Lilly works in a brothel in 1900 Storyville New Orleans. She dies and is buried. Enforcer Angel Sullivan is sent to 2005 New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, seeking two unknown vampires. How much trouble can an angel get into?
Lilly’s Angel is a vampire novel, an angel novel, and a historical novel, all wrapped up in a nice, tight package with a vampire cat on top!
Summary: In Storyville, New Orleans at the turn of the 20th Century, prostitute Lilly Marchantel entertains her client and dies. Her madam throws a lavish funeral for the girl and buries her in St. Louis 1 Cemetery. Flash forward to 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Enforcer angel Sullivan comes to the cemetery to verify reports of two rogue vampires. How much trouble can an angel get into in New Orleans?
What Makes This Book Different?
The first part of the book is set in the red light district of Storyville, New Orleans in the historically famous Mahogany Hall brothel on Basin Street in 1900. All the characters in this part of the book are real historical people except for Lilly, Marcus, Jesse, and Abe. Names were taken from the US Census for 1900 for Mahogany Hall, Lulu White did own that particular brothel, and all the mourners at the funeral were real people from the Storyville area or Treme.
Flash forward to 2005, the night of Hurricane Katrina, just after the big storm passed and water began to inundate the famed city. Enforcer Angel Sullivan, hunting for two non-recognized vampires in the city, is jumped and left for dead. He wakes up in the crypt that Lilly and her vampire cat, Baron, have lived in for over 100 years. That’s when his life gets very complicated.
Again, all the places in this section are historically correct and were in the condition that Lilly and Sullivan find them in the story. A bar, open for the hurricane and after was featured on national news casts. A haunted Irish Pub, vacant and locked during the storm is a real place. Southern Decadence, the “Gay Mardi Gras” was cancelled but some very enterprising people who remained in the French Quarter during the hurricane had a very small parade through the French Quarter, and Lilly and Sullivan joined them. The mansion Lilly goes to visit is in the Garden District and is based on the Magnolia Mansion Bed and Breakfast on Prytania Street.
Readers will find a new way to look at angels and how they organize their work in the Fangs & Halos series as well. And they will never look at con-trails in the sky the same way again…
Lilly’s Angel combines historical accuracy with an interesting and compelling fiction overview.
Excerpt
Chapter 2 excerpt:
He spun the young light mocha beauty slowly in a circle so he could appreciate every part of her. He smiled. She was exquisite, probably one of the most beautiful women he had ever had the pleasure of bedding. His other visits to Mahogany Hall, when he had watched her, talked to her, had caught his interest, but he had never imagined she would be as beautiful, as playful as she was showing him tonight. He knew he was correct in choosing her. His eyes darkened as he smiled when she turned back toward him.
She started to reach for him and he pulled her arms up again, holding them straight out from her shoulders. “I haven’t said you can touch yet, young lady.”
Marcus reached out and picked up his cravat, stepping behind Lilly and wrapping the silk material around her eyes. He tied it tightly, making sure she could not see around any of the material. Her breathing shallowed, quickening in her excited surprise. He leaned up to her ear and whispered, “You have never been blindfolded before, have you, darling Lilly?” She shook her head slowly.
He leaned to the other ear. “Good. I will be the first to show you how deeply you can feel when you cannot see, when you cannot touch. Tonight, you will belong to me and you will feel what I want you to feel, you will experience what I want you to experience, and you will find that you like giving over your control to me.” He finished the last word and tweeked her right nipple, just hard enough to make her draw in a sharp breath.
******
Chapter 3 excerpt
Marcus nodded. Even as he smiled sadly at the mourning woman, his mind reeled, trying to figure out what went wrong with the turning. Did he get enough blood into her after he drained her? He couldn’t remember. She should have been coming around by now. It didn’t take much over twelve hours most times. He had not meant for Lilly to die the final death. He had meant for her to die and then be reborn into his world, the world of darkness and pleasure at a different time, after he got to know her as the rules placed on the vampires by the angels demanded. He knew she would, eventually, agree to be turned. But his ardor had clouded his mind, he had taken too much blood and killed her. To hear that she had never awakened, that she had passed from this world and beyond his reach sickened and confused him. How could that have gone wrong? Did someone do something to hurt her, to kill her once she started to awaken? Did someone suspect her rising as someone undead? Had he failed to help her enough in his panic at her death?
No doubt the angels would be sending someone to let him know what would be his punishment for breaking the rules. Whether it had been an accident or by intent, it did not matter. The angels took great delight in the process. He looked at the top of his right hand, briefly noting its pristine condition.
******
Chapter 4 Excerpt:
The Headquarters of the Host Assignment Department (HHAD) was a busy place. Monitors flashed pictures of places all over Earth and situation boards held an ever-changing list of names of people, places, and things that were in need of intercession by the various departments of angels that worked out of the HHAD. Across the room, angels with large colored wings conferred with others and names changed and other angels flew in and out of the apertures in the gigantic space.
A group of angels with larger wings than the others were grouped up on a balcony, discussing what was going on. Mikhail, the Archangel who was head of the Warriors and supervisor of the hosts at HHAD led the group. "How is the world response at the moment?" he looked at the others gathered near him. Most were Archangels and all were in charge of departments.
