Renee Carlino

From USA Today Bestselling Author, Renee Carlino, comes a totally unique love story that is sure to make you question what's out there . . . or who. "My guardian angel is a drunk." Evelyn Casey's life is at a standstill. She's in her mid-twenties, struggling with the dating scene in San Francisco. Nothing seems to be working out, and she's starting to think that she'll live out her days in her crummy apartment with her overbearing roommate, Brooklyn. It's absurd, but sometimes Evey longs for a guardian angel to show up and save the day. And then he does. Seriously. His name is Lucian and he's a guardian angel, been on the job for two thousand years. His sudden presence in her life is both good-he's brilliant, witty, and warm-and bad-he's brilliant, witty, warm, and hot as ----. But as perfect as Lucian seems, he's got problems of his own. He's taken up drinking and he's brazenly inserted himself into Evey's life, going against the greatest cosmic law ever created. For Evey, the rules are simple: You are not allowed to hook up with your guardian angel. But sometimes fulfilling your destiny requires a leap of faith, a confrontation with God. Yes, God as in God.

Lucian Divine

Turtle lover

it is not really at my dnf bec I scanned the book to know what happened in the end. I guess it is not for me. I did not like the characters and how they progressed. It was cheesy for me and forced. I thought of givign it time where I can read a few pages per day but no. It was difficult trying to enjoy it because I did not enjoy it very much.

Totally Addicted to Reading

Having never read anything written by Renee Carlino prior to this, I was happy to receive an eArc of her latest novel. My excitement stemmed from all the great things that I have heard about her work. My excitement increased exponentially when I discovered that the story involved a guardian angel falling in love with his charge. I am such a sucker for these types of stories. Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived. For the first quarter of the book, everything was going well, but then it took a nose dive but managed to get back on track within 80% of the story. It was not altogether a bad read, but personally, I believed it could have been better.
Although I encountered issues that placed a damper on my reading experience, there were some aspects of the story which I found entertaining. The parts I enjoyed were

 The Premise
 As stated earlier, I found the idea of a guardian angel falling in love with his charge intriguing. It reminded me of the Movie City of Angels which starred Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan.

POVs: 
All who read my reviews knows that I am a big fan of stories told from the characters’ POVs. In this case, the story was told from the POV of Lucian and Evelyn, which gave me a front row seat into their thoughts and feelings.

 Author’s Approach: 
 The author provided a unique approach to the story. The guardian angel stories have been done several times, however, the author placed her own twist to this story which resulted in a unique creation. I loved her take on angels. For instance, Lucian is a guardian angel who had a close relationship with alcohol, cursed like a sailor and was a notorious rule breaker. They were heavenly beings who were endowed with human emotions. They used social media and they even used the popular dating site Tinder.

The Message: 
The message portrayed was profound. It reminded how powerful faith can be if only believe. Although there were no religious connotations, this story reminded how powerful hope, faith, and love were. They cannot exist on their own. The story demonstrated that when you have all three you have the strength to overcome obstacles.


Now on to the areas that I felt needed some work,
Characters: 
I had a difficult time connecting with the main characters. I believed that this had to do with the fact that their emotions were all over the place.

Romance: 
Personally, I felt that they fell in love too quickly. One moment they are meeting in a bar and the next they are head over heels in love with each other. There was no development in the romance which led to it appearing unrealistic. The relationship moved rather quickly.

 Flow: 
The story lacked fluidity. There was a lot of skipping in between scenes, which made it feel like large chunks of the story was missing. It was not clear as to the timeframe of the events. Unfortunately, I can’t provide an example as to what I am referring to, without including spoilers, so I will leave it at that.

