Patti Roberts

The first thing that I truly liked about it is the style of the writing; it instilled in me the acute sense of being present to something quite wonderful. I, for one, always love the art of the word above the more action-oriented way of writing, but I also know that there are those who value the easier to read style. For me, the writing here scores a lot of points. It’s adequate to tales of angels, demons, gods, and mighty, legendary creatures. I was especially pleased by Patti Robert‘s show more descriptive talents, they’re a godsend to my personal tastes; however, I will say, the ‘voices’ of the human characters could benefit from a simpler approach.
Another thing that I loved, and this is always a make or break deal for me, was the “villain”-ish category of characters. If your book doesn’t have one guy that I wanna be kidnapped by, then it’s not going to really work out between us. Well, Patti Roberts has offered at least one character so far that I seriously wanna petition to have me kidnapped and taken back to his lair. I’m not going to go spoiler-y on you guys, but I’m telling you, there’s one epic hot guy in here. I am sort of sad that he isn’t featured in the story so far as much as I’d like him to, but I am hopeful that he’ll make more of an appearance in the future.

I appreciated the way the book introduces you to Grace, really introduces you to her and her growing pains and difficult or better moments; you get a real, vibrant sense of who Grace really is and I suspect the entire series will benefit greatly from it. Of course, I’ll have to wait and read it all in time to be sure about it. One excruciatingly well done part was the one dealing with Grace’s loss; it felt so intensely real, that you literally have no choice but to go through it with her.

There were a few moments where I felt disoriented, or slightly confused, along the way; the story has a tempo of its own, a sort of very personal beat that you have to get into. There are also a few loose ends in the story so far, not to mention The Angels Are Here ends with a major (evil) cliffhanger, but I suspect a lot will become clearer with the fallowing installments.

I must say I love the cover too, it looks very, very promising. Until next volumes are available, The Angels Are Here and me have good chemistry, this is the beginning of a potentially beautiful relationship. show less

First off for those of you who are already Patti Roberts fans of her Paradox series, you will know she is a spectacularly imaginative and beautiful author. Where some folks books read like solid dependable working boots, hers read like the gentle and delicate lace adorning your grandmothers couches. They are full of spirit and grace. Each of these types of styles are fine, and I enjoy both. What sets Patti’s into this category is her grace and energy. She truly is a joy to read, and to show more know. I was thrilled to see her releasing something that I adore, short stories, and to make it better, they were to be part of a whole series.

Sixty-One pages of a splendid short story Now if I read a page per minute that is a hair over an hour of reading, without commercial breaks. Took me a bit longer to finish, but keep up and you will see where I am going with this comparison. The series is slotted to be released one short story at a time, like a TV series, one episode at a time. With each short shining the spotlight into things going on. The first in this is Witchwood Estates – Going Home.

When the scene fades in, our leading girl Alexandri is getting ready to go home to her families estate. She is about to turn 18 and her inheritance needs to be claimed before the home and everything within the estate is lost. Alexandria lost her parents at an early age and was raised by a curious and loving couple, Olly and Martha Barnaby. They taught her about her family heritage, as in she comes from a family of witches and she herself is one too.

All it took was a bit of belief and a drop of her blood and her mothers spell book showed it’s secrets. Opening the book opened her to a whole new world. She didn’t have much time for the kids growing up, in fact they teased her so badly she created an invisibility spell so she could grow up and go to school in peace.

This is my first taste of the TV episodic-like flavor promised to us. So, consider this the pilot episode, and I believe this pilot in the world of whimsy for young-adults and young at heart, as it has been sold. The conventions of the story arc are not complicated. You have good witches, evil witches, wandering spirits.. what will happen next? Well we are going to have to wait till next week month to see!

4.5 stars show less

Episode 2 (smiling) Alexandria and Andrew couldn't be more different while being in the same place in life. So lost and needing to find him. Both thinking this bus will bring them there. Was Alexandria going to get a bug surprise!

Young at heart fun again. Good and evil are brought to light more prevalently. Now we have white wolves stalking or being nosey at least.. And a movie star quality rich daddy's girl/witch of questionable intent!! To the gum smacking bird hating deadbeat loser show more caretaker Raymond and his mousey wanna-be like Lewis Carroll deadly chocolate cake baking wife Vera! Ohhhh there is one more...well sort of two but I'll wait till later to introduce her.

What seems like a quaint little tourism township, and having spent five years raising kids in one of them in Mass myself, is only for the visiting eyes, a nice car, some spiffy paint it seems, a few fancy belly rings and chocolate cake seem to mask many underlying crazy and insane personalities.

Miss Roberts folded up Grandma's lace and slipped on a pair of hip waders to write about some of the bad guys! Raymond? Sheesh! That man is 31 flavors of wrong! His wife Vera? Her cookies done crumbled! But Carmon? She is who I waited to mention. Ohhhh i think she will be the villainesses I am going to love to hate!! Plus I'm pretty sure her snakes name is the one I suggested!! Who doesn't like the name Tiamat!?!

I loved it! Everyone go grab them both Episode 3 can't get her fast enough!!

Now on a very serious technical note. The glossary is amazing and thorough. As a former teaching High Priestess who has run her own book, charm, herb and oil shop as well as been a Coven leader your inclusion of such extensive info is very impressive. show less

I'm not sure why but I seem to have a strong love for books with both either the Fae or Angels. I think for the fae it's because there is such an infinite amount of things an author can do with it. For angels however, I think it has more to do with when I was a young girl in Catholic school I was always fascinated with the idea of angels, I even thought I saw one once. So now as an adult seeing authors using these figures I have enjoyed by entire life in so many creative way, I really do show more enjoy it.

Now about the story itself, it's interesting to see how there are two different world being shown in the book. First there is the world of the angels and how that world works. Which is interesting and complex to say the least. Then we are brought into Grace's world, who is really just a girl who has the soul of an angel living inside here. Grace is living in a world that kind of just makes me a bit on the sad side, she really don't seem to have a lot of life in her life, just a lot of hardship. For me though because Grace has a lot of heavy things going on in her life, it made it easier for me to connect with her, and easy for me to pull for her, to want good things to happen with her.

Another thing I found interesting about the book was that throughout the book I found myself trying to figure out who the other cast of characters really were, were they also angels in disguise? Where they bad people? It almost always seemed to have an air of mystery around everyone throughout the entire story.

The writing itself is very well done, although there were a few editing errors that I did find slightly annoying. But the fact that the storyline was more original than I was expecting and the people in the story were almost always having things or doing things happening to them that I didn't see coming. I really enjoy a book where I don't know what is going to happen next, it always propels me more to want to turn the page and makes my mind really think about things. If there is one good thing about this book it is that I enjoy that it makes me think about things, I thought about things in the middle of the book, but even when the book was over I was still thinking about things.

Overall I am going to say this is a good book. I think the reason this book isn't a great book is because it does kind of have a feel like it should have been a longer book, that this book is a little bit unfinished. I think if the book had been longer I could have gotten to know all the various characters better as well as the two different worlds that the author created better. That being said I could definitely recommend this book to urban fantasy readers who enjoy angels, or even those who don't, or looking for something new to read. show less