Book Review: Deliver Me from Temptation by Tes Hilaire

Title: Deliver Me from Temptation
Series: Paladin Warriors, #2
Author: Tes Hilaire
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: NetGalley
Published: December 1, 2012 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Logan Calhoun is the last full-blooded Paladin, the future leader of a race of immortal warrior angels. The heavy responsibility of continuing the Paladin line falls to him, and the last thing he should do is get involved with a human. Then fate throws Jessica Waters, a homicide detective who doesn't believe in fate or divine intervention, into his path. Her devotion lies in her Glock and a good set of handcuffs. Like Logan, she's a warrior for her people, and she awakens within him something he'd never thought he'd feel. But she's also as human as they come...

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: Big disappointment in the lukewarm romance and nearly dislikable heroine. Thankfully the world building saves the novel and will keep me reading the series.

The Set Up: Logan is one of the Paladin - immortal warrior angels who battle demons to keep oblivious humans safe. Jessica is a cop whose tough life doesn’t allow her to believe in fate or God. So when Logan gets involved in Jessica’s murder investigation, she can’t believe who he says he is. But the dark forces want to destroy Logan and will use Jessica to do that.

Why I Read this Book: I loved book one in this series, Deliver Me from Darkness, and have been impatiently awaiting the next installment.

What I Liked: The world building continues to be excellent here. I love the Paladin warriors and their secret fight to keep humans safe. I also like that their society is starting to fracture under long held grudges and secrets so this is a time of internal change as well.

I also adore the secondary characters I fell in love with in book one. The mysterious Valin continues to capture my attention as he has shadowy skills and knows who is mate is—an enemy of the Paladin. I do hope his story will be next. But I also like Alexander, the burly lawyer Paladin, and Bennett, the techy warrior. These are great characters that fight together and for each other, no questions asked. I’m a total sucker for brotherhoods in my paranormal romance so this aspect of the novel and series appeals to me.

What I Didn’t Like: I thought this romance was lukewarm and the heroine, Jess, nearly dislikable. In my opinion, Jess is self-absorbed, cold, reckless and doesn’t deserve the warm and loving Logan. She has a new boyfriend she “forgets” to break up with when she starts hooking up with Logan. Jess is short-sighted and doesn’t show she cares about Logan until the bitter end and it was too little too late for me.

The romance suffers as well because Logan and Tess don’t spend a lot of time together. In the first novel there was just as much danger and fighting but the couple do it all together and have down time to get to know each other. This novel takes place in a matter of days and Logan and Jess barely have any conversations that aren’t about the danger. Even their one sexual encounter is choppy and cut short and worse, included no emotional intimacy. I was deeply disappointed in this romance.

Finally, I don’t read inspirational romance because I’m uncomfortable with the faith-based message that an ominous God helps good people find their mates but must suffer first. I would have remembered if the first novel had this heavy-handed message so I was totally unprepared for it in this novel.

IMO: This romance was a big letdown after my long wait. Still I like this world enough to give the next book a try so long as I can get it from the library.

J9’s Rating: