Surrender The Dark by L.A. Banks (thoughts)

Celeste Jackson isn't your typical heroine. She's caught up in a bad relationship, dealing with substance abuse, and her life is basically a mess. But all of that changes when she meets Azrael, a self-proclaimed angel, who believes in Celeste and wants what is best for her. Before Celeste knows it, her life is turned upside down as she realizes that she is in a fight for her life and for the fate of the world against evil. And that maybe Azrael is exactly who and what he claims to be.

I enjoyed reading this book for a number of reasons with the main reason being that it felt like a breath of fresh air for the urban fantasy genre. I liked that the heroine didn't have her life together...in fact, it was completely messed up in the beginning of the novel. Celeste has lived her life believing that she was crazy, seeing things that shouldn't be there, and fighting off the urge to lose herself to alcohol and drugs. It was a nice change of pace to see that she had realistic problems and was unsure of herself. It was interesting to see her realize that the things she had been seeing like demons were real and that there was more to life than what she knew. I liked that the storyline included angels and demons which was also refreshing and different. There was a lot of world building going on throughout the book which was to be expected as this is the first book in the series. It did draw me away from the story a few times as I was overwhelmed with details but overall ended up helping to make me want to continue on with this series. The ending of the book was fast paced and interesting while also leaving me wanting more. I'm excited to see where the author goes with the next book and how the series continues on. Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of urban fantasy.

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review for a blog tour by the publisher for Gallery & Pocket Books SciFi/Fantasy Blog tour. Unfortunately, I'm really late...my apologies!