Release Day Review - Sins of the Son by Linda Poitevin - 5 Qwills

Sins of the Son
Author:  Linda Poitevin
Series:  The Grigori Legacy
Format:  Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher:  Ace (March 27, 2012)
Price:  $7.99
Language: English
Genre:  Urban Fantasy
ISBN:  9781937007379
Review Copy: Novel provided by publisher

A detective with a secret...

When homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis sees a photo of Seth Benjamin on a police bulletin, she knows that Heaven's plan to halt Armageddon has gone terribly wrong. As the only mortal who knows of Seth's true nature, she's also the only one who can save him.

An exiled angel turned assassin...

Aramael was a hunter of Fallen Angels until a traitor forced him into earthly exile. Now, with no powers and only a faint memory of Alex, his mortal soulmate, he will stop at nothing to redeem himself--even if it means destroying Seth in the name of the Creator.

A world with little chance of redemption...

As Alex's need to protect Seth sets her on a collision course with the determined Aramael, the conflict between them may push the world over the edge--and into the very chaos they're trying to prevent.

My thoughts:

[Note: This may be a bit spoilery for the first novel in the series. I tired my best not to spoil too much.]

Sins of the Son is the second book in The Grigori Legacy series. Like the first book, Sins of the Angels, the story takes place mainly in Canada and Heaven with most of the action taking place this time in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada rather than Toronto.

Sins of the Son focuses on Seth Benjamin, Aramael, and Alexandra Jarvis. Alex is on desk duty due to the fallout from the events in the prior book. She's required to see a psychiatrist by the police department, but if she reveals what really happened (a murderous Fallen Angel, an angelic Power to hunt him down, and Seth's powers) she'd be locked in a psychiatric ward. Alex's boss is sympathetic to her since he saw some things that he can't explain. When a police bulletin is sent around which shows Seth Benjamin, Alex goes to look into it... off the clock. While this is happening Aramael is suffering at the hands of the Fallen who attack him at every chance they get now that he's been banished from heaven for his actions in Sins of the Angels.

Alex travels to Vancouver to help Seth, who has lost his memory and is unidentified. She encounters Dr. Elizabeth Riley and Detective Hugh Henderson, of the Vancouver police department. Both are suspicious about how and how well Alex knows Seth. Alex sets out to help Seth and runs into all sorts of problems including her soulmate Aramael who is sent to kill him. Alex gets dragged again into the maneuvering between Heaven and Hell while trying to protect Seth and help him regain his memory. Seth is a bit of a loose cannon and and Hell seeks to use this to its advantage. Lucifer is up to no good and is trying to create an army to help him in the coming war.

In her sophomore novel, Ms. Poitevin ups the ante and produces a taut and beautifully written book filled with remarkable characters. While we've met the main characters before, several new secondary characters are introduced. The interactions between Aramael and Alex are fraught with tension and not only because they are at odds over Seth. We get to see a lot of Lucifer in Sins of the Son. He is a complex character. It would have been easy to draw him as pure evil and one dimensional, but he's more than that. We get to see some of his motivations. This isn't to say that Lucifer is a good guy. He's not. He's attempting to build a new army of Nephilim to aid him in what he believes is the inevitable war against mankind and Heaven. Despite this you can see some of what made him special to the Creator. The secondary characters, especially Dr. Riley (who is singularly unpleasant) and Detective Henderson were given depth. While many of the characters in Sins of the Son are seemingly motivated by love, this is not a romance.

Ms. Poitevin further builds her Heaven/Hell mythology in Sins of the Son. I find this mythology fascinating and extremely well done. Sins of the Son was emotionally gripping with excellent pacing as the novel builds to the explosive and unexpected conclusion. I can't wait to see what happens next in The Grigori Legacy series.

I give Sins of the Son 5 Qwills.

While not entirely necessary, I recommend that you read the first book in the series, Sins of the Angels, prior to reading Sins of the Son. You may read my review of Sins of the Angels here.

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bullet-proof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an angel…

Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial killer case—a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell.

Aramael is a Power—a hunter of the Fallen Angels. A millennium ago, he sentenced his own brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother is back and wreaking murderous havoc in the mortal realm. To find him, Aramael must play second to a human police officer who wants nothing to do with him and whose very bloodline threatens both his mission and his soul.

Now, faced with a fallen angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse, Alex and Aramael have no choice but to join forces, because only together can they stop the end of days.