A Touch of Crimson: A Renegade Angels Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Sylvia Day (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 4, 2011 | Series: Renegade Angels Novel (Book 1)

FIRST IN A NEW SERIES! CAN TRUE LOVE SURVIVE A WAR BETWEEN ANGELS, VAMPIRES, AND LYCANS?

Adrian Mitchell is a powerful angel leading an elite Special Ops unit of Seraphim. His task is to punish the Fallen--angels who have become vampires--and command a restless pack of indentured lycans. But Adrian has suffered his own punishment for becoming involved with mortals--losing the woman he loves again and again. Now, after nearly two hundred years, he has found her--Shadoe--her soul once more inhabiting a new body, with no memory of him. And this time, he won't let her go...

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A Touch of Crimson is a paranormal romance lover's feast! ...an inventive, intriguing story world that hooked me from the first page. Sylvia Day's storytelling dazzles."
--Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author

"A Touch of Crimson will rock readers with a stunning new world, a hot-blooded hero, and a strong, kick-ass heroine. This is Sylvia Day at the top of her game!"
--Larissa Ione, New York Times bestselling author

"Sylvia Day spins a gorgeous adventure in A Touch Of Crimson that combines gritty, exciting storytelling with soaring lyricism. This is definitely a book for your keeper shelf."
--Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author

"A Touch of Crimson explodes with passion and heat. A hot, sexy angel to die for and a gutsy heroine make for one exciting read!"
--Cheyenne McCray, New York Times bestselling author

"Only Day can take a reincarnation plot and make it a gripping, touching and scintillating page-turner. She skillfully blends a timeless tale of love lost and found. A Touch of Crimson is a perfect romance with excellent worldbuilding rich with angels, lycans and vampires."
--RT Book Reviews Magazine

From the Back Cover

Can a love that transcends death survive a war between angels, vampires, and lycans?

An angel with immense power and insatiable desire, Adrian Mitchell leads an elite Special Ops unit of the seraphim. His task is to punish the Fallen--angels who have become vampires--and command a restless pack of indentured lycans.

But Adrian has suffered his own punishment for becoming involved with mortals--losing the woman he loves again and again. Now, after nearly two hundred years, he has found her: Shadoe, her soul once more inhabiting a new body that doesn't remember him. This time he won't let her go.

With no memory of her past as Shadoe, Lindsay Gibson knows only that she can't help being fiercely attracted to the smoldering, seductive male who crosses her path. Swept into a dangerous world of tumultuous passion and preternatural conflict, Lindsay is soon caught between her angel lover, her vampire father, and a full-blown lycan revolt. There's more at stake than her love and her life--she could lose her very soul...

Praise for A Touch of Crimson:

"Angels and demons, vampires and lycans, all set against an inventive, intriguing story world that hooked me from the first page. Balancing action and romance, humor and hot sensuality, Sylvia Day's storytelling dazzles. I can't wait to read more about this league of sexy, dangerous guardian angels and the fascinating world they inhabit. A Touch of Crimson is a paranormal romance lover's feast!"
-- Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author

"Sylvia Day spins a gorgeous adventure in A Touch Of Crimson that combines gritty, exciting storytelling with soaring lyricism. Adrian is my favorite kind of hero--an alpha male angel determined to win the heart of his heroine, Lindsay, while protecting her from his lethal enemy. Lindsay is a gutsy, likable woman with paranormal abilities of her own, as well as a dedication to protecting humanity against a race of demonic monsters. This is definitely a book for your keeper shelf."
-- Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Signet; Original edition (October 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451234995
• ISBN-13: 978-0451234995
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sylvia Day is the #1 New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of more than a dozen award-winning novels sold in thirty-nine countries. A reader favorite across several genres, there are millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Author and her work has been honored as Amazon's Best of the Year in Romance. She has won the RT Book Reviews Reviewers' Choice Award and been nominated for Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA award twice.

