Deep in Crimson by Sarah Gilman Review

Deep in Crimson by Sarah Gilman
(Return to Sanctuary, #2)
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Entangled Select; 400 pages

Kidnapped by humans and raised in a research facility, Jett was taught to believe his own race of demons insidious and violent. But a friendship with the archangel Raphael shatters Jett’s reality. Caught between two worlds, his first months of freedom find him lingering on the fringes of his home colony, Sanctuary. When the human who stole Jett captures another demon youth from Sanctuary, Jett learns of the real plan—to steal Raphael’s archangel grandchildren. Jett wants to bring his captor to justice, but he must overcome the lies from his past and join forces with the demon Guardians, and the demon child’s older sister, Lexine.

Irresistible attraction grows between Jett and Lexine, but Lexine’s prophetic dreams of being mated to a poacher make her wary. And if Jett goes through the all-consuming process of becoming a Guardian, he may forfeit any chance they have of being together.

You ever start reading a second book in a series and can't remember what happened in the first book so those first few chapters are kind of confusing? Yeah, that was me with this book. In my defense, it has been almost two years since I read the first book and I've read hundreds of books since then so it was expected. However, once the details from the first book came to me, I was on board and excited. I guess I was a little bummed it wasn't from Wren and Ginger's point of views but that quickly went away. There was plenty of Wren and Ginger and even plenty of Raphael. But this book was told from the Demon's point of view and it was spectacular to read it.

The demons jobs are to protect the archangels, which is something so different from any angel book I've ever read. Right there should make you interested because it's so different. There are now two newborn archangels in Sanctuary and they need more protecting than anyone else. Poachers are out to get these two adorable newborns (Phoenix and Talon).

I forgot who Jett was until they reminded me and then I got really excited that this book would be partially from his perspective. He's a demon who was taken from Sanctuary as a child and raised by poachers. Though raised isn't the right word. He was abused, used for testing and then forced to be a guard of a captured archangel Raphael. But he was also the reason Raphael was able to get out of there. He finds out in this book that a lot of what he was told to believe about his kind were nowhere near true.

Lexine is introduced to us due to a tragedy where her older brother was murdered and her younger, five year old brother, was kidnapped. This book starts out with heartbreak and you feel so much for a character you hardly even know. I really like her, though. Not only is she going through the pain of losing her brother, whom she was rather close with but also the knowledge that she'll take on a human mate; a poacher. It shames her to keep having these dreams and she hasn't told a soul . . . until Jett. He's determined to have her change her future, starting with him. For him being away from his kind for his entire life he's pretty bold when it comes to Lexine, it's quite sexy, actually.

I can't get over how much I love Jett and how just awesome he was in this book. Finding out about his history was as exciting for him as it was the reader. There was actually a scene (that I won't say because it's a spoiler) that had me cheering, out loud. I'm so glad I wasn't out in a public place because it would've been rather embarrassing. But when a book can get that kind of reaction out of the reader you know the author did something right.

Reading this book has been kind of refreshing; I've steered away from a lot of Angel books over the past year because the year before I overdid myself and they just became tiresome. Sometimes you need to just take a break from a genre and read something completely different which is what I did. While I really enjoyed Out in Blue, I think I liked this book even more. Maybe because it had more Jett while also giving me my share of Wren, Ginger and Raphael or maybe, also, because it's such a refreshing read from this genre. It's categorized as adult but I don't think it's too bad, if say like some older teens wanted to try out this series.

Thank you so much to Entangled for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I must also comment that I'm definitely a fan of the cover changes; they're definitely more appealing not to mention sexy!