Alicia’s review of Servant: The Awakening by L.L. Foster
Paranormal thriller/urban fantasy published 2 Oct 07 by Berkley

I am such a sucker for a good book. I think I got sent this one by mistake. I am very sure this book does not fit in the sub-genre list I said I wanted to read. Guys, this book is scary! And magnet-me could not put it down. Oh, and the stepback is perfect!  (Read an alternative view of this book over in BevL’s post.)

Blurb:

Urban paranormal fantasy featuring Gabrielle Cody: Servant. Slayer. Seducer.

Gabrielle Cody has the ability to see the demons among us as they really are-and the responsibility to destroy them. She can’t allow anyone to get in her way, even the magnetic Detective Luther Cross. Sensing a malevolent presence watching and stalking her, Gaby is drawn again and again to an abandoned hospital surrounded by an aura of sickness and suffering-and unimaginable evil.

Read several excerpts.

That blurb is awful. It doesn’t draw the right people into buying this book at all. I like this better, it is from the “about Gaby” link on her site.

Angel of No Mercy

To most people, demons look like regular citizens. But Gabrielle Cody has the ability to see these creatures as they really are-and the responsibility to destroy them. Hers is a special purpose, a divine obligation, and a heavy burden.

Detective Luther Cross finds himself attracted to Gaby even as he becomes suspicious of her proximity to a murder victim. Despite his mistrust, he tries to offer her a tenderness she’s never experienced and doesn’t dare accept.

For Gaby senses that another malevolent presence is watching her, stalking her. As desperately as she tries, Gaby cannot find the source of this menace. But again and again, she is drawn to an abandoned hospital surrounded by an aura of sickness and suffering and something more-an unimaginable evil.

Gaby (I’m assuming this is pronounced like “Gabby” since her full name is Gabrielle) is a paladin and she gets missions from God. She gets a sudden inescapable drivenness, which comes with pain and the ability to see the spiritual side of the people around her, and she has to go kill people who are demon posessed.

I wasn’t crazy about the missions from God thing but her feeling of linkage with the Almighty makes for some really cute dialogue. It kind of adds to her psycho feel that “God” is telling her to go around brutally murdering people. It did cross my mind more than once that she may just be crazy.

The book is the first in a series with a recurring H/H, so don’t expect a resolved HEA, either. But I disagree with the people at Amazon who say there’s not much romance. I loved the budding romance between Gaby and Detective Cross. Talk about edgy! Nothing ho-hum about these two.

The characters are deep and interesting. Gaby is a very tortured heroine who can’t afford even shallow friendships. Luther is a very good good-guy who is going crazy because he’s worried about her. Secondary character, Morty, is appealing in a pitiful kind of way.

But please be aware, this book is not going to be for everyone.  Let me give an example of what I’m talking about:

Like great globs of brain tissue exposed to the elements, the excess flesh swung around the face. Pale eyes watery with age or tears displayed a bone-deep hatred. Parted on a fierce cry, wrinkled lips exposed toothless gums.

In a straight, well-aimed strike, Gaby slashed with her knife, using the momentum of the attack to aid her. The finely honed edge penetrated the chest wall with ease. Gaby stuck her knife long and deep through loose, buttery flesh, until it deflected off a brittle rib.

The demon staggered, bent-and Gaby severed the windpipe, turning the shriek of pain and surprise into a repugnant gurgle.

She could have stopped there.

She should have stopped; it would have been less messy.

But when in the zone, Gaby lacked control. And when it came to the abuse of children, she considered mere death a feeble cop-out. For as long as the creature gasped for air, for as long as it could feel the slashing of her wrath. Gaby would administer her own fitting punishment.

Teeth bared in the grisly semblance of a smile, she hacked again, sinking deep into a blackened heart that accepted her blade like a stick through a marshmallow, soft and squishy.

Determined to give as much as she could, Gaby twisted the blade and wrenched it back out, doing as much damage on her exit as she’d done on the thrust.

Uncaring of the writhing, incoherent pleas and the chubby, dwarfed hands that batted at her in futile defense, Gaby gouged into wet, twisted guts, into those awful, bulbous growths on the head.

The body stilled, all movement ceasing, and still she used both hands, her breath coming in grunts as she sawed through organs and muscle.

If you like horror with gore in your romance and don’t mind if the heroine is creepily like a psychopathic murderer, then this book is a must read. The ick level is a bit high for me. I almost threw up at least three different times. So, I’d say this is Grade A quality but I have to count something off on a book that makes me want to puke when I’m not expecting it.  I am grading it based on it being sent out with “paranormal romance” on the spine.

Grade: B-

And for a walk on the OTHER side of the tracks, read BevL(QB)’s review here.