Sylvia also writes under the pseudonyms:
S. J. Day - www.amazon.com/author/sjday
Livia Dare - www.amazon.com/author/liviadare

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#15 Overall (See top 100 authors)

#6 in Books > Romance > Historical

#6 in Books > Romance > Contemporary

#7 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Contemporary

#7 in Books > Romance

#13 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Historical Romance

#6 in Books > Romance > Historical

#6 in Books > Romance > Contemporary

#7 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Contemporary

#7 in Books > Romance

#13 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Historical Romance

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing New Series!! October 4, 2011

By Christina Snow TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Mass Market Paperback

My Review:
What an amazing first book in the series!! This is a complicated world with a complicated set of rules governing it, but the book was NOT confusing. That being said though, I do feel like I need to re-read it to catch all the nuances of this world. There are three basic groups to these books:
1. The Sentinels: a special ops group of angels in charge of taking care of the vampires and protecting mortals.
2. The Lycan: Shifters who are basically indentured servants of the Sentinels. They can sniff out vampires and act as bodyguards for the Sentinels.
3. The Fallen: Vampires who were angels, but procreated with humans and thus lost their wings and gained a need for blood.
None of these groups truly trust the either, and all are on the verge of war. It's a fragile stability that falls apart in this book.

This book is about Adrian. He is an angel. In fact, he is the angel in charge of the Sentinels. He fell in love with Shadoe, a Nephilum and daughter to the leader of the Fallen, many centuries ago and is now cursed with meeting with her lifetime after lifetime where she dies over and over leaving him alone in his immortality. The book starts with him meeting Lindsey in an airport. She is carrying Shadoe's soul, although she has no idea. She does have an idea of immortals though because she saw her birth mother murdered by vampires when she was only 5 years old. Since then, she has hunted vampires searching for vengeance.

Adrian is an Alpha with a capital A, and for the first time, Shadoe is in a form (under Lindsey) where she is not willing to bow down to his every want and need. She has a brain of her own and skills of her own and she is NOT going to sit on the sideline. Lindsey is tough and not willing to just sit back and accept things as they are...in life or with Adrian. She is proactive and she can kick butt with any one of these tough angels. Her personal bodyguard is Elijah. He's a Lycan and being watched because he shows signs of being an Alpha for the Lycan. The issue is that the Sentinels are in charge of the Lycan and they cannot allow a Lycan to usurp that role. I LOVED Elijah's character. He and Lindsey form a special friendship that was really truly sweet. His book is the next one in this trilogy and I cannot wait!!!

There is a lot going on, and I know that it sounds confusing, but it was such a freaking good book!!! Just trust me when I say that if you enjoy paranormal, you will enjoy this one. I really waffled between an A and an A- rating. The reason it ended up with an A- is because the book left it with so many questions still hanging, but it wasn't done in a bad way...no cliffhangers. There is definitely something/someone interfering with the peace between these three groups, and there is no clarity on that in this book. I foresee Lindsey having a hand in figuring it out since she is integral and tied to all three groups, but I could be totally wrong about that. I just know that I am excited to see where it goes from here!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Plot October 15, 2011

By C. Thilmany VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Adrian Mitchell is a Seraphim Angel, leader of a group of Sentinels created to punish The Watchers, sent by the Creator to watch over mankind, who break the rules and have relationships with mortals. The punished Watchers have their wings torn off and lose their souls, becoming vampires, also known as Fallen Angels. Adrian fell in love with Shadoe, the daughter of Syre, the first Fallen Angel he had to tear the wings from. When Shadoe was mortally wounded Adrian took her back to her father not understanding that while he could save her, it was by making her a vampire. Adrian killed the woman he loved. But the Seraphim are under the same rules as the Watchers, so even though they find each other through each of her reincarnations, he risks his own soul by being with her.

Lindsey Gibson's young life was changed forever when she witnessed a vampire kill her mother when she was only five. She's always been able to feel evil and trained herself to kill any non-humans she comes across. Meeting Adrian in an airport as she's flying out to start a new job on the West Coast, she's immediately attracted. This reincarnation is different from earlier ones as Lindsey not only has non-human abilities, but her love for Adrian is purer and even though it's painful, she's willing to walk away to save him.

