Angel’s Ink

Jocelynn Drake is known for her Dark Days series. With Angel’s Ink she begins a new urban fantasy/paranormal romance series (The Asylum Tales) which, for a change, features a male protagonist.

Fans will be glad to see that there are already two prequel tales to this story available.

DRAKE, Jocelynn. Angel’s Ink.  Bk. 1. 352p. (The Asylum Tales Series). Harper Voyager. Oct. 2012. pap. $14.99. ISBN 9780062117854.  

Adult-High School–Things are not going well for Gage. The Grim Reaper, Local 23466 (black slacks, button down shirt, balding, clipboard resting on his slight paunch) is only one of many who are trying to kill, or at least control, him. Gage is a rouge warlock, escaped from the Ivory Tower and living as a tattoo artist. He employs Trixie, an elf he is in love with, and Bronx, a troll who keeps the obsessive-compulsive vampires in check. Daily life can be mundane, including drunken centaurs demanding virility tattoos. But his real troubles begin when he inadvertently inks an immortality spell onto a young woman’s back. He must neutralize it, and that can only mean the reverse of Heaven, or at least a trip to the