Book Review: The Taken by Vicki Pettersson

Genre: Noir/Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Paperback: 432 pages

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Release Date: June 12, 2012

Series: Celestial Blues (Book 1)

Source: Amazon Vine

 

Blurb: Griffin Shaw used to be a PI, but that was back when gumshoes hoofed the streets . . . and he was still alive. Fifty years later, he's an angel, but that doesn't make him a saint. One small mistake has altered fate, and now he's been dumped back onto the mortal mudflat to collect another soul—Katherine "Kit" Craig, a journalist whose latest investigation is about to get her clipped.

Bucking heavenly orders, Grif refuses to let the sable-haired siren come to harm. Besides, protecting her offers a chance to solve the mystery of his own unsolved murder—and dole out some overdue payback for the death of his beloved wife, Evie.

Joining forces, Kit and Grif's search for answers leads beyond the blinding lights of the Strip into the dark heart of an evil conspiracy. But a ruthless killer determined to destroy them isn't Grif's biggest threat. His growing attraction to Kit could cost them both their lives, along with the answer to the haunting question of his long afterlife . . .

Review:

The Taken is my second attempt to read one of  Vicki Pettersson’s novels. My first try was the First Sign of the Zodiac novel, which I never really got into. I thought I’d give her another try with this new series, especially when it looks like such a fun noir/mystery type deal with a good dose of urban fantasy fun.

Kit is an investigative reporter in Sin City, where she prides herself on finding the truth. After a young girl is found dead in a motel, Kit knows this is her next big story. Just as she becomes involved in the investigation, she meets Griffon, a Centurion (basically, a low-ranking angel). The two, of course, are down to each other, but not just to unravel the truth behind the murder, but in other ways as well.

I had somewhat high hopes for this book. I was expecting something fun with plenty of steamy moments, snappy dialog and fun characters. No serious plot needed. What I found was close to my expectations, but it just didn’t quite get there. First, this book is slow. It was a little painful to get into a first, and I felt like the author had, at best, a jumbled sense of where she was going much of the time.

I spent much of the novel lost and confused between a semi-entertaining plot, a handful of decent one-liners and some very steamy scenes. Nothing here really reached critical mass for me. Perhaps this will be cleaned up before the first version of the book is published, but right now, I would say there are many other series in the urban fantasy/mystery genre that do it better.