A quick side note... this is my 100th post! Yay! Celebrations!
Anyway.
Once again, this is a book I have had for a while, but never got around to reading until now. I've actually had it since August of 2021. After finishing my last book (I don't remember what that one was) I was scrolling through my two hundred unread books and came across this one. I decided to read it, and then went onto Twitter for a while, where I immedietly came across a tweet about the book. Coincidence?
Anyway, I'll stop rambling and introduce the book.
A Fallen angel and an assassin walk into a bar...
For nearly seventy years, Murphy's had the worst luck any Fallen could ever have. The Collector - a title Murphy never wanted - can't seem to do his job: collect a soul. That's all. One. Soul. And after seventy years, Murphy's not so sure he wants to go back to the Below.
Joy is a practitioner of one of the world's oldest professions. No, not prostitution, although she'd gladly use her body as bait for a target. Murderer-for-hire, assassin, hitwoman - Joy's your lady if the money's right. And if it's someone who really needs killing, she'll even give you a discount.
Brought together by a job and dropped (sans parachutes) into the political machinations of the Above and Below, Murphy and Joy have to decide where their loyalties lie. Something big is coming for them, and the Collector has a job to finish.
Want to make a deal? Don't make it with Murphy!
WARNING: This work is intended for audiences 18+. Those sensitive to scenes of excessive violence or implications of sexual assault should not read this book.
My Review!
Murphy, a fallen angel with a job he is not very good at, and never wanted. Joy, an assassin who is scarily good at her job. What happens when the two meet in a bar?
When Murphy was saddled with the title of the next Collector, he thought it would be an inconvenient task for the week. Go and collect a soul, then return to his job in the Below. But, after seventy years of collections failed, time and time again, it seems he may not ever return to the Below. And, the longer he remains in the Middle, he’s not so sure he wants to return anyway.
When he meets Joy, he is intrigued by the woman who kills so easily, but when they are both given a task, to find a missing woman, they find themselves faced with a not so simple task. Not only does no one have any idea where Cara Jane could be, it is not only the Below who want to know her whereabouts. Murphy and Joy find themselves working for both sides, the Below and the Above, to find Cara Jane, wherever she may be.
I must admit, when I started reading this novel, I was a little confused as to what was happening. There were lots of things to learn, about the Below and the Above, not to mention the amount of names, and keeping track of who was who and what was happening. It was at about 20 per cent into the book when I really fell into the story and couldn’t stop reading. After that, though, I really couldn’t put it down.
This book is, to my great delight, riddled with sarcasm. Joy is perhaps the most snarky person on the earth, and add to that Murphy, the Fallen Collector, an incredibly powerful demon, who she seems to adopt like a dog? Their relationship is absolutely great, as they start to realise they care for each other, and grow from acquaintances, to friends, to absolute best friends. Their conversations, as well, make you love their characters, for you’re never entirely sure what Joy is going to say next.
May Leigh, Mimi, has to be one of the best characters in this book. Joy’s grandmother, the kind of grandmother that knits and, apparently, adopts various angels and demons into the family. A woman who can command the respect of Murphy, with the power he has, and has the ability to make him stop tipping a chair back – she is a woman everyone needs in their life. It is the interactions between Joy, Murphy and May Leigh that make this book so wonderful. It makes you want to be a fly on the wall, simply observing their day to day lives and catching the great remarks.
This is a book with incredibly quotable sarcastic comments, in fact, every chapter starts with one. A quote from either Joy or Murphy, for the most part. One, in particular, stood out to me, so much so that I took a picture of it so I could include it in this review:
Strike that from the bucket list: picking up litter with the Antichrist, and it wasn’t even court-ordered.
If that doesn’t make you at least a little curious, I don’t know what will.
This book isn’t all sarcastic comments and making friends with the Fallen, though. There are some very serious topics, with Joy’s past, and the ins and outs of her work. She is not just an assassin, hired to kill someone on just someone else’s word. She works specifically in helping women and children to be free of the person who is haunting their lives. Her work, while May Leigh does not always approve, is important to her, and Murphy does not judge her at all, but rather rolls his sleeves up and helps out.
I was a little upset that book ended rather abruptly, in the sense that there is no real conclusion, but I have just learned while writing this that this is only book one of a series. Book two is not out yet, though, which has upset me more. I loved my time with Joy and Murphy, and will miss them until the release of the next book.
And done!
I don't know what I initially planned to write down here, I started this post one day, and finished it another. So I have no ideas.
Just pretend it was really funny.
That's all for now...
Bye!
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