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    Highborn
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    Highborn
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    Highborn
    Ebook371 pages5 hours

    Highborn

    By Yvonne Navarro

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. BRYNNA MALAK MIGHT BE THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE.

    Brynna is a fallen angel trying to earn redemption. She’s escaped from Hell in search of a new life on Earth, but Lucifer’s deadliest hunters are hot on her trail. Police Detective Eran Redmond is after her for a different reason: he needs Brynna to help him find a serial killer who is terrifying Chicago . . . and the trail leads them right to Hellspawned demons of the most dangerous kind. She’s also got a very human problem: dealing with a stubborn, attractive cop who makes her long for everything she knows she can’t have.

    Staying alive long enough to earn a shot at Heaven will mean breaking some major rules in the mortal world, as she learns just how complicated and wonderful being human can be. With so much stacked against her, even Brynna has to wonder if she’s crazy. But she’s not giving in without a fight.

    Not a chance in Hell. . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPocket Books
    Release dateOct 26, 2010
    ISBN9781439191743
    Unavailable
    Highborn
    Author

    Yvonne Navarro

    Yvonne Navarro is the Bram Stoker Award winning author of over twenty novels. She has written tie-ins to hit TV shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and movie tie-in novels for Aliens, Hellboy, Species, Elektra and Ultraviolet. She lives in Arizona and is married to author Weston Ochse.

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    Reviews for Highborn

    3.5/5

    30 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was a slightly different take on a fallen angel needing redemption. The book starts just before the fallen angel, demon, left hell. We are shown a tiny bit about what it was like in a prologue then the book jumps right in at Chapter One within a few minutes of her arriving on Earth. The action begins there, too, as she is running for her life. We never quite find out how she got to the mortal plain but Navarro does a great job of presenting this nonhuman's first few days in Western Society. 

      Brynna is basically a sociopath at first. She knows (or remembers) nothing of love or friendship or selflessness. She does what makes sense for her at that moment. Even her quest, to gain redemption so she can reenter the kingdom Heaven, is based on selfish reasons. She isn't evil anymore in that she doesn't try to hurt anyone but it doesn't occur to her to protect, either. She has no emotion when someone is murdered in front of her, just considers the situation. She does try to catch the perpetrator but when she is blocked by a locked door she stops and moves on with her own business. 

      It's a process as she figures out how to function in this society and what is appropriate behavior and finally how to feel. This  is a really important part of her redemption, learning to be human, learning to understand that her side of the war in Heaven was wrong for thinking God shouldn't hold these human closer to His heart than the angels.

      The religion wasn't over the top at all, quite appropriate given the subject matter, but I did find myself thinking again about how the JudeoChristian faiths are so obsessed by the idea that we are so important and number one in the eyes of our ideas of our creator(s). Kind of egotistical, actually. But I digress.

      I never quite feel that Brynna really is seeking to be redeemed. I never really see that she is sorry for what she did in Hell (she was not an innocent by any means and does remember it) or thatshe does good because it's the right thing to do. I do believe she has appropriate feelings eventually but I never really felt any deep emotion until the very very end. There is supposedly this connection between her and the love interest but I never felt it either. They were just words telling me what I should see but don't. 

      I do like the characters well enough and I think Navarro is good at making each a unique recognizable individual. The characters are multicultural and gender equal for the most part (but still no glbti folks). The world the author built works for me and is rife with possibilites. 

      Navarro has written a lot of Buffy comics and it shows. There is plenty of action and suspense and drama here and the pacing is great. The women are strong and complex and the men allow them to be. Brynna is special and really kick ass and she doesn't do dumb things, probably because she has little emotion. The men are strong, too, although the detective is appropriately but stupidly macho and does understandably do dumb things because he just doesn't get that he is useless against demons.

      But there are a number of holes and major problems. Like they find a hit list and they never deal with it past the plot of the book. Hopefully it will be handled in the next book. At another point, the detectives find the scene of the crime for a missing person's case, and there is at least one major clue, but they say that it's nothing and one even asks, "What are we doing here?" Brynna also hides evidence that would solve the case from Eran and when he finds out he's mad for about two seconds then gets over it.

      There are small things like in the beginning she sleeps behind a dumpster and is wearing the clothes she found and put on after climbing out of a marsh, two days ago, but no one notices that she stinks or suspects she doesn't have any other clothing, at least not at that point. Also, Eran gets a cell phone for her when he doesn't know her and has just met her and he signs up for a 2 year contract, not a prepay? She also won't eat "flesh" but fish is okay. UGH. Fish is flesh!

