Author: Scarlet Blackwell
Genre: Historical (1888) Angel, Fallen Angel/Demon
Length: Novel (192pgs)
Publisher: Silver Publishing (17th March 2012)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Children’s book writer Jacob Bailey has retreated to Scotland to die in solitude, tormented by the loss of the love of his life and wishing for an end to his suffering. In the remote house on the cliff, he is visited by an angel with history and pain of his own, a being who brings far more to Jacob’s final days than he could ever hope for.
CONTENT ADVISORY: This title contains a bittersweet ending.
Purchase Link: https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/coming-soon-c-2/products_id/762
Review: Jacob is a man who knows that the end is coming. He knows the cancer has come back. He doesn’t need a doctor to tell him. Now, at a remote cottage away from family and friends, he has choices to make and as the pain gets worse, he is visited by angels.
This really is a bittersweet story that tugs at your heart-strings. Jacob has had one gay experience in his life and he hasn’t really been happy since the love of his life sailed for America. Now knowing that the dreaded cancer is back he isn’t sure if the angels he sees are real or not but he believes that they are. There are three underlying stories twisted together, we have Jacob and his lost love Lucien, we have Lucifer and his lost love Raphael and we have the comfort that Jacob and Lucifer offer each other.
This story is bittersweet all the way through. There are sparks of happiness or joy, but all the way through, we know that there will not be a happy ending. as we read, we can see Lucifer trying to give Jacob comfort and Jacob trying to understand what Lucifer could want with him, if not his soul. We also have Lucifer and Raphael hashing over the past and what they both felt. Raphael knowing that spending any time with Lucifer will get him punished and Lucifer *sigh*, Lucifer feeling hurt that Raphael had denied his love.
This is a story that is not your usual Fallen Angel/Lucifer story. There is a unique reason for Lucifer’s fall from Grace and what his duties are. And this story is all about lost love and at the end maybe new beginnings. The way this story is written is brilliant. It is the touching, agonizing drawn out last weeks and months of a man’s life as he reflects on what he has done, but Lucifer feels a certain kinship for him and tries to ease some of his pain and to keep him on the right track.
Scarlet Blackwell has written a story that makes you live the agonizing, pain-filled moments of Jacob’s last weeks and months. the descriptions of the agonizing hell he goes through while his Guardian Angel stands by his side watching, makes you question why is suicide a sin , when Angel’s won’t give them respite from the pain?
This for me was a great read… a different reflection on Heaven and Hell and Heaven doesn’t come out smelling of roses. I recommend this to those who want a slightly whimsical, reflecting, regretting, and truth facing, longing and forbidden love.