Pros: Delightful story of good, evil, and redemption
Cons: Beginning felt a bit simplistic
Rating: 4 out of 5
The Redeeming
Review copy courtesy of a Twitter contest held by the author.
Available from Samhain Publishing.
Visit Shiloh Walker online.
Jonah is dead, but his guardian angel gives him a choice: go to eternal torment, or take responsibility for his choices and accept one last chance at redemption. Lilan is a daughter of Lilith, a demon born to drain men’s souls and steal children away. But she’s a demon with a soul, who feels torment over what she’s supposed to do, and that gives her one single chance at a human life. She has two months to prove she can live the life she says she wants—and that time is running out when she meets Jonah. Each of them is on a mission to save a young man’s soul, but will their attraction to each other prove a fatal distraction—or the key to saving him?
The beginning of Shiloh Walker’s The Redeeming, in which we’re introduced to the characters, their good-vs.-evil dilemmas, and their one last chance at redemption, felt like a fairly typical and straightforward story structure. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just that I’ve fallen so in love with some of Shiloh’s longer works, like Chains and The Missing, that this suffers by comparison. (This is the down side of having a reviewer become a fan—we get so familiar with an author’s work that we notice when something isn’t an author’s best!)
Over-familiarity with Shiloh’s incredible skill aside, however, I really enjoyed The Redeeming. As tales of redemption go, it’s a beautiful one. And as the story continues, despite the novella length, Shiloh manages to pack in some fascinating details of Lilith and her daughters, the use of magic in this universe, the machinations of angels, the reasons why a man might take a path of evil despite good intentions, a very unlikely romance (with some wonderful sex), and the love of family.
Heck, when I reached the end my husband had to ask if I was all right, because I was sniffling—always a great sign that a story has managed to get to me. So if you’re looking for an enjoyable ebook read, The Redeeming is well worth it!
[NOTE: Dark material, such as reference to torture and rape, is touched on in this story—although handled quite gracefully.]
I’ve got a long plane ride scheduled in about a week and I was surfing around for something like this.
Sounds like it will keep me occupied during the flight.
Always like a good tale of redemption, especially when there’s some good sex involved!
Thank you for the very well written review
I wanted to check out a sample of this but the link to Samhain Publishing isn’t working and I can’t find it on Shiloh’s website. Is there another place I can find it?