      Okay, this is probably a dumb complaint but the hispanic names are all excellent, uncommon but believable, but Eran instead of Aaron? and she comes up with Brynna on the spot, a modern name with no meaning she mentions, but an appropriate last name? And a priest is Father Paul Murphy.' Really. No stereotyping there. Apparently no originality either.

      So I'm torn.  On the one hand I enjoyed the book and couldn't put it down but on the  other, I just didn't care enough about the characters and I didn't quite get why they cared about each other so much. I think I would probably enjoy the next book but I am now drawn to it. That's unusual when I finish a book in a series. Usually, even if I didn't like it that much, I do really want to know what happens next. Here, whatever. 

      BUT there is a wonderful, believable kick ass dog so that brings the star rating from 2.5 to 3. Yes, I am easily pleased by dogs in books.

      So I don't necessarily recommend it but I don't not recommend it either. Read someone else's review because this is probably no good to you at all.
    • 3/5
      Synopsis: Brynna Malak is on the run. Not from any human dangers, but from Lucifer himself. Brynna is a fallen angel, which technically makes her a demon. After escaping Hell, Brynna is hiding out in Chicago, trying to avoid The Hunters that Lucifer has dispatched to return her to Hell. Brynna’s goal of keeping a low profile doesn’t last for long. She is a witness to a brutal killing and the police are swarming around her. As it turns out, the killing Brynna witnessed was the work of a serial killer. The police have no leads and see Brynna as the hottest tip they have had so far. Brynna is willing to help the police catch the killer, but not because it’s the right thing to do. Brynna is trying to earn God’s forgiveness and a place back in Heaven.Review: I picked this book up on a whim in the library. The cover art was cool and the description seemed interested. That sort of sounds like I am preparing to say I didn’t like the book, which isn’t the case. I did like the book. I found Navarro’s writing to be incredible detailed and imaginative. Fallen angels are becoming quite the hot topic for novels right now, but I thought Navarro’s take on them was very creative and original.I enjoyed the characters. It was hard to warm up to Brynna because she is eons old and straight from living in the bowels of Hell. This doesn’t make her your average protagonist. The more I read of her, the more I liked her. She was also a total badass, which I enjoyed.The downside to this novel was that it felt like something was missing. This is the first book in a series, so a lot of groundwork had to be laid. I am not certain if that is the reason the book seemed to lack oomph or not. I just had a general sense of something being missing. While the story was compelling, I wasn’t on the edge of my seat.I will definitely check out the second book in the series, Concrete Savior, which is due out in June of 2011.
    • 4/5
      Review courtesy of All Things Urban FantasyI generally love Craig White’s cover art (Carrie Vaughn, Adrian Phoenix, Jaye Wells have all had Craig covers) but I’m not a fan of the cover for HIGHBORN (or the description, for that matter). It completely fails to capture the character and tone of this book. It’s not about a polished, slick woman ready to dole out a supernatural butt kicking to whoever gets on her bad side (isn’t that what the cover implies?). Brynna couldn’t be further from how she is depicted here.First of all, she’s a demon. She’s spent eons in Hell apathetic to the incessant screams of the myriads of souls damned for eternity. Hers is a bleak and callous existence until she begins to question her own damnation and the chance of redemption. She escapes to earth in order to save her demon soul. Brynna is an amazing character. A far cry from the sleek and savvy cover model. She’s been so conditioned by her hellish life that her initial experiences on earth are first bliss at the physical sensations such mundane things as cool, wet water and the smooth sour smells of the dumpster she spends her first night under. Contrast that with her curious detachment as she is talking to her first human when his brains are literally blown out all over her. She simply walks away, oblivious to the horrified stares of everyone she passes:"Brynna straightened, then realized someone was screaming. It was an older man in a white coat behind the counter at the end of the aisle, and the only reason she even noticed was because it was so odd to her senses that there was just one man screaming instead of thousands." –HIGHBORNBrynna does have to fight against her natural inclinations for violence and corruption, but she also surprises herself by her newfound desires for compassion and mercy. It’s this dual nature that captures the attention of Chicago cop Eran Redmond. As much as I was completely caught up in Brynna’s story as she sought to redeem her soul and elude Lucifer’s Hunters, the romance that developed between her and Eran never quite took off for me the way I had hoped. It remained too safe and staid. There was no real fire between them. I also could have done without all the supporting characters that Brynna had to help. Those storylines were where the book dragged.Overall, HIGHBORN was a pleasant surprise. The character of Brynna was a refreshing change from the typical UF heroine with her alien-like curiosity and controlled strength. Her story to Hell and back is one I can’t wait to read more of. CONCRETE SAVIOR, book two in the Dark Redemption series is slated for release in June 2011 and I plan on being first in line.