finding it difficult to live without. I am lost without you. For even surrounded by all those who love me I am alone—unfinished. I missed you. Why is that wrong?”
My chest tightened and I inhaled hard, forcing my lungs to fill. I knew by the way he’d said it that he wasn’t really asking me, but I wished with all my heart I could give him an answer. “I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.” Before the last of his words left his mouth, Eli leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.
Heat spread through my body like a bolt of lightning, warming me from the inside out in an instant. My mind spun as his tongue stroked against my lips, gentle at first and then more demanding. I opened to him, tasting his sweet warmth—the warmth of an angel.
His arms slipped around me, pulling me closer until our bodies molded to each other. The hardness of his excitement pressed against me, cueing my brain, crystallizing my awareness. The risk we were taking, what it meant if we let go of our last thread of control, melted from my thoughts. We could do this. We could be together. All that was stopping us was…
Eli’s eternal life and…Dan. I broke the kiss and pushed back from Eli’s heavenly embrace, the cool chill of the falls’ misty breeze making the loss of his warmth all the more acute.
“I’m sorry. I…” Like a curtain had suddenly been lifted, reality blazed through my thoughts. “What time is it?”
“I don’t know,” he said with a soft laugh. Angels have little concept of time.
He reached for me, but I moved back checking my watch. “Shit, Eli. I’m late.”
****************************************************
Excerpt Action Scene (book 2)
“Dan, people are dying. I have to help if I can. You know that, right? I can’t just stop to go chase every thin lead.” But I knew it was a flimsy excuse. I’d barely even thought about the blurry photo of the angel who’d seduced my mother. Was I ignoring the chance to find my angelic father because a part of me didn’t want to leave this life? I didn’t know anymore.
“You make your choices, and I’ll make mine,” Dan said. Then to the demon he said, “Tell me how this works. What do I have to do to trigger my power?”
The point of Bariel’s sword lowered slightly as he pulled another sword from his hip. The black blade sizzled into existence as it drew from the hidden sheath—the air around it wavering like heat vapors, thin smoke rolling off the forming metal. “It’s quite simple. Use this sword to take the sword of a magister, and then kill him with it. Then we’ll see what happens.”
Dan reached out for the sword, but the demon held it back suspiciously before allowing the cop to take it in his grip.
“Any magister?” Dan asked, and the demon beamed like a proud father.
“Yes. Any magister. Even Elizal, if you like.”
Dan nodded, marveling at the weapon in his hand.
“Please, Dan. Don’t do this,” I said.
He got to his feet, ignoring me. “So it can hurt magisters. What will it do to demons?”
“Pardon?” Before Bariel could puzzle out the question, Dan slashed the sword across the belly of the demon, drawing a quick line of black, oozing blood. The momentum of his swing spun him around and he threw the gibborim weapon to me.
The toss was short, but I sped forward and caught it. Doc Westly was on my heels, but the moment of confusion played to my advantage and I twisted in time for the gibborim to race right into the blade—skewering himself through the gut. His blue eyes widened, surprise and pain playing across his face.
“Emma Jane,” Eli said, and I glanced across the overlook to where the bodies of the other two gibborim lay. I watched as Eli snatched up my sword.
“Stupid soul sack,” Bariel said and I spun back to see the demon’s sword stab through Dan’s back and out his chest. “I did promise to release you, did I not?”
Disbelief stretched the whites of Dan’s eyes and he looked down at the bloody blade, his arms relaxed at his sides. His gaze came back up to me. “It’s okay,” he said, a shaky smile playing across his lips. “I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt.”
A scream ripped through my head, my mouth open, gaping, and soundless. Precious seconds ticked by but I couldn’t move, couldn’t think, my body like stone, freezing me to the spot.
Bariel pulled back his sword, yanking it from Dan’s spine, and the man’s knees buckled. Before his body hit the ground, Eli appeared at his side, catching him. With a backhanded swing, the angel sliced a line across the demon’s neck that I knew in an instant wasn’t deep enough. But it was all Eli needed to allow him time to vanish with Dan in his protective embrace.
Here is info on book one:
Hellsbane (Hellsbane #1)
by Paige Cuccaro
Twenty-three-year-old Emma Jane Hellsbane just found out she's not human--or, at least, not only human. She's half angel, too, and now Heaven's got a job for her: round up all the Fallen angels and their red-skinned, horned devil-demon minions and boot their butts back into the abyss. Only problem? The demons and their Fallen masters fight back...and they don't fight fair.
Luckily for Emma, she can put a stop to the constant threat of having her head hacked off if she figures out which Fallen angel is her father--and then kill him before he kills her. Of course, in the meantime, she'll have to avoid accidentally seducing her angelic mentor, help an old friend conquer his own Fallen sperm donor, and basically save the world from a cataclysmic divine smack down.
No one said being Heaven's bounty hunter would be easy. But with a name like Hellsbane, Emma Jane was born for the job.
