Lucian Divine by Renée Carlino

Blurb:

From USA Today Bestselling Author, Renée Carlino, comes a totally unique love story that is sure to make you question what’s out there . . . or who.

“My guardian angel is a drunk.”

Evelyn Casey's life is at a standstill. She's in her mid-twenties, struggling with the dating scene in San Francisco. Nothing seems to be working out, and she’s starting to think that she’ll live out her days in her crummy apartment with her overbearing roommate, Brooklyn. It's absurd, but sometimes Evey longs for a guardian angel to show up and save the day.

And then he does. Seriously. His name is Lucian and he's a guardian angel, been on the job for two thousand years. His sudden presence in her life is both good—he's brilliant, witty, and warm—and bad—he's brilliant, witty, warm, and hot as ----. But as perfect as Lucian seems, he’s got problems of his own. He’s taken up drinking and he’s brazenly inserted himself into Evey’s life, going against the greatest cosmic law ever created.

For Evey, the rules are simple: You are not allowed to hook up with your guardian angel. But sometimes fulfilling your destiny requires a leap of faith, a confrontation with God.

Yes, God as in God. 

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Kristine's Review:
Reviewed: January 2017.

It's an interesting premise Renee Carlino addressed in Lucian Divine, Evelyn Casey has often wished for a guardian angel to step in and point her in the right direction, in both love and life, and let's face it, most of us have at one point or another wished for something greater to steer us in the right direction, tell us if the choices we're making are the right ones, or just to magically fix everything that is going wrong, but what if those wishes and prayers were answered, and one day our guardian angel appeared, instead of guiding us from above?? When Lucian decides to make his presence known Evey isn't remotely prepared, remember that old adage, be careful what you wish for? Suddenly Lucian is there, and he seems to have some baggage of his own, the fast talking, witty as hell, and sexy as sin guardian angel seems to be quite taken with imbibing in a few too many alcoholic beverages, and after years of watching Evey from afar he's going to go against every angel code he's ever known to have his chance with the woman of his dreams.

"Evey, next time, in the next life we'll be together—that's how this will be corrected. This will be righted. This can't be our forever fate. Next time we'll live together, we'll die together..."

Lucian Divine is clearly satirical in nature, with uproariously funny moments, Carlino shows just how wicked her sense of humour is, but underneath the snark and wit, is the heart that I love so much in her writing. As I have come to expect from Carlino, her ability to make the reader question themselves and their thoughts is second to none. Wrapped up in an eloquent and thought provoking story, I found myself questioning what was my take away message here, was it to be careful what I wish for? Was I to wonder just what I would be willing to sacrifice for true love? Was I simply to ponder love in all it's forms? Was it to examine my beliefs on actions and consequences? Was I to embrace to paranormal undertone and question just how vast our universe is? The more I internally debated my special meaning here, the more I inherently understood why Carlino has become an absolute must read author for me, because these inner monologues are the kinds of reactions she evokes from me, where my thirst for the bigger picture is never entirely sated, Carlino urges me to reflect before moving forward with my day, she quietly pushes me outside of my comfort zone while standing there being ready to hold my hand, as I embark on a journey with her characters.

"You are everything to me. You're the dream, the air, the reason, the cause for my whole existence..."

For paranormal enthusiast's, the human/angel connection will no doubt pique your curiosity, and for my more traditional contemporary romance friends, the addition of a drunk guardian angel is not one that you would find off putting. As a devotee of Carlino's words and ability to weave a rich and textured story that leaves me sated and yet wanting I found her latest release utterly spellbinding, uproariously funny, raw and unrelenting, Lucian Divine makes us question our notions of faith, love and the ever after.

About Renee Carlino:

Renée Carlino is a screenwriter and bestselling author of romantic women's novels and new adult fiction. She lives in Southern California with her husband and two sons. When she’s not at the beach with her boys or working on her next project, she likes to spend her time reading, going to concerts, and eating dark chocolate.

