Servant: The Awakening

Title: Servant: The Awakening
Author: L.L. Foster
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Back cover:

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 enderness 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.

Take one serving of fantastic author Lori Foster and add three heaping cups full of paranormal action. Blend together and bake until done. Seems like a foolproof recipe, right? Then someone please tell me how this all went so terribly wrong!!!

I love Lori Foster. Her Contemporary Romances are fun, fresh and full of likable characters. You want to get to know them. You want to be like them. You want to have all kinds of hot monkey sex with them. Somehow, in changing her pen name and stepping into a new (to her) genre) she lost her wonderful characterization. OK, I will admit that Detective Luther Cross has potential. He has many of the qualities I enjoy in Ms. Foster’s writing: strength, determination, loyalty, emotion, passion. All these traits were shown to us on a surface level. There was a decided lack of depth to Cross, and other characters in the story. The one quality of his that I absolutely did not understand was the fact that he was so drawn to the "heroine." I did not like our protagonist. I understand she has The Gift and that it is a great burden. God calls her, using sever pain as a motivator, to hunt down and destroy the evil on Earth. The problem is that Gaby is so antagonistic and mean I can not empathize with her. Quite honestly, her behavior and thoughts border on scary psycho killer territory. I just could not buy into the characters or their relationship.

One other problem that I had with the book was this continuous feeling that Foster was trying to change her writing. Perhaps she wants to give her para rom books a slightly different voice. That is fine. Completely understandable. At times, though, I got the impression that she made overabundant used of her thesaurus. Seriously. Some of the word choices in this novel perplexed me. She would never choose to use these words in her other novels.

One bright note, here. I did enjoy her action scenes. She found her rhythm in those passages. There were moments of interaction between characters that I enjoyed, as well. There just was not enough depth and development of those characters. Nothing made me like them. Nothing made me feel invested enough that I will go out and find the sequel to this novel.

Ms. Foster, I beg of you, please go back to our big, hunky pro-fighter heros. Give me another Simon or Gregor. I just can’t take another 292 pages of Gaby. And for the sake of you readers, could you ask Berkley Press to label these book correctly? A Paranormal Romance this is not. You tried. Oh yes, you tried to give Gaby and Luther some chemistry. It just seemed to get buried beneath the shouting, punching, and running away.

Boy, I wish I had picked a different book for my first review. I usually love the books I read. I promise! Next time... oh next time, we shall see words of praise. Words of PRAISE, I say! (Eloisa James better not make a liar out of me!)

Grade: C-