A Touch of Crimson by Sylvia Day

Publisher: Signet, The Penguin Group
Pages: 368

(Release Date:  October 4, 2011)

From the Cover:

FIRST IN A NEW SERIES! CAN TRUE LOVE SURVIVE A WAR BETWEEN ANGELS, VAMPIRES, AND LYCANS?

An angel with immense power and insatiable desire, Adrian Mitchell leads an elite Special Ops unit of the seraphim. His task is to punish the Fallen–angels who have become vampires–and command a restless pack of indentured lycans.

But Adrian has suffered his own punishment for becoming involved with mortals–losing the woman he loves again and again. Now, after nearly two hundred years, he has found her: Shadoe, her soul once more inhabiting a new body that doesn’t remember him. This time he won’t let her go.

With no memory of her past as Shadoe, Lindsay Gibson knows only that she can’t help being fiercely attracted to the smoldering, seductive male who crosses her path. Swept into a dangerous world of tumultuous passion and preternatural conflict, Lindsay is soon caught between her angel lover, her vampire father, and a full-blown lycan revolt. There’s more at stake than her love and her life–she could lose her very soul…

Adrian Mitchell wants nothing more than to exist, to complete his mission... until Shadeo newest incarnation is revealed. She is his life, the only reason he would fall from grace. It has been so very long since he recognized her soul. But when events lead him to forgo his usual transportation, he's forced to fly commercially, and he finds what he's been seeking, what he's been denied.

Lindsay Grant is instantly attracted to the angel in disguise, Adrian Mitchell. But, she's not used to the attention of one so attracted in return. It frightens her that he gets so quickly under her skin. She's never been the commitment type, and what she thinks will be a brief affair, suddenly blooms into much more, more than she can even realize.

Lindsay Grant holds within her what Adrian Mitchell has been waiting for, and he will have her, at all costs. The question is: who will be desire more? Lindsay or Shadeo?

A Touch of Crimson by Sylvia Day is the first book in a new series, Renegade Angels. It tells the story of what happens when angels come to covet what they were sent to guard. And those unable or unwilling to forgo their desires, become the Fallen. The Watchers with their lycan guards, police the Fallen and guard the mortals. Wings removed, the Fallen have little choice but to gain sustenance by taking the blood of those they love, sent to protect, cursed as vampires. The leader of the Fallen, Syre tried to forbid his daughter, Shadeo, from loving one of the Watchers, Adrian. But, in his unsuccessful bid to turn her, she dies. The curse of Adrian loving her is that her soul is reborn again and again, always seeking him. Lindsay Grant has always been different from the others around her. She's quicker than is supposed to be possible, sees what shouldn't be seen, senses what others cannot. She doesn't fit in until she finds Adrian. Then, her life starts to make sense. With lycan Elijah protecting her under Adrian's watchful eye, no harm will befall her. Unless or until Shadeo's father tries to claim her.

A Touch of Crimson is an excellent start to a wonderful series that I can't wait to read more of. I was left hanging, hoping to turn more pages as the story mysteriously vanished before my eyes. I couldn't believe I had come to the end. The romance between Adrian and Lindsay is scorching hot, the bad boy angel indulging in the forbidden desire, and the woman who wants to deny him, save him from himself and the curse of the Fallen, if only she could help herself, if only she didn't desire him more than anything else she's ever had before. If you're in the mood for a steaming hot romance of undeniable love, pick this book up, you won't be disappointed. If you love Alpha males and strong heroines, this is the book for you. Paranormal Romance lovers and Urban Fantasy lovers need to add this one to their lists, it is a must read, can't put down. For myself, I devoured this book in a single sitting, and I'll be eagerly waiting for the next in the series, A Hunger So Wild (Elijah's story) coming summer 2012, and book 3, yet to be named or announced. I need more angels and lycans in my life! This reader gives 5 out of 5 fairy kisses to A Touch of Crimson, wonderfully told, climatically exciting!

Because I can't resist, here is an excerpt from Sylvia Day's website:

Lindsay woke in a shadowed room. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, her head turning to figure out where she was.

Her cheek touched the cool cotton of the pillowcase and she saw Adrian. He sat to the left of her in a round low-backed chair covered in silver damask. He was bare except for a pair of loose-fitting white pajama bottoms and whatever he might be wearing underneath them. He watched her with a searing intensity, his mouth straightened into a dangerous line. Although he didn’t move a muscle aside from blinking, she felt a tornado churning inside him.

“Hi,” she croaked past a dry throat. She must have pushed her body too far; she always felt like hammered shit when she exerted herself beyond her limits.

He reached for the clear glass pitcher of water on the bedside table and poured a large ration into a waiting tumbler. Then he stood and helped her sit up, propping her back with some pillows before handing her the drink.

She accepted with a grateful smile. There was a thick cushion of white gauze bandages on her left forearm. Beneath them, pain throbbed dully. She downed the entire contents of her glass and passed it back.

He picked up the phone beside her and punched a button, ordering room service. They were in a hotel, she realized. The windows to the right of the bed she lay in were at least two stories tall and had Tiffany Blue drapes drawn across them. There was a large sitting area beside her and a massive entertainment center at the foot of the bed. Considering the size and opulence of the room and the grand piano she saw through the open living room doorway, they were in…

“Las Vegas?” she queried.

Setting the phone down, he nodded. He poured her a refill and returned the tumbler to her.

She blew out her breath. “How long have I been out?”

“We were in Hurricane the day before yesterday.”

Yikes. “Is everyone okay?”

His gaze bored into her. “You were the only one seriously hurt.”

“That’s good.”

“The hell it is,” he growled, his voice rumbling through the room like thunder, rattling every loose object. “I told you to stay put.”

Here we go. “That was my plan, too. Until the vampire on the porch aimed a shotgun at you. Then I couldn’t stand still.”

“Why the fuck not?”

God, he was sexy when riled. She’d never seen him show anything besides total self-possession, but he was visibly seething now. “Because you needed someone at your back. Everyone else had their hands full. I couldn’t take the risk that you’d be spread too thin and leave an opening.”

“I could survive it.”

“You don’t know that! You told me yourself that you’ve had casualties. You’re not indestructible. I wasn’t going to stand around and watch you die.”

If there was any mercy in the world, she’d never have to watch another person she cared about die.

“So you decided to make me watch you die?” Again…

The unspoken word slid insidiously and inexplicably through Lindsay’s mind. She winced and pressed her palm against a suddenly throbbing temple. Adrian took the glass from her other hand—the hand that should have been too weak to hold it—and bent to press his lips to her forehead. The pain left her like a receding tide.

“If only you could bottle that talent,” she murmured.

Remembering the ninja/Matrix vault she’d done over the vampire, she freaked herself out with her own coolness. How the hell had she known how to do that?

“You’re going to drive me insane.” Although his voice was once again smooth as silk, the turbulence inside him hadn’t abated. He straightened.

“Can you open the curtains?”

Adrian hit a button on the nightstand and the drapes parted, revealing an overcast sky and drizzle. In Las Vegas. Not that it never rained in the desert city, but at this time of year…?

She looked at him, knowing his mood was once again affecting the weather, which affected her in turn. “You were really worried.”

His hands went to his lean hips, exposing the entirety of his perfect torso and delicious biceps. His wings materialized, extending with a sinuous grace. He was so damn beautiful. So fierce and proud. He was like catnip to her. She wanted to roll around with him in a blissful stupor, breathing in that scent of his that drove her wild.

“When you fell to the ground—” He exhaled harshly, his lashes lowering to hide the sudden flaring of his brilliant eyes. His arms crossed his chest and his feathers ruffled, giving so much away with his restless movements. “Yes, I was worried.”

*Sigh* worthy of more than 5 fairy kisses....

I received my copy for review from NetGalley and Signet. All opinion expressed are my own.