VERDICT
Lucian Divine had the potential to be a five-star read, unfortunately, it missed the mark. In spite of the issues encountered, I enjoyed the story, but it was not my favourite read. That being said, I would recommend that you read it for yourself as your experience may be different from mine. Would, I read more from this author? Yes, most definitely

razan 

3.5/5 stars

It was the best of books
it was the worst of books.
it was a plot full of wisdom
it was a plot full of nonsense.
it was the spring of great, funny beginnings
it was the winter of stupid non logical endings. 
it was the ..... uh .. okay you get the picture 
see what i did there ...*wink wink*....that wasn't funny ..sorry  

Anyways there's a special place in my heart for books with tormented souls and forbidden love and this book had its awesome moments, and good writing style too!

Tiffany Engler

Overall Rating: ☆☆☆
3/5 Stars. This book had some serious City Of Angels vibes. I love that movie which means I enjoyed this book. It would have received a higher rating from me if it was a longer book. I just feel like less than 300 pages was not enough for this story. I needed more. 

RC really rushed everything in this book. Everything seemed to happen all at once and it was quite aggravating. I just wanted a slow burn romance for this novel and we got a love at first sight instance.

But if you want a really quick read and you're a sucker for City Of Angels like I am, you need to read this book!

Plot Rating: ☆☆☆☆
I really enjoyed the story. It was fantastic. A guardian angel falls in love with their assigned people to watch over. He shows himself to her and she can't help but instantly fall in love with him. Their relationship just grows throughout the book and Lucian gives up everything to be with Evey. 

There were some issues that I had with the book, though. I will go into that in the character rating. 


Character Rating: ☆☆
2.5/5 Stars. So, I had some issues with the characters. Lucian has to be my favorite. He's quirky and cocky. He's got the most personality out of everyone in this book. 

I'm going to complain about Evey for a moment. When she first starts to love Lucian, all she wants is him. She becomes so dependent on him in an unhealthy way that she threatens to slit her wrists to be with him. I just really hope that in their new relationship, they're not so dependent on each other for everything. 

All of the side characters were extremely boring. I couldn't like any of them even if I tried. 

Writing Syle: ☆☆☆
RC's writing style has always been easy to read. Especially this book. I could have gotten through this book in one sitting if I had the time. I really liked the two perspectives of Evey and Lucian. It was great seeing things through both of their eyes.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

3.5 stars!

Lucian is a guardian angel. Evey's guardian angel. He has been around for many, many years, serving as guardian angel to several different people throughout his time. But this time with Evey, it's different. He's fallen completely head-over-heels in love with her. Guardian angels aren't supposed to be able to fall in love, but Lucian has fallen. Hard. He gives in to his temptations and, against his rules as an angel, shows himself to Evey. He even goes so far as to explain to her what he really is. Evey is rather taken aback, yet also overly accepting of the whole thing. She can't explain her feelings, but they are strong for Lucian. She eats, sleeps and breathes him. These two are "meant to be" and they can't fight it for another minute. But can an angel and a human really be together?

Though a tad insta-lovey, there's an absolute reason for this. Lucian is Evey's guardian angel. Because of the connection they share, their spirits are drawn together. Their love for each other was undeniable. It was in them, part of their being. Though this was a tad hard for me to grasp, I was able to accept it midway through the story and I really felt for them and their relationship troubles. 

I've been a fan of Renee Carlino's for quite some time now. Admittedly, Lucian Divine was not my favorite read of hers. BUT I loved how she went outside her comfort zone with this story and brought a different type of story to life for us. This was actually my first guardian angel book, so I was a bit hesitant about how I would feel about the story line. I really appreciated the author note in the beginning that explained her motive and intent behind this story. I'm glad I read that before going in, as it helped with the humorous aspect of the story, and I ended up really liking it. I'd definitely recommend this book, accepting that it may not be for everyone.

 


  


(Thanks to Renee Carlino for the review copy!)

Find this review and others like it at Lost in Literature!

Farah Khaled 

I was so excited to read this book since it was about a guardian angel. But man this book was a disappointment. 

The pace was one of the things that really made dislike the book. One second the main charaters meet and then they are in love and get married, then the story gets really slow and again speeds up. 

*sigh* now I understand the low rating. Good thing I didn't buy the physical book.

Lucian Divine

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