Gabriel ruffled his large gold wings, “The Messengers have been going back and forth between all the various crisis points. We are working with Uriel, as usual; making sure that everything that is happening around the world is reported up and is being covered here." Uriel nodded, letting Gabriel fill in the details of the crisis that his Shadows had been covering, his brown wings folded around him. "We have five major problems across the globe at the moment that has our departments working extra. There is a Typhoon named Talim/Isang hitting China and it looks to be heading to Taiwan next. Guardians are out in force, as are messengers. Barachiel can't be up here answering for the Guardians because she's had her hands full making sure that there are enough Guardians in the field to cover all the things going on along with all of the regular action that happens. She asked me to report for her." Mikhiel nodded.
Gabriel continued. "We have the aftermath of that flood in Romania and Europe where we had 42 die, people are still trying to find their homes and animals," he nodded at Azrael.
Azrael's dark eyes fastened on the red-winged leader, his voice deep, "We have cleared the bodies from that crisis, we have 15 in China being taken at the moment, There is a cloudburst in Mumbai, India and we've sent a contingent to pick up just under 1500 souls from there, most from drowning. We'll have a few from disease as it runs its course. We've got between 1800 and 2000 dead in the United States Gulf Coast area from Hurricane Katrina, we've sent another contingent down to take care of that situation."
******
Chapter 7 Excerpt
"Danny is out of town. He evacuated when the city told everyone to get out before the storm. Everything is locked up tight over there. But he has told me where he hides the emergency key and I can get in. We will have a nice room; hopefully there will be things for us to use to clean up and such. I will have to go out for supplies but it will be a very safe place to be because no one will be expecting anyone to be there." His strides, as he talked, carried them across Basin Street and down toward the French Quarter. The sound of his voice and his Irish accent lulled her into feeling safe, even though being out in the open was frightening.
She was looking around and nothing, except a few of the buildings, looked familiar. There were things with windows and wheels, painted in many colors, parked along the street. They looked vaguely like the horseless carriages that were just coming into New Orleans when she was working for Miss Lulu. The houses looked the same, though, like time had stood still. As they progressed down St. Louis Street, something making a very loud sound came down behind them, lights shining in her eyes as she turned to see what it was. Terrified, she clutched at Sullivan’s neck with both hands, almost dropping Marcus in her fright. Blue and red and white lights flashed, blinding her and the thing, another of the metal carriages screamed as it flew past them and continued on into the darkness of the Quarter.
"Hey, it's ok. It's gone. We're ok. Nothing to be afraid of. That's the good guys." he laughed as he caught the skull and dropped it back in her lap, taking her right hand down and placing it on the top.
"What was that thing? The good guys? It didn't sound good, it was scary." she said, pulling Marcus close to her and shivering. It was far from cold in the post-Katrina mugginess; her shivers were from fear because the temperature did not bother her.
"It was a police car. The policemen drive them now. They are like horseless buggies, but much faster. They talk on machines that send sound through the air from their station to the car. The sound was a siren meant to tell other car drivers to move aside so they can go past. The flashing lights are to get attention as well. That policeman has somewhere important to go and wanted us to move so he could go by and not hurt us." Sullivan recited patiently. It had not occurred to him that Lilly did not know what a car was. What else did she not know about the time she was living in? "Lilly, how long did you live in the cemetery?" he asked, trying to keep it very conversational.
Professional Reviews
Paranormal Romance Guild
5*****Stars
Book: Lilly's Angel
Series: Fangs & Halos - Book 1
Author: Charlayne Elizabeth Denney
Publisher: Self Published
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Vampires
Rating: Mature
It is the 1900's and Lilly Marchantel is an orphan who has worked at the Mahogany Hall Brothel in New Orleans since the age of twelve. At sixteen she was made one of the girls by the madam, Miss Lulu White. Lilly was very sought after especially by a vampire named Marcus Lancaster. For years Marcus would pay to just sit and talk with Lilly while he patiently waited for her to grow up. Now Lilly at almost twenty, Marcus finally pays for her services.
Obsessed with Lilly he makes love to her and while doing so bites her neck. Unfortunately, he looses control and drains her. Frantically giving her his blood in hopes that she will be turned. But when she does not awaken he is forced to leave her body to be found by the staff. Miss Lulu has the task to bury her in a crypt as Marcus leaves New Orleans, heartbroken over the loss of the woman he has wanted for his own. Vampires in this story, are ruled by angels and one of their rules is never to turn a human without getting their consent, which he just did to Lilly.
After Lilly's funeral we pick up in 2005 as Hurricane Katrina is about to rip New Orleans apart. When the Host Assignment Department, the department of angels that were responsible for finding and giving vampires the rules, discover two vampires that were untagged Sullivan an Enforcer Angel is sent to find them and fill them in on the rules. While searching the local cemetery where he senses vampires are, he is bruteally attacked by four humans. They not only beat him severely but manage to sever his wings and steal his angel ring. Katrina has struck and chaos is everywhere. These men were looting the cemetery when they came upon Sullivan.
