The Given

Starred review from March 24, 2014
Pettersson’s absorbing third Celestial Blues paranormal (after The Taken and The Lost) drags its protagonists through 50 years’ worth of emotional entanglements. Fallen angel Grif Shaw was a 1950s PI, and old habits die harder than he did. Unable to resist the lure of an unsolved mystery, he broke his own heart—and that of Kit Craig, his intrepid modern-day rockabilly reporter lover—to search for Evie, the wife Grif mistakenly thought had died with him. Pettersson cleverly integrates this complicated tale of love and loss with plenty of action and investigation: as Kit digs into a vicious and all-too-believable nursing home scam, Grif learns the reasons for his own murder. Pettersson’s skill at capturing emotion in lyrical passages sets her head and shoulders above her peers. Her finest creation is Grif Shaw himself, the man many women want and few women find, with a soul like a knuckle-scarred fist offering a single perfect red rose.

April 15, 2014
Earthbound angel Griffin and his mortal girlfriend Kit, introduced in "The Taken", were separated at the end of "The Lost", but neither is happy without the other. Kit wanted to give Griffin a chance to look for his wife once they learned that she hadn't died the night that Grif did, back in 1960. There are forces both mortal and angelic determined to stop Grif, and only Kit can help him find the truth and solve his own murder once and for all. VERDICT The premise of an ex-PI angel and an earthly reporter teaming up to solve crimes is certainly different, and this combo of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and mystery is going to be in demand for those who read the first two volumes of this trilogy and want to see how it all ends for Kit and Grif. For another noir take on angels, try Ian Tregillis's "Something More Than Night".

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