There are three general groups in this story. The Fallen or vampires, led by Syre. They have the ability to create more vampires, called minions. Lycans--shifters but not the same as a werewolf--carry the blood of the Seraphims but were created to serve them in the role of indentured servant in the Seraphim's efforts to police The Watchers and Vampires. And the Sentinels, Seraphim Angels who are vastly outnumbered by those they police and count on the Lycans to aid them. Someone is setting up the vampires and Sentinnels to fight each other by planting evidence when attacking each of their groups.

Adrian and Lindsey definitely give us plenty of lust and sexual tension, and the words are correct to show how much they love the other, but I couldn't connect with Lindsey, so I never felt their love.

What I really appreciated is the overall world with the various groups all coming from basically the same source with different twists, and the challenges they face. Not only do we have three groups where one is supposed to be the "bad guy," the story is told from various angles. No overall group is the "bad guy" and I could feel for each of their situations.

Overall a decent book with an interesting plot and characters I'd like to learn more about.

This is the first book in the Renegade Angels series, although a prequel ebook titled A Dark Kiss of Rapture, is available for free.

Reviewed via ARC for LibraryThing

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A bit confused and disappointed April 4, 2012

By Tonia London

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I'm an avid paranormal reader, so I was excited to try out this new series. But there were so many inconsistencies (many noted by other reviewers here) that I can't decide if I enjoyed the book or not.

The first one is about how Adrian is punishing angels, who then become The Fallen. As I read on, I learned about how the Angels are outnumbered by all the other beings -- yet the Angels are their own worst enemy as they keep creating them through the punishment! Talk about a slippery slope!

Nothing any of the immortal societies did made a lot of sense. There were huge holes in the fabric of this world. Souls -- who has them, who doesn't and why -- was all over the map. I found myself returning to the definitions of each being to see if I missed something.

Shadoe's father and his motivations combined with the dance he and Adrian danced through the centuries over Shadoe's soul made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

The basic premise of the romance angle is supposed to be Adrian's undying love for Shadoe -- through centuries no less. Yet we find out toward the end of the book that Shadoe was a selfish seducer, always motivated by her own interests. Huh? How can we as readers empathize with Adrian when we are aware 1) that he has has been the biggest hypocrite in existence for centuries as he punishes others for the very thing he's been doing -- loving a mortal and 2)now we know that in his case, it was a selfish mortal?! Doesn't say much for his judgement at all.

Then we are supposed to believe that in a few days Adrian's centuries-old love for Shadoe is replaced by his love for Lindsay. Really? So now what are the romance readers supposed to be rooting for? We started with Shadoe and Adrian -- who's souls have recognized each other across the ages. Now we need to readjust and root for Lindsay and Adrian who have known each other a handful of days??

Then we have Adrian's extremely out-dated view of his fellow immortal beings. Even after centuries together he has gained no empathy or understanding of their natures. No desire to develop changes in a dying society. He's just blindly dedicated to his duty as a soldier; meanwhile he ignores that duty when it is in regard to his own love interests.

And the other beings go along with their sad lives, planning uprisings quietly in their own groupings. Yet no faction considers forming a delegation to discuss what is going on. It was ridiculous to consider intelligent immortal beings sharing the planet for centuries while still harboring such incredible misunderstandings ... and making no effort to get to the bottom of the issues.

And just how blind are the mortals in this world? There was no attention paid to how the immortal societies make any efforts to hide their existence from the mortals. No one at all sees the Angels soaring around Angel's Point? No one notices huge Lycan wolves in the forests?

I was left at the end of the book feeling very confused -- and frustrated by what could have been a good book if it had 1)provided a bit more consistency and depth around the important basic concepts of the immortal world(s). And 2) given us a hero and heroine who's love affair we could relate to and understand.