Product Description

Redemption isn't a word Jim Heron knows much about-his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charge with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option. Vin DiPietro long ago sold his soul to his business, and he's good with that-until fate intervenes in the form of a tough- talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior. But then he meets a woman who will make him question his destiny, his sanity, and his heart-and he has to work with a fallen angel to win her over and redeem his own soul.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4217 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 496 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780451228215
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
J. R. Ward lives in the South with her incredibly supportive husband and her beloved golden retriever. After graduating from law school, she began working in health care in Boston and spent many years as chief of staff for one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation.

Customer Reviews

4.5 stars - Promising start to Ward's new series - Romance, Redemption and Angels on Harleys
Romance and redemption kick off this first sortie in a winner-takes-all endgame between angels and demons with the final outcome determined by seven battles for seven souls. The only thing that stands between those souls and damnation is Jim Heron - a man whose own soul is gray enough to make him an acceptable advocate for both Heaven and Hell.

The first soul up for grabs is Vin diPietro's. Vin is a rich and powerful man who is never satisfied with what he has even though everything he has is the very best. A man who started with nothing, did whatever it took, and bent whatever rules he could get away with to make it to the top. A man who has `lost' himself in a fog of avarice somewhere along the way, teetering on the edge of damnation, until the night that he catches a glimpse of Marie-Terese across a crowded dance floor. Seeing the beautiful and somehow familiar Marie-Terese is like a wake-up call for the soul Vin doesn't even realize that he's been loosing.

When Vin enters Marie-Terese's life she too is at a crossroads. The job which has meant her survival for Marie-Terese has been eating away her soul bite by bite. The wealthy and handsome Vin is everything Marie-Terese finds attractive in a man, but she's been there done that and paid a steep price for that mistake.

Little do the pair realize that Vin is a playing piece in a cosmic game, with points awarded based on whether or not Vin takes that final step towards damnation. But Vin is not alone on the game board, he has a champion in the form of Jim Heron - the sole person who has been chosen by both sides to help Vin with his choice. But of course Team Hell is cheating and trying to push Vin over the line. Still, even with Jim's help, it is Marie-Terese who is the key to Vin's salvation. But if Vin and Marie-Terese can't break free from the ghosts of their pasts and Jim can't head off the demon working to keep them ensnared by said ghosts, the world will be literally one step closer to Hell.

I really liked the romance between Vin and Marie-Terese and the development of both of these romantic leads. As cold and detached as Vin starts out, author Ward does a good job of transforming him so that it is easy to root for his redemption. Ward also does a great job of fleshing out Marie-Terese, a character that we've glimpsed as the lead prostitute from Zero Sum in the Black Dagger books. The back stories that Ward develops for Marie-Terese and Vin are detailed enough that there is a really good sense of not only who they are but who they were and the choices that lead them to this point. But I really like the way that they are the catalyst for each others redemption and I liked the tenderness which augments the attraction between the pair.

Okay this is the question that all of Ward's fans want answered, "Is this as good as the Black Dagger Brotherhood series?" Ward's style is pretty distinct - which means that the f-bombs, slang, and brand name dropping which irks some readers are present here - but I enjoy her style and it gives Covet the flavor of the BDB books without the fangs. What fans will appreciate - and this is what adds the icing to Ward's other books for me - is that she is already starting to setup for the strong male friendships which will carry through the series. Another plus is that the demon who is Jim's nemesis is a better adversary than the BDB's the pre-Lash-Lessers. Also fun, since this series is set in the the Brothers' home town, it looks like there will be some crossover and future development of some characters from Ward's other books - in addition to Marie-Terese, Trez and Detective De La Cruz appear - and there is a very very brief "nudge-nudge-wink-wink" drive-by cameo which will give fans a chuckle.

So the answer to the question for me is that I think that it will be as good. I say `will be' instead of `is' only because - even though I really enjoyed the romance and what we've learned about Jim so far - the fallen angel angle is not explored much here in this first book which it makes it hard to compete with the fully established series that BDB is after seven books. Personally I would have liked to have seen just a little bit more explained this go round - I was asking myself whether Jim was or wasn't a fallen angel through most of the book. Even with my lack of patience, my only other nit with Covet is I didn't much care for Jim's heavenly pep talks. Still my nits are minor and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. There is enough promise in what's been laid out for the series so far that I liked everything else about Covet -- there is no doubt that I will be reading the next book.

Not really a romance.....
I guess what bothered me the most about this book is that I simply could not warm up to any of the characters. About half of the book is about Jim, who I did not find intriguing on any level. The other half was evenly split between Vin and Marie-Therese. I felt like they got short-changed. To make it worse, many of the scenes between Vin and M-T were told through Jim's point of view. To me, this created a sense of distance that was disconcerting.

I love the BDB books, and don't mind when significant amount of page space is devoted to other chatacters because they are so engrossing. The BDB books have a momentum and an intensity of emotion that makes me ache for the characters and plow through the book dying to see what happens next. I care about the PEOPLE (ahem, or vamps, as the case may be!) I don't care so much about the intricate vampire or lesser history....although those are interesting too. I'm dying to know when John Matthew figures out who he is, when Phury is going to man up, how Bella is doing keeping Zsadist on track. I buy JR Ward's books because she has me hooked on these beautifully drawn characters.

I just did not get that feeling from COVET. Jim is a standard issue character. Vin and M-T are more interesting, but did not get enough page space together to develop much electricity. I also thought the whole premise of the series is a little gimmicky. I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series. (I kind of wish Ward would resurrect her Jessica Bird persona.)

All The Flaws Of BDB, None Of The Fun
It was a struggle for me to get through this book, and it's not because it's wildly different from J.R. Ward's other work. It's been said that her "style" is very distinctive, and it is, but I'm wondering why every single person in her world has to sound the same. But that issue is nothing new.

The story just fell flat for me, I wasn't really invested in the growth of any of the characters, I wasn't overly concerned about their survival, and that translated to a pretty boring read. On top of that I wasn't as entertained by the premise of fallen angels as I was by vampires, so the flaws and weaknesses in the writing that made the Black Dagger Brotherhood campy fun just don't work here.

I realize that people have a preconceived notion about what kind of woman becomes a prostitute and that Marie-Therese doesn't fit that mold, but the writing struck a really uncomfortable note for me. I walked away with the feeling that Marie-Therese got her happy ending because she was different from all those other filthy women, who were the real whores, since she's like a diamond nestled in a pile of crap. She's the "good" whore because she never enjoyed the sex, and the others like Gina are "bad" whores because they do. I'm just wondering what it was, exactly, that made her so special. The shade of her lipstick? The kind of fishnet stockings she wore?

I might try to read the book again and see if I get anything out of it, but I think I'm going to stick with Ward's BDB series, because no matter how frustrating the plot is, it's still enjoyable to read.