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The History Connection - Death Angel: A Novel
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List Price: $26.00
Our Price: $4.90
Your Save: $ 21.10 ( 81% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345486547
ISBN: 0345486544
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2008-07-01
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: 2008-07-01
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Linda Howard trimuph
Comment: This was actually a fun read and with a unique perspective. Its not often than the main hero/heroine are not on the up and up character wise. If you enjoy Linda Howard's writing style and don't have an aversion to morally ambiguous main characters, this is the book for you.
I rate this Book a 4.5/5.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as ravens claws.-Jim Morrison
Comment: Drea Rousseau has not lived a good life. At a very young age she learned about heartache and as a result has gone through great lengths to make sure she would never feel that again. Using her wits and her body she has spent her years manipulating men into getting what she wants and playing whatever role is needed.
As an arm-charm to a ruthless drug lord and criminal, Drea thought she had it pretty good. She had no delusions about what their relationship was or was not, she was just taking one day at a time always knowing the end was coming. One afternoon he surprises her by treating her rather callously and for Drea that makes the end of their relationship come a lot sooner than expected.
But even as she makes her escape life throws yet another monkey wrench in the works and Drea's life and outlook is irrevocably changed, forever. What once seemed so important isn't anymore and she works hard to make every moment of this second chance count.
I thought this book was incredible; filled with twists and turns and completely unpredictable. From page one it was clear that this tale was going to be daringly different from any other romantic suspense novel I have read. The two main characters aren't nice people and I really shouldn't have cared for either one, but the way they are written, despite their flaws, I felt and fell for both. These aren't two people that you expect to be stars in a romance novel, but it is their unique characters that make this book so great. Both had led shallow and selfish existences and aren't very apologetic about it. But with the second chance that Drea faces, they both rediscover life, one another and are struck by the power of love.
Truly a wonderful story filled with some heartbreaking, fantastic and miraculous moments; I loved ever word of it.
Cherise Everhard October 2008
Customer Rating:
Summary: A gripping plot with super twists and turns
Comment: Frankly, I'm not much of a fan of suspense novels. Death Angel was sent to me for review by mistake. So when I couldn't sleep the night after I received it, I thought it might be a good sleeping aid. However, Death Angel, by Linda Howard, is quite the opposite. Like a menu from the finest restaurant, this book has it all. It serves up everything, from sex to special agents, from crime lords to hired assassins, from romance to roadside mayhem.
Linda Howard is skillful indeed. I wouldn't have thought it possible that a bought-and-paid-for mistress and a killer so detached, so cool, that even a handshake could leave you frostbitten, would make such a compelling couple. Victim and villain, Drea and Simon are fire and ice, and so is their lovemaking. The love scenes remind me of a line from an old Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn movie. "There's not much (of her) but what there is, is choice." You might want to use oven mitts to hold the book!
And the rest of the book is pretty darn good too. The plot is grippingly crafted, with as many twists and turns as a bowl of rotini pasta. And Death Angel is a veritable psychologist's playground, as the author explores the breadth of human emotions from abandonment and betrayal through fear, forgiveness and acceptance.
More like an extra strength dose of No-Doz than a sleeping aid, Death Angel is wonderfully entertaining, if not wonderfully restful. So if you're looking for a good night's sleep, you better look elsewhere.
Happily, in an election year, sleep aids are everywhere: CNN, the biography section of any Borders or Barnes and Noble, and of course, the ever-present campaign ads, interrupted only occasionally by actual programming. Good night and good luck!
Armchair Interviews says: Linda Howard writes with such impact you'll be up all night reading her.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Story of Redemption is a Disappointment (C Grade)
Comment: I must say that Death Angel is a major pass for me. I was able to finish reading in less than a day and afterwards I felt empty. I was close to making this a DNF (Do Not Finish), but because of my loyalty to Linda, I finished. Death Angel has an interesting set up, about a mistress of a high powered mobster, and the assassin he hires. The mistress and the assassin end up having a one night stand together. The first chapter grabs you in a way that no other book I have read in recent memory has done. Basically Drea Rousseau has been offered by her mobster boyfriend, Rafael Salinas, as payment to the mysterious assassin he has on his payroll. The assassin wants a few hours with Drea in return for a job well done. Rafael gives his permission and leaves his girlfriend of two years with the cold blooded killer. Drea has no choice but to do what the killer wants, and expects the worst. But Drea is a survivor and will get through this. Expecting the killer to be rough, and the sex painful, he surprises her by being very gentle and gives her the best four hours of intense loving she has ever had. After it is over, he leaves her and Drea is changed forever.
