Broken

October 1, 2014
Three love interests battle for a teen angel's hand in this sequel to Hidden (2013). After defeating Dark Prince Luca, Prince Nathaneal returns to the heavenly realm of Avena to face trial. Instead of staying in Nathaneal's luxe bachelor pad-holy headquarters after her house burned and parents disappeared-Ebony Hawkins attends high school, hangs out with friends, tries to find her birth mother and works to realize her full angelic potential. But Ebony is easily led astray (by Jordan) and captured (by Luca), proving more pawn than powerful queen despite her intermittent anger issues. While Ebony careens from bewildered to besotted to berserk, punctuating most of her narration with question marks and exclamation points, co-narrators Nathaneal and Jordan are equally shallow and stilted. Nathaneal-her betrothed from before birth-walks into hell, or Skade, for her sake and spouts protestations of undying love in lofty language. Jordan, her mortal Charge, turns from victim to collaborator, veering from street slang to scholarly descriptions of the action. Antagonist Luca is no better-predatory, possessive and ultimately a Satan stand-in lacking sizzle. Curley delivers a shoddily constructed supernatural world with a borrowed angelic hierarchy, flat secondary characters, telegraphed twists and three remarkably unhealthy romantic relationships. A Bella-like protagonist, bland heroes and a Bond villain make for an unremarkable contribution to the growing legion of trite teen paranormal tales. (Paranormal romance. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.