Book Banter -- Original Sin

Title: Original Sin

Author: Allison Brennan

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Length: 472 pages

Where Word Nerd's Copy Came From: Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library

Plot Basics: Moira O'Donnell is having vision of a hellacious future -- literally. She's on the trail of her mother's coven who's attempting to raise the Seven Deadly Sins to earth. Moira's got her own magic and her own secrets, but she's not apt to reveal either of those things. Instead, with the help of a demonologist, a local sheriff and mysterious member of the secret St. Michael's Order, she's going to go up against the sins raised to the Earth.

Banter Points: Brennan does a great job of writing fight scenes. Those were always good in her more romantic/suspense book and she carries on with that trend now that she's got characters fighting demons.

Bummer Points: So that whole fighting demons thing... Word Nerd's a fan of Buffy and Angel so it's not as if she's against the premise of people fighting demons. That said -- she had trouble with this book on a bunch of levels.

First, there's the whole spiritual side of things. The whole idea of a coven raising demons just didn't sit well with Word Nerd in this book. Word Nerd fully believes that there really are demons and angels and a spiritual battle going on. The problem she had was that this book just felt like it was toying too close to the edge of things that are real. Maybe the difference is that in a show like Buffy, Word Nerd knows that the bad guys are just people dressed up in costume (and awfully campy costumes, sometimes) whereas with the written word actually has a lot more power.

Second, well, then there's the writing itself. Brennan's niche is romantic suspense between a victim and the cop/sheriff/FBI guy tracking a serial killer. She's gotten good at those. Sure, are they all a bit the same? Yes -- but when Word Nerd picks up one of her books, she knows what she's going to get. This book had character whiplash every few pages trying to keep up with her huge cast (this is a multi-book series starting here) and Brennan often repeated information. The plot was all over the place as backstories for characters were introduced and POVs switched.

Word Nerd Recommendation: Skip it in favor of Brennan's earlier romantic suspense stuff.