Fall From Grace by Christine Zolendz

Fall From Grace by Christine Zolendz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book on the recommendation of several friends. I needed a guilty pleasure read. Something that would keep me occupied and enthralled but something that I didn't need to think about. This was that book.

Blurb from Goodreads:
I'm finally home after struggling through my brother's illness and death. But, home is definitely a bit different. My best friend (the only person alive now that knows my secret) has a new boyfriend; and he has a friend. Shane Maxton: bad boy, tattooed rock god, eye candy extraordinaire. He is also New York City's most arrogant, self-serving, son of a, well, a definite one-night stand kind of a guy.
But, it doesn't matter to me because I've spent my existence looking for the love of my life, my angel. And, there is nothing that Shane Maxton can do to change that.
A paranormal romance.

I'll start with the cover. How could this cover not draw you in? I just love the way the girl looks on the front. She is beautiful and captivating. I am a sucker for a good cover, that's for sure. In all honesty, it does not really tell you much about the story. But not all covers do, so I can forgo that for now.

The blurb certainly got me intrigued. I love myself a nice paranormal romance. But I have to say I was totally confused by this one until about half way through the book. And even after that, I am still not 100% sure what Grace is or how she plays a role with the angels. I don't always read a blurb for a story, as I'm afraid it might ruin how I perceive the book, but I read this one. Of course the description of the guy pulled me right in and I was interested immediately to see what these characters were all about.

Grace seems to be a 20 something year old girl, tho her age is never revealed during the story. She has no job and really it seems no direction in life. She is fairly shallow, I can't find a depth to her at all. And I don't feel she develops much through the book. She remains fairly stagnant, which just annoyed me to no end. She is certainly a tortured soul who is lost in this world. And I suppose that is part of what the author wanted to show, how she was living in what she termed "hell" for so long she just wanted to be done with life.
Shane is, well, sexy as hell. And hot hot hot. He is cocky and confident, but certainly has a side to him that is bottled up making you want to learn more and more about who he is. He is a rock star who can have any girl he wants. Tattooed and dangerous, he seeks nothing but pleasure from women, until he meets Grace.
The supporting characters also lack depth. Grace's best friend is nice enough and cares enough about her, but she is just as annoying as Grace is. The guys in the "band" well, they are sweet enough, but other than Ethan, we really don't get a look at who they are. And Tucker, well, he just has me stumped. He seemed nice enough at first, but then he just turned into a dirt bag with a huge ego.

As for the storyline, for me it just did not flow. The paranormal element really didn't meld well with the reality of the characters. And I was stumped as to what Grace really is: is she an angel? has she fallen? Was she once human? I just could not put my finger on it. The past storyline did not clear things up for me when it was presented, either. I was annoyed for most of the book trying to figure out where the heck it was all going. I understand the want for some mystery, but it was so much so that I really had no idea what was going on, nor could I guess what was going to happen in any way.

The romance element and sexual tension is really what kept me reading this book. I wanted to see where things would go with Shane and Grace, if anywhere at all. Even with this tension, I got annoyed with how Grace just kept pushing Shane away, despite his ultimate confession to her.

As for the writing style, it was VERY choppy. Things bounced around way too much. I felt like the author used a ton of extraneous symbolism in order to try and keep you reading. Also, there were quite a few editing mistakes which got on my nerves.

In all honesty, I am surprised at how many 5 star ratings this book has gotten. I don't know if my standards are just way too high or if I'm just not getting something from the story that I should be getting. I gave this book 3 stars, and I'm still on the fence with that. I think it has great potential, but needed to be be reworked on so many levels. And yet, I read it in only two days, so that right there leads me to believe there is more behind the story than what I saw! The cliffhanger at the end, however, definitely makes me want to read the sequel to this book, I just hope that the characters are a little more development and the storyline is a little more cohesive.

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