An African American Paranormal Romance by USA Today Bestselling Author N. D. JonesThe Conclusion to the Winged Warriors SeriesFor a millennium, Anaita served God as a Hunter Angel. For nearly as long, she has loved Nathaniel, the one angel more devoted to angelic duty than archangels. But even angels have wants beyond endless service. Is it wrong for Anaita to desire a full life with … life with Nathaniel—one not limited by the rules of Heaven? More, what is Anaita willing to risk to achieve her secret desires?
Her wings, and God’s wrath?
Her heart, and Nathaniel’s love?
Nathaniel knows why God created his kind. He’s a Hunter Angel, his Sword of Judgment a magical weapon used to execute his divine duty—the protection of humans from rogue demons and fallen angels. His immortal life changed forever when two hundred Sons of God fell from grace, seeking that which humans have taken for granted.
Freedom of choice.
What should a Hunter Angel do when shortsighted actions lead to deadly consequences for both the angel and human realms? Worse, what should a man do when his mate, the woman he loves, chooses a dangerous path?
Follow her into Hell, or fight to transform Heaven for them both?
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This is a fitting end to the Winged Warriors series. I read each book in this series, and this one by far is my favorite. The story of Nathaniel and Anaita is compelling and realistic. Their tale reminds me of the relationships that we as humans go through. The struggle to stay in synch and not allow our personal short-comings to interfere with the bigger part of who the couple is together is a huge challenge.
Nathaniel and Anaita’s journey through the challenges of being in a relationship is engaging and honest. Nathaniel and Anaita find that the truth brings them to where they need to be and helps them accomplish a mission to save humans and angels on earth. The title, Lies, Lust, Love, is exactly what this couple experiences and how they come to their truth and healing.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Fans of paranormal romance get a five-alarm fire hot one here – but it’s complicated… Hunter Angels Nathaniel and Anaita have a loving but seriously strained relationship. Private doubts and unvoiced forbidden longings mean neither can be totally open and truthful with the other, and their silences escalate into estrangement. Nathaniel ascends to the Archangels, while, at God’s behest, Anaita deliberately falls from divine grace, losing her angel magic and her wings forever. She’s on a mission for God, but withholding this info from her archangel mate dooms their union. Lest you think this is all easily resolved, let me give the FIRST OF TWO WARNINGS: the metaphysics and the philosophy in this novel are as thick and obscure as they are essential to the resolution of the book, and the trilogy. No light reading here – but those who plunge in and persist will be blessed with a beautiful and comforting understanding of divinity, love, forgiveness, honesty, and trust. (It brought me to tears) SECOND WARNING: those whose faith tends to be wedded to orthodoxy and doctrine, highly dogmatic, and firm in the exclusion of non-believers – This book will not meet those standards. In my personal view, that is a positive thing, of immense value, but each must judge according to her own understanding. N. D. Jones is a writer of depth, perceptive and eloquent, and I salute the courageous risks she takes in this third and last book of her Winged Warrior Trilogy. This is a stunned and amazed voluntary ARC review.
I am both impressed, yet sadly displeased with this book which puts me in a tough spot in how many stars to give it. My initial thoughts of Lies, Lust, Love was to give it four stars since it had everything that I missed in the first two books; a much more complex depth in characters and plot, some really dramatic and juicy twists and a well developed romance.
The fact that the book is much longer than its predecessors says it all really. It had just much more give and room for a greater plot and development. The way the story was built as well with a rocky relationship between the main characters from the get go, the secrets and betrayal, the separation and the dramatic and anger-filled reunion. Well, it had me fully invested in the story and romance. Sure, there were some slower moments and some of magical aspect of the sex and other stuff was just too weird and off-putting to me. Overall though the relationship was amazingly well written and their struggles pulled at my heartstring just like a good and dramatic romance should.
Then the plot kind of overtook the romance’s center stage at some point. It all became about this big battle against great enemies that previously in the book had been magically defeated without rhyme or reason (seriously, it was never explained how they were put down so easily the first time) yet now all of a sudden they couldn’t defeat them the same way they had before. Pages were filled with drawn out fight scenes, and long ramblings of purpose in life, free will and how God basically was no better than a really lonely insecure human. There were some beautiful messages and romantic twist in the middle of it, but it was kind of muddied down under all that other overbearing stuff.
I am not religious in any way, but it still managed too feel really off to me that the story humanized god in such a way. You would expect god, creator of life and the world not to be a human with a full set of human flaws and insecurities, but more of a higher power that watched and commanded from the sidelines, like She did in the beginning of the story. I mean, I get what the story tried to do, making it all a beautiful message of how similar and loving god is to us, but it missed the mark and felt too … I don’t know, preachy? And the ending with her being just a buddy with baby sitting duties and complete ignorance of how to do such duty kind of stepped over the message the book was going for in the first place.
Had the story kept the focus on the main characters and built them an impactful conclusion and way back to each other, meaning kept the spotlight on them, this would have easily been a four star story for me. That it instead shifted the light off of them and on to the fight and kind of made god the main character in the end made sure that the romance never got a fully satisfying ending, only a rushed one crammed in between the fight and god. The story therefore lands at three stars.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Lies, Lust, Love is the third book in the Winged Warriors trilogy and takes the reader to before and after Serwa and Issa, along with Zora and Alastar, were chosen. The focus this time is on Nathaniel and Anaita. They were lovers long before Serwa and Issa but then Anaita was given the choice, and went, to Earth on a mission for God.
This being the culmination of the three books, I really wanted to love it! Unfortunately for me, I ended up just liking it instead. The story between Nathaniel and Anaita seemed a bit disjointed and choppy to me. Half of the issues they had with each other, I seemed to be completely unaware of until they ‘fixed’ them.
Also, characters were mentioned, snippets are given from their perspectives, only to fade to black and never be heard from again. Now, I know, you can’t give everyone their HEA but it just felt a bit… unfinished.
Onto the positives, this is the longest of the three books and so you get greater depth and backstory which ends up benefitting all three couples. There is plenty of action and compassion here. The overall story arc is wrapped up nicely although I do wish I knew what a certain someone’s final decision was!
I did love how our three couples are together in both work and play. Alastar still remains a firm favourite. The epilogue was sheer perfection and certainly made me smile.
So my final thoughts? This is a brilliant series that I have thoroughly enjoyed. This isn’t my favourite book by N.D. Jones but is still a bloody good read and definitely recommended by me.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books!