Immortal Angel

Immortal Angel (Argeneau Series)- Lynsay Sands

Avon/Harper Collins

Release Date: September 29, 2020

Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: For almost two centuries, Ildaria Garcia has been on the run, a trouble magnet with a knack for taking down bad guys. Lately, her vigilante tendencies have drawn unwelcome attention to her fellow Immortals. Forced to relocate, Ildaria is supposed to lay low in a new town. Instead, she quickly entangles herself with six and a half feet of muscular, tattooed trouble.

Joshua James Simpson Guiscard, aka G.G., knows a lot about Immortals—enough to make him wary. Yet from the moment Ildaria walks into his club, he feels desire stronger than anything he’s known. Accepting the fact that they might be life mates is disconcerting. But when her past catches up to them, G.G. faces a choice—confront his demons at last, or lose a passion that’s hot as hell.

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Lynsay Sands returns to the Argeneau/Immortal series with Ildaria Garcia, who readers met in Vampires Like It Hot.  Ildaria now lives in Canada and is trying to be an accounting student at the local university.  But she has a tendency to not look the other way when fellow students get attacked and that makes staying under the radar in the time of cell phone cameras difficult.  When she gets a job at the Night Club and meets owner Joshua "G.G." Guiscard, all thoughts of vigilantism fly away: G.G. is her life mate.  The problem is, G.G. knows enough about immortals and becoming one to know he doesn't want to turn.  Will he even accept the idea of being life mates? Then Ildaria's past comes back to haunt her and they both have some tough decisions to make.

G.G. is a kind and thoughtful man, an excellent listener, and the perfect partner for Ildaria. He's also a delightful physical contrast that Sands plays up for the smile factor: a large man with tattoos and a huge green mohawk who's completely devoted to a tiny, slightly neurotic, Bichonpoo. In many ways Ildaria seems the younger of the two, despite being centuries older, because she's spent her life on the run from the immortal who turned her and has missed out on living the 'normal' life she is now trying for.  At the same time, those experiences have made Ildaria a careful and capable fighter and you wonderhow long it will be before the Enforcers convince her to join them as a Rogue Hunter. She pulls no punches protecting herself and those who can't protect themselves and, quite rightly, never apologizes for doing what needs to be done.

 Immortal Angel changes pace from many of the books in the Argeneau series: instead of constantly being in danger, running from danger, and trying to fight danger, Ildaria and G.G. get a slower paced story that focuses on their growing relationship.  The pacing works.  Both have childhood traumas to work through and those traumas aren't things that can be shrugged off.  Getting to focus on themselves and the issues that stand between them as life mates makes their relationship deeper and makes the reader highly invested in the outcome.  Lynsay Sands brings some difficult issues to the table- Ildaria's past is full of sexual abuse- and in my opinion Sands did a thoughtful and respectful job of handling possible triggers and the coping mechanisms Ildaira has had to develop over the centuries, but which would ring true to many humans today.  There is still delightful humor and lighter moments run through Immortal Angel: readers will definitely enjoy the damage she shows can be done to large bad guys with a pair of metal heeled high-heel shoes. 

Readers new to the series will enjoy the sweetly developing romance between Ildaria and G.G., their combustible chemistry, and their determination to get to know each other before jumping into a relationship. Interfering friends, motherly manipulation, Immortals dealing with the constant presence of cell phone cameras, and a Bichonpoo who eats everything he shouldn't when left alone add humor along the way.  Long-time series readers will enjoy cameos by other characters, and get to wrap up some of the problems Ildaria encountered in South America during Vampires Like It Hot without throwing off new readers.  

An excellent addition to a delightful series, and a fun read for everyone.

 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review