Angel's Pain

by Maggie Shayne

Book Overview

Book twelve in Maggie Shayne's bestselling Wings in the Night seriesVengeance will be hers...Briar is driven by only one thing: her need for vengeance on Gregor, the rogue vampire who turned her, then betrayed and brutalized her. To make that happen, she joins Reaper, himself a renegade vampire, and his gang of misfits, who are also on Gregor's trail.A loner by nature, she tells herself she's only with them until she can destroy Gregor, and then she'll...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778324982
• ISBN13: 9780778324980
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Mira Books
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

love it

I HAVE ALL HER BOOK'S THIS IS ONE OF 3 I HAVE THE OTHER 2 THANK'S I DID'NT SEE THIS IN THE STORE'S AND FOUND IT ON HERE AGAIN THANK'S

Angel's Pain

Briar has had just a couple of things on her mind and the most important one is vengeance. She is a hard nosed and determined vampire with no heart left after the life she has lead - at least that's her thought on the subject. Briar has been doing everything possible to meet back up with her mentor Gregor and it isn't for hugs and kisses. She wants vengeance for everything he put her through while she was with him. Briar is getting closer to her goal with the group she joined up with, but then how come some of her actions seem to indicate soft feelings for them? Reaper is a renegade from the government with his own reasons for wanting to find Gregor. Reaper would also love to get out from under the hold that the agency has on him. After getting out, he has come to collect his own ragtag group of vampires and humans who are willing to help him put an end to Gregor. He cares for all of them but his prickly Briar might just have a hold on his heart if he can ever get her to admit she has one too. Matters are getting more and more complicated as Briar and Reaper learn more about Gregor and his past. Even the government agency seems to be more involved than it should be. With lives and hearts, both vampire and human, at stake can Briar and Reaper find the answers and defeat Gregor before everything is lost? Is Briar's vengeance really the answer? Vampires are not supposed to have warm and fuzzy feelings - right? In Angel's Pain Briar discovers answers that turn her assumptions upside down. For me this was a "aha" book that answers or solves some of the questions that came up during the series. Briar has joined Reaper's group and quickly became someone they looked to for answers. Great just what she wanted. Reaper knows that under the toughness that Briar shows, she is hiding hurt and a tender heart that just needs to feel love. I found it fun to watch the others in Reaper's group just going along with Briar's attitude all the while knowing that she was not the big toughie. I ached for Briar as I discovered all she had been put though both as a human and as a vampire. Reaper showed persistence and love while helping Briar come to terms with her life and her desires. I totally fell for both of them and was cheering out loud by the end of the book. I also seemed to have fallen for the rest of Reaper's group and was very happy on their outcomes too. I immensely enjoyed Angel's Pain and know that it will be in my library for a long time with many re-reads. While you can read this book as a stand alone, I believe you will go back and discover the rest of the series to get the entire picture. Jo Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

superb paranormal romantic suspense

Briar the Vampiress vows to never forget the cruelty of her former instructor in the ways of their species. She initially accepted his brutality as drinking blood is not an herbivore lifestyle. However when Gregor betrayed her she pledged to get even; when he tortured her she became preoccupied with the need of vengeance flowing through her blood starting with her odious stepfather Martin and then Gregor. However, she is realistic that she cannot defeat Gregor and his minion by herself. Brian reluctantly joins Reaper and his warriors (vampires, Chosen and humans) based on the theory that Gregor's enemies are her friends. Once Gregor and Rose are dead, Brian plans to leave though she is attracted to her charismatic leader who shares a blood bond to child vampiress Crisa. When Gregor captures Crisa, Briar knows she must save her little "sister". Reaper risks all to help her succeed. The latest Maggie Shayne vampiric thriller (see LOVER'S BITE and DEMON'S KISS) is a superb paranormal romantic suspense tale. Briar appears more thorn than Rose, but Reaper sees past her pain and her bravado to the inner person he desires even if she keeps singing the refrain from "I'm not in love". The story line is fast-paced from the onset and never slows down as Briar needs to be the one to kill Gregor until Crisa is taken; her priorities change. Sub-genre fans will enjoy Ms. Shayne's fine vampire tale especially those who soar with the author's "Wings in the Night" saga as several players take a bite or two in ANGEL'S PAIN. Harriet Klausner

Why did it have to end... why??

I fell in love with Reaper and his gang of misfits, it was heart breaking when it came to an end. Don't expect to find Angel anywhere in this story, my best guess is that Angel was Briar; her pain is what lead Reaper to her. It was great seeing her breaking through her shell of evil to a caring vengeful vamp. My only complain is that I want more.

Finale for Reaper and the Gang but Briar and Reaper are lost amid the Wrap-up

Angel's Pain finishes up the Wing in the Night series pretty much as the series started out, as an ensemble piece. Though Reaper and Briar do get their romance, they only get a modest amount of time in the spotlight since they have to share the limelight with past pairs Topaz and Jack (Lover's Bite) and Seth and Vixen (Demon's Kiss), as well as mortals Roxy and Ilyana, the mentally challenge vamp Crista, 10 yr old Matthias, a CIA agent from Reapers's past, and the villian Gregor. This means that the romance in Angel's Pain is more of a sidebar than a main focus. Overall I enjoyed Angel's Pain, I like all the characters and loved getting to see them all again. It was fun watching Roxy and Ilyana show their vamp buddies that mortals still have a few tricks up their sleeves. But I couldn't help being a bit disappointed in Reaper and Briar's part in the story. I still love Reaper but his dangerous edge was dulled when he lost his loner status, and here he is eminently careful in his persuit of Briar who he sees as a damaged dangerous but kindred soul. Briar herself though was the biggest letdown. In the first book, Briar was an evil woman who revelled in causing pain, because she was so dead inside that she couldn't feel anything on her own. In in this book though she went to just being more prickly, defensive and closed off because of the awful abuse of her past. It makes her redemption much easier to pull off, but it feels like an entirely different Briar. While I am nit picking, the evil Gregor doesn't live up to his ultimate evil rep of the past books either, he was only moderately evil here, so his just desserts didn't engender the round of applause that one would have expected. Still if you've been following the series, you are going to want to read this one. As a wrap up to the series, Angel's Pain does it job. All the loose ends from the previous books are tied up, and questions about Reaper's past are answered. For those of you that read Shayne's Twilight series there is a quick cameo of another of the vampires from that series. Good news for Wings in the Night fans, it felt like we were meeting a future character in Matthias and Shayne has another vampire novel Bloodlines coming out in May of 2009. There no hints on Shayne's website as to who the star of Bloodlines will be but if I had to bet, I'd lay my money on Roxy. She's a great character who deserves a story of her own.