Incredible how great sex can change your outlook on life.
For the next few chapters, we see Drea forming a plan where she will leave Rafael and hit him where it hurts, his bank account. She will steal two million dollars and hide it in her own secret account. Since he thinks she is an airhead, he has no clue how smart Drea really is, because her persona is all an act. Plus, she is a very angry woman who wants Rafael to pay for giving her to another man. She also feels angry at herself, because her four hour lover made her come alive for the first time in her life. She will no longer be anyone's plaything and make a better life for herself.
Up to this point I was very intrigued and couldn't wait to see if Drea would get away and if the mysterious assassin would make an appearance again. Drea is able to escape from under Rafael's nose and with the money. But not before too long, Rafael finds out and wants her dead. He hires the same assassin to kill her. And this is where the story becomes a bit confusing.
It seems to me that Linda had began writing Death Angel one way and then a quarter of the way through, decided to change the plot. What I assumed would be a woman on the run, and the man who must find her, essentially coming to fall in love with her and protect her, becomes a bit of a paranormal in a way. Drea ends up having a car accident where she dies. She sees the white light and is given a second chance. When she comes down to Earth, she is remorseful and has a change of heart. And oh yeah, she now can sense a person's future. She has the "sight". If she comes in contact with someone, she warns them or gives them advice on their future. Why and how does this suddenly happen? Well, Drea, really named Andie, has seen the light, literally and figuratively.
Also at this time, the assassin, who we come to know as Simon, also has a sudden change of heart. He watched Andie die and now that he knows she has lived, he will watch over her and make sure she is safe. He becomes her angel in a way, her guardian. But he still has his day job as a ruthless killer, even though he takes some time off to make sure Andie doesn't continue to go on the run or is found alive by Rafael.
Death Angel quickly lost momentum. I am all for an amoral character who changes his stripes, and I guess Simon is the hero, but he is written in such am ambiguous way that as the reader I can't find myself to like him. Drea/Andie has a bit more merit because her thoughts and actions are more pronounced. I wanted to really like her, but again the way Linda writes Andie's life change took away from my overall enjoyment of the novel. I even found the sex scenes stale and lacking, perhaps because I couldn't find any emotional attachment to these two characters who I can barely like? Perhaps I just don't understand a romance between a hit man and a woman who has risen from the grave, so the speak.
Katiebabs
Customer Rating:
Summary: A tale of 2 stories
Comment: This was a very disappointing book. More so because the first half of the book is great. It had a good plot, was tautly written, the characters came across strong and I was dying to see how the heroine, Drea, managed to thwart her drug running lover. Then we get to the second half and it's like I'm reading a completely different book. Two self-centered people, one a sociopath, all of a sudden become entirely different people. The plot, the excellent writing is gone, the strong characters are gone and the end is so simplistic and silly that I was having trouble believing this was written by the same author. If you are looking for a great thriller, you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a great love story, you will be disappointed.
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Editorial Reviews:
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In Linda Howard’s gifted hands, second chances, unexpected romance, and unrelenting action combine into a riveting new novel of suspense. In Death Angel, bad girls can wake up and trust their hearts, bad guys can fight for what’s right . . . and dying just might be the only way to change one’s life.
A striking beauty with a taste for diamonds and dangerous men, Drea Rousseau is more than content to be arm candy for Rafael Salinas, a notorious crime lord who deals with betrayal through quick and treacherous means: a bullet to the back of the head, a blade across the neck, an incendiary device beneath a car. Eager to break with Rafael, Drea makes a fateful decision and a desperate move, stealing a mountain of cash from the malicious killer. After all, an escape needs to be financed.
Though Drea runs, Salinas knows she can’t hide–and he dispatches a cold-blooded assassin in hot pursuit, resulting in a tragic turn of events. Or does it?
Left for dead, Drea miraculously returns to the realm of the living a changed woman. She’s no longer shallow and selfish, no longer steals or cheats or sells herself short. Both humbled and thrilled with this unexpected second chance, Drea embraces her new life. But in order to feel safe and sound–and stop nervously looking over her shoulder–she will need to take down those who marked her for death.
Joining forces with the FBI, supplying vital inside information that only she can provide, Drea finds herself working with the most dangerous man she’s ever known. Yet the closer they get to danger, the more intense their feelings for each other become, and the more Drea realizes that the cost of her new life may be her life itself–as well as her heart.
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