15) Black Lament by Christina Henry

The Blurb :

As an Agent of Death, Madeline Black deals with loss every day. But when tragedy touches her own life, Maddy will have to find the strength within to carry on…

Devastated and grieving, Maddy unexpectedly finds hope with the discovery that she is pregnant. But Maddy’s joy is short lived when Lucifer informs her that he wants the baby, hoping to draw on the combined power of two of his bloodlines. Maddy is determined that her grandfather will never have her child, but she’s not sure what she can do to stop him.

Being pregnant is stressful enough, but Maddy suddenly finds herself at odds with the Agency—forbidden from meddling in the affairs of the supernatural courts. When a few of her soul collections go awry, Maddy begins to suspect that the Agency wants to terminate her employment. They should know by now that she isn’t the sort to give up without a fight…


My Thoughts :

I have been following this series since it started and due to my own cutbacks in buying books I added this fourth installment in the Black Wings series to my wishlist instead of buying it when it released. Happy to get a copy for Christmas I was eager to get started on it and managed to curl up with it this weekend. I wish I had pre-ordered it and read it when it released.

Black Wings #4 is an amazing read. I know I enjoyed the first three books and my decision to not buy this one on release has been a stupid one. My only consolation is that now I only have to wait a couple of weeks until book five comes out. It is already on pre-order!

What was so good? Action and the concept. Yes I may have praised the concept before but this time it seemed somehow even better. Maybe the books I have been reading lately just haven't been unique enough and made this one stand out more but I have to say I loved the whole mix of angels, demons, werewolves, fae and so on. Added to the variety of Paranormals was also a super set of characters with some lovely banter. The situations the group come across aren't exactly laughable but the wit and humour thrown in now and again really does take the edge off things. I hate things to be too serious all the time.

Something that I thought that also made this book special was the fact that Maddy's husband wasn't somehow magically brought back to life (hopefully it will stay that way). Yes it sucks that she lost someone close to her but I have read too many series where an important character is killed off only to be 'alive' again in the next book.

Another special twist to this series is Maddy's pregnancy. Not a lot of series go down the 'having a baby' route and I have to admire the author for actually going this way with her character. It is a refreshing change and hopefully one that will add some interesting aspects to the fifth book when it releases later on this month.

A series worth reading and a good example of how Paranormal Urban Fantasy should be written. I highly recommend this series and look forward to reading the next installment!