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The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Blurb:

Debut author Sally Thorne bursts on the scene with a hilarious and sexy workplace comedy all about that thin, fine line between hate and love.

Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
2) A person’s undoing
3) Joshua Templeman

Lucy Hutton has always been certain that the nice girl can get the corner office. She’s charming and accommodating and prides herself on being loved by everyone at Bexley & Gamin. Everyone except for coldly efficient, impeccably attired, physically intimidating Joshua Templeman. And the feeling is mutual.

Trapped in a shared office together 40 (OK, 50 or 60) hours a week, they’ve become entrenched in an addictive, ridiculous never-ending game of one-upmanship. There’s the Staring Game. The Mirror Game. The HR Game. Lucy can’t let Joshua beat her at anything—especially when a huge new promotion goes up for the taking.

If Lucy wins this game, she’ll be Joshua’s boss. If she loses, she’ll resign. So why is she suddenly having steamy dreams about Joshua, and dressing for work like she’s got a hot date? After a perfectly innocent elevator ride ends with an earth shattering kiss, Lucy starts to wonder whether she’s got Joshua Templeman all wrong.

Maybe Lucy Hutton doesn’t hate Joshua Templeman. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

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Kristine's Review:
Reviewed: August 2016.

I recently attended a Writers Retreat where one book in particular was mentioned, and I use the term mentioned very loosely, what actually happened was they demanded we all read it immediately. Suffice to say, I purchased the ebook that night and dove in, immediately I was smitten, utterly invested and truly in love with every single word written by Sally Thorne.

"Watching you pretend to hate that nickname is the best part of my day."

Lucy Hutton always dreamt of working in the publishing industry, as an avid reader her love for all things books was greater than anything she'd ever known, being hired by Gamin Publishing was everything she had ever imagined, but when her beloved company was on the brink of collapse and amalgamation with another struggling publishing house, Bexley Books, became her reality, her career goals stayed alive, just barely, with a host of personnel cuts and the loss of her best friend Val, her work world was rocked. The day she met Joshua Templeman seemed like a possible new beginning, but his cool disregard of her almost immediately sent shockwaves through her usually cheery demeanor, a war began that day and with every day that past their mutual dislike of each other grew.

"You've broken me down so completely, I can't even handle it when a guy tells me I'm beautiful."

The Hating Game written in the first person point of view painted Lucy as both incredibly smart, and extremely funny,  every snarky thought, every snappy comeback, every moment of despair mixed with joy as Joshua became Josh in front of her eyes. Every moment in this book served to cement my love of the author's words, I was invested immediately, but each new chapter brought with it feelings of awe, the more I read the deeper in love I fell, the more real Lucy and Joshua felt, the more their personalities jumped off the page and straight into my heart.

"I'm about to lose something I never had to begin with."

The Hating Game is slow burn in the very best way, Thorne builds not only the connection between her hero and heroine but the readers attachment to them, their witty dialogue served to lure the reader into losing themselves in one of the best bouts of drawn out verbal foreplay that I have ever experienced. Usually when I enjoy a book it only serves to make me want to devour the words, here however I simultaneously wanted to speed read my way to end, and slow down in order to savor every moment. I loved every second here, I wanted to drown in Thorne's words, I wanted to escape into Lucy and Joshua's world, stand in the corner, watching them like a creeper, I wanted to befriend them, I wanted to relax with Lucy over a glass of wine after a long day at work, I wanted to know everything that happened in between every moment, every lost look, every sigh, every secret smile. The Hating Game has quickly became one of my very favourite books, climbing it's way onto not only my Best of 2016 List but my favourite of all time list. If this is how Sally Thorne marks her debut into bookworld, I can only imagine what she has yet to do.

About Sally Thorne:

Sally Thorne lives in Canberra, Australia, and spends her days writing funding submissions and drafting contracts (yawn!) so it’s not surprising that after hours she climbs into colorful fictional worlds of her own creation. Sally believes that romance readers are always searching for intensity in their next favorite book—and it isn't always so easy to find. The Hating Game is her first novel.

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