Slightly better than book 1

I didn't particularly like book 1 in the series so I'm not sure why I bothered with this one- I guess because I liked the character of Cole from the tiny glimpses of him in the first book and because I normally enjoy Emma Scott's books so it was enough to give the series a second chance. On the plus side, the plot was a tiny bit better and there was much better chemistry between the characters. The major drawback- TERRIBLE narration of Cole by Liam DiCosimo. It was just about bearable because his neutral reading voice was fine but his dialogue was horrendous. He used a really whiny voice for Cole and his British accents were some of the worst I've ever heard in an audio book.

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A love story through the veil

Cole is a struggling artist living in poverty waiting for his first break. Ambri a soul lost centuries ago to hell in return for eternal life. When he is suapected of betrayal his redemption will come through destroying a human. He sets his eyes on Cole, but things don't go to plan and both are in danger of being destroyed by forces much stronger than them both. This is the second in this series and is a great listen. You may be interested in the first in the duo, The Sinner also a great listen.

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The perils of dual narration

When you get one great narrator - in this case Zachary Johnson - and another who is not in the same league, it ruins the listen.

I wanted to like The Muse more than I did. The premise – a struggling artist meets a broodingly beautiful demon who becomes his artistic muse and the love of his life; the demon wreathed in darkness meets a truly good and generous man who loves him exactly as he is - is a really good one and I had high hopes for the story - but sadly, they were not met. The author does some things really well; Cole’s doubts and fears and his descent into depression feel very real, and I felt for Ambri, who has gone through some truly traumatic experiences and who, despite being well aware of his physical beauty, has learned through bitter experience that he’s not the sort of person others fall in love with or want to keep around. But the biggest problem with the book is that it’s not sure what it wants to be. It tries to be dark and angsty, but isn’t; it has a lot of dark themes, and should feel weightier than it does, but it doesn’t. Cole is likeable but bland, although I did like the way he refused to let Ambri turn away from the love and affection he wanted to give him, and while Ambri is the more interesting character of the two, he’s not so much demonic as he is bitter and sharp-tongued. I assume that over the three hundred or so years of his existence he must have done some really bad stuff, but we never see any of it, so I never really believed he’d ever be able to go through with his plan to ruin Cole. (It reminded me of all those ‘rogues’, ‘scoundrels’, ‘rakes’ and ‘devils’ in historicals who are never seen behaving badly on the page!)

The chemistry between Cole and Ambri is decent, but the romance is pretty insta-love-y. There are a couple of moments that tug at the heartstrings in the later part of the book, but for a novel billed as an “emotional” romance, I didn’t feel there was much of an emotional connection between the characters, and I never felt connected to them either. I enjoyed the final chapters the most – Ambri has always known he doesn’t have infinite time to comply with Ashmodai’s demands, but as he realises he’s running out of time to save Cole the pacing picks up and things start to get really interesting – only for the climax to be rushed and more of a damp squib than fireworks. And the reveal of the guardian angel is overkill.

Zachary Johnson (who deserves ALL the stars!) delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance and could - should - have narrated this solo. As it is, his co-narrator is just not up to the same high standard. Liam DiCosimo is great as Cole - but as Ambri, he sounds like a stuffy, fifty-something professor rather than a gorgeous sex-god who can drive people mad with desire. His English accent is awful, and his attempts at a French one aren't any better.

Doubt I'll be returning to this one.

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