Uriel's Fall by Loralie Hall

Title: Uriel's Fall
Author: Loralie Hall
Genre:Urban Fantasy
Series: Ubiquity #1

Trade paperback, 301 pages
Publication: July 25, 2014

Source: I received a review copy from the author in exchange for a honest review.

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What's a corporate demon to do when the voice in her head is devouring her sanity from the inside out, and the hosts of heaven and hell would rather see her destroyed than surrender a power they shouldn't possess?

Ronnie has the job any entry-level angel or demon would sell their soul for—she's a retrieval analyst for the largest search engine in the world. Ubiquity is a joint initiative between heaven and hell. Because what better way to track all of humanity's secrets, both good and bad, than direct access to their web browsing habits.

She might appreciate the position a little more if a) she could remember anything about her life before she started working at Ubiquity, b) the damn voice in her head would just shut up already, and c) her boss wasn't a complete dickhead.

As she searches for the solutions to the first two issues, and hopes the third will work itself out in performance reviews, she uncovers more petty backstabbing than an episode of Real Housewives, and a conspiracy as old as Lucifer's descent from heaven. On top of all that, if she forgets the cover sheet on her TPS report one more time, she's absolutely going on final written warning.

Now Ronnie’s struggling to keep her sanity and job, and stop the voice in her head from stealing her life. She almost misses the boredom of data analysis at Ubiquity. Almost.

Come to think of it, I read a lot of Urban Fantasies but books about angels are usually a miss for me. I don’t know why, they just are and I tend to pass them over in favor of other books. However, when Hall approached me to review Uriel’s Fall, my curiosity was definitely piqued. Angels and Demons working together in the corporate world, never heard of that before! I  am so happy I decided to read this book, the world and characters (the main 3 angels) are intriguing and the idea unique; which made it an enjoyable read.

Uriel a.k.a. Ronnie has been suffering from memory loss. The last thing she remembered was waking up in her boss, Lucifer’s office three months ago and starting work at Ubiquity, a search engine company run by angels and demons to find cherubs (angel/demon energy) that escaped to earth looking to take a host body and live a mortal life. Ronnie is doing everything she can to get her memory back, but things get a little complicated when she starts hearing a voice inside her head, a voice demanding Ronnie to give back her body.

I was sucked in from the first page. Hall’s take on angels and demon is unlike anything I’ve ever read and I loved her fresh take on Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer; angels/fallen angels most people are familiar with. For most of the book Ronnie is trying to figure out why she lost her memory and who/why is there a voice inside her head. The whole internal dialogue Ronnie had with the voice reminded me a lot of The Host by Stephanie Meyers. The voice was amusing at first, but I thought that it was eventually go away. However, the voice was the main plot of the story and was the driving force for the characters and their actions. As much as I liked the big reveal of the voice and how she is connected to everyone around Ronnie, I wish there was more to the story. More action. Ronnie basically goes from one guy to the next asking for help and answers and every single person gives her the round-about or they outright lie to her.

Character wise, I didn’t really connect with Ronnie, even though she was the narrator. I didn't hate her, but I didn’t really like her either. For a demon, she was too nice and very naive; whether it is from having the hots for both of the angels or blinded to the fact/truth right in front of her. I know she lost her memory and all, but she just came off really whinny. It wasn’t till a little over half way through the book that Ronnie started taking things more seriously and actively trying/forcing people to tell her the truth…because everyone around Ronnie knew exactly who the voice was and how it got there…except for her.

Overall, this was a good book and I enjoyed it regardless of my issue with Ronnie. My favorite aspects of the book were the world and the history of the angels. I also like that this book didn’t follow the whole good versus evil route, which was a nice change for once. Uriel’s Fall is a good start to a new series, and I am looking forward to seeing where the author takes it.