Linda Howard: Death Angel

Death Angel: B
Drea Rosseau


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.


This was a most interesting read.
Very interesting.

When I read it a month ago, I gave it an A-. Now I'm obliged to give it a substantially lower grade.

Drea is the girlfriend of really-bad-guy Rafael Salinas. Coming from an impoverished background, she's done whatever she could to provide for herself... and she's done pretty well for herself in terms of material wealth. However, Salinas doesn't give her the love and acceptance that she so yearns for in her heart.

When she meets Salinas' go-to man (aka assassin), they share an incredible experience and crazily, (seriously, crazily) she wants to turn to this man for comfort, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able, or willing to, care for her.

In realizing this and in realizing the shittiness of her situation with Salinas, she makes a run for it, taking $2mil of Salinas cash with her.

He, of course, finds out and is furious.
He dispatches the hit man to go after her and effectively take her off the radar.

She runs from everyone and through a car accident, dies. (it says left for dead - she actually dies) Miraculously (and ever-so-slightly touching the paranormal realm), shed is given another chance at life... and she is a changed woman.

When she and the hit man meet again, they try to put an end to the bad Salinas.



I don't mind paranormals, dying, and etc etc. However, I do mind relating to the hero and heroine. I understood and sympathized (somewhat) with Drea. But I could not relate to the hero.

Similar to Diaz from Cry No More, the hero is hard to read, closed, distant, cold-blooded, and... well... what you would expect hit-men and assassins to be.

However, unlike Diaz, our hero remains distant to the end of the novel. While he changes - albeit slightly- for Drea, I still couldn't understand how Drea could have possibly loved him. He was stoic. He didn't talk. He just.... he just... I don't know... just... was there. It was apparent that he cared for her, yet I felt something was missing.

As for Drea caring for hero - she kind-of fell into love with him the moment she met him, so she just... loved him. BUT, I can't relate to how she came to feel safe and wanted and cared-for in his arms, as Howard wrote.

It's this strange mesh of incomprehension that I'm left with, even at the end of the story.

I think that Ms. Howard might have taken her uber alpha hero a bit too far.
If you're going to have someone fall in love with a sniper/ assassin/ killer-dude, make him somewhat ...human?

Other than this, the story was interesting to read.

..so I'm not sure if I truly recommend this or not. I say GO FOR IT - but borrow from your local library before purchasing this baby.

Linda Howard: Cry No More

Cry No More: A+
Milla Edge & James Diaz

You might not know this about me, but I am, in fact, a huge ass crybaby. I’m like a leaking faucet; it takes very little to get me started. As expected, I’m very emotional, and I love authors who can evoke emotions in me.

However, I find that this particular expectation is lost in a many romance novels. For one thing, it’s a given that romance novels must must must have a happily-ever-after. Therefore, when the hero or heroine falls sick near the end of the novel …who cares? I know that within a flip of a few pages, that the hero/heroine will become un-sick and everything will be peachy. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to become jaded with romance novels – it can get very mundane – and very formulaic.

If you can sympathetize with this, worry not! Cry No More is an intensely emotional and passionate read about a mother’s love. In fact, I find that the mother-child love is more explained than the normal hero-heroine love relationship.

Milla Edge is twenty-three, married of one year to a genius doctor, and is in Mexico with their newborn child. Then the unthinkable happens and her baby, Justin, is snatched from her arms. However, Milla refuses to give up and makes it her personal goal to find her child.

I was exasperated for the first half of this book, but I fear it is out of ignorance and naivety, more than anything. I’m not a mother and I’ve never had a child. I don’t know the love a mother has for a child – I just know that it is something intense and wholly consuming.

So, reading through Milla’s pain, her gritty determinance to find Justin, was something I understood but didn’t. The pain that she must have felt – I don’t know for sure, but I shallowly empathize. It must be a heartwrenching, soul-scarring pain and hurt. However, one question always stayed with me – when is it appropriate to move on? And is moving on synonymous with giving up?

Because Milla could have given up – and nobody would have faulted her for it. She looked for ten long years – gave up ten long years, grueled, grieved, and continuously thought of the could-haves and what-ifs. When is it enough to simply… stop?

Maybe never.

In understanding Milla’s pain, I know why she chose to keep fighting, yet a part of me wanted to rattle her – to shake her and tell her, life’s not fair. Move on with your life – rebuild it!

But really, who am I to say? And how can I so callously tell someone to move on regarding a situation that has to do with another person? Her child??

That was dilemma number one, and the most thought-provoking reaction/ question/ confusion…

The second question is a little harder to ask without giving the story away, but to say very vaguely (if you’re a spoiler-HATIST like me, skip the next paragraph please):

Is it ever all right to kill someone, even if it is done in the name of justice, of retribution? After all, there’s karma, right? But is it ever justified in taking someone’s life for even the most heinous crime (deaths of millions of people, child rape…)?

As for the relationship between Diaz and Milla – I can’t help but to wonder if there are males out there who are so cold and so… cold. Diaz is supposed to be an assassin, I understand, but from what I’ve heard, the personality/ heart of a sniper or an assassin is a huge dichotomy, in that the most kind-hearted person can have the succinct ability to kill with precision and without emotion.

Nevertheless, Diaz is practically an amphibian with cold blood running through him, who basically has no huge communication needs and with eyes that are so cold, it would, apparently, freeze your toes.

But the things he does for Milla when she is grieving… the love and affection he shows for her, and the clear love that he has for her (though unable to really verbalize until later) is so heartwarming and utterly charming. It’s like, he understood Milla – knew her better than she knew herself – and catered to her when she needed him most.

I’m totally up for that kind of love – the kind of love where the other person knows you inside-and-out, and can comfort you in your troubles, tickle your toes when you want to laugh, and one who will simply take care of you because… that’s what love does.

Boy, was I in for the shock of my life when after two hundred pages, Cry No More became an intensely intense read. And then, I wasn’t too shocked when I started to bawl my eyes out… and then continued to cry continuously the last thirty-something pages of the book. (Oh jeepers, I’m a dork.)

The ending is absolutely wonderful and so great, I think I might have actually sighed in content (while nastily blowing my nose and wiping tears away)

If you’re not afraid of thinking while reading – and feeling something other than “aw, that’s cuddly,” please give this a try.

A+ for emotion, writing skill, and characterization. Bravo, Ms. Howards!

Oh gosh, that was a long ass review. Sorry, I had a lot to say. But basically it all boils down to: read the damn book!