Book Review: Forgiven, by Jana Oliver

The days are growing darker for 17-year-old demon trapper Riley Blackthorne. With her father’s reanimated body back safely, Beck barely speaking to her because of a certain hunky Fallen angel, and a freshly-made deal with Lucifer, she has enough on her hands to last a normal teenage lifetime. Though she bargained with Heaven to save his life, her ex-boyfriend Simon has told the Vatican’s Demon Hunters that she’s working with Hell. So now she’s in hiding, at the top of everyone’s most-wanted list.

But it’s becoming clear that this is bigger than Riley, and rapidly getting out of control:  something sinister is happening in Atlanta… or someone. The demons are working together for the first time ever and refusing to die, putting civilians in harm’s way. Riley thinks she might know who’s behind it all, but who’s going to believe her? Caught between her bargain with Heaven and her promise to Lucifer, Riley fears the final war is coming – and it may be closer than anyone thinks…

THE GOOD: I'm really enjoying this series. Riley is the kind of kick-butt herione I love, with an awesomely sarcastic (and yet also genuine) voice ;-) She and Beck have been at each other's throats for a while, but it's obvious they care about one another, so I've been waiting for Riley to figure that out and for them to finally get together ... Did that happen? Well, you'll have to read it to find out ;-) There were also a number of other plot threads that were pulled together to make some sense, but also a few things left unexplained that I'm looking forward to finding out more about when I get around to reading FORETOLD.

THE BAD: You know how when you read a traditionally published novel you expect it to be pretty polished? (Well, all published novels should be polished, but we know self-pubs have a bad rep.) I know every now and then a teeny mistake slips in, and it may not even be the author's fault. These things can happen after the author does their final check, right? Well, that's what I've heard anyway. So I can forgive a mistake or two. A missing "a" or "the" somewhere in a sentence.
Now I noticed with the previous two Demon Trappers novels that there were more than just a few of these little mistakes. Five to ten maybe. Which is not great. But this book??? Wow, I lost count way before the end! Definitely more than ten. Twenty maybe? I don't think I'd be exaggerating. And I mean loads of little words missed out like "to", "it", "a", "the", or a word in the wrong place in a sentence.
It's a pity, because it was a fantastic story aside from that.

THE PRETTY: I like the cover up top there more than I like the alternate one here. While the girl on the cover here is beautiful, I never imaged Riley as being pale and sort of ... emo looking! The cover above also feels more "alive" somehow. There's action. She's running away. She's fearful. It works with the story :-) And the flames are cool!





THE BOTTOM LINE: This is a series I'll keep reading despite the typos!