Unconscious and near death he is pulled inside one of the crypts by Lilly who has been living there since she awakened. With Marcus gone and no one to teach her what it means to be a vampire she has lived alone setting the crypt up as her home. The only company she has is a cat named Baron that she inadvertenly turned and a human skull that she is convinced is Marcus. She speaks to the skull everyday holding on to it for security and asking it for advice when she needs it.
When Sullivan wakes up he is confused as to what happened to him and is horrified to find his ring and wings missing. But nothing compares to what he feels when he finds out that Lilly turned him to save his life. He is now a vampire and has fallen from grace. His immediate reaction is to blame Lilly until he realizes that she did what she thought was best and had no malice in her actions.
For the first time in a hundred years Sullivan takes her out of the crypt trying to find shelter in a city torn apart by Mother Nature. Sullivan has changed, he feels lust, curses and eventually kills.
This story contains explicit sex, rape and some very strong scenes of violence. The author does a great job of bringing what happened to New Orleans during Katrina to life so you feel you are living through it again. There are many things that go on in this book but they are not something I wish to discuss for fear of giving away much more of the story. I totally enjoyed watching Lilly learn about the twenty-first century.
Now I have to admit that for the first time ‘ever’ since I have been reviewing (and I am talking a lot of books) that I am giving five stars to a book that left many questions unanswered. I debated whether to give less stars but since I really loved this book enough that I had to judge the book and not the ending. I am one of those people that hates it when a books ending is incomplete, it is a pet peeve of mine, so obviously this is a case the story speaks for itself regardless of the ending.
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Gothic Moms Reviews
Lilly's Angel by Charlyne Elizabeth Denney
Book 1 of Fangs and Halos
Published August 20, 2013 by Heavenly Fangs
4.5 Bloody Fangs
"The most original vampire/angel novel I have read in a long time. And since I have read over four-hundred, that's saying a lot!"
Summary -
Lilly Marchantel entertains her client—a vampire—for a night of paid passion and dies. Or does she? Her madam, the famous Lulu White of Mahogany Hall, throws a lavish funeral for the girl and buries her in St. Louis 1 Cemetery.
During the chaos in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Enforcer angel Sullivan is sent to the cemetery to verify reports of two rogue vampires. How much trouble can an angel get into in New Orleans? What could happen if Sullivan loses his powers?
“Lilly’s Angel” tells the story of Lilly’s discovery of a whole new world with her friends Baron the Cat and the skull she talks to as the pissed off and horny Sullivan struggles against the changes he is experiencing. (Goodreads)
Review -
Bloody Fangtastic!!! Denney has proven me so wrong in regards to first books' in a series'. Usually the first in a good series' is very slow moving, kind of just dragging along in getting to know who the characters are. Not here. Not only is the reader able to get to know all of the character's, but they will not be bored doing it. Denney also isn't shy in the way she writes, not afraid to describe, in detail, what some would take as controversial scenes.
Lilly Marchantel is a woman of color, as she was called in her original time, who works for one of the biggest brothels in New Orleans. Her fellow "sisters" and Madam made sure she was also an educated woman as well, both in the streets and in the books. Though Lilly has entertained many clients, there is only one has come to see her night after night, not for sex, but to sit and speak with her. The vampire, Marcus. When during one fateful night they finally embrace their passion, only things get a little out of hand.
Sullivan is an enforcer angel, and has the ego of one...hundred. When assigned to take on a mission in New Orleans he is faced down by a group of thugs. Since he's an angel, surely he should be able to take them all on without blinking an eye. Right? Well, he gets more than he bargained for, and when left for dead, a beautiful vampire tries to save him. Though she may have just damned him instead.
In this series' angels are part of a sort of military group charged with keeping the paranaturals in line. Mostly taking place in New Orleans during the devastating storm of Katrina. Denney has done her research and it shows in a brilliant way. What I love most about this novel is that there is no one falling in love just because. The characters truly get to know one another. And Lilly doesn't just forgive and forget just because someone swears their undying love to her. She may be getting used to the new times, but is definitely not new to the world, and some things never change.
Readers be warned, there is a rape scene. This part may be hard for anyone having gone through rape to read. Me, personally, I loved it. No, I don't love someone getting raped (been there, done that), it made the story more real. It showed that this writer isn't afraid to let it all hang out. And in her debut novel at that!! That being said, if it is too much for you, just skip that part, you'll know the warning signs that it's about to happen when your read it. But do not skip this book! Full of deceit, lust, humor (reader's will LOVE the vampire cat!), brutal violence and blood. A true must read!
The only thing stopping me from giving it a full 5 fangs is that there are some grammatical errors. Nothing too big, and nothing that takes away from the story. And seems to be something I'm seeing more and more of lately even from very well known publishers.
Vampire lovers, be sure to leap into Lilly's Angel. You will be very pleased that you did.
Posted by Tiffany Moorman at 6:49 AM
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Reviews for "Lilly's Angel"
Reviewed by Kirsten Skinner
9/16/2013
I loved this book the moment I started to read it I could not put it down. Her writing is so real it is almost like you can just walk into the book and stay there. I Loved it so much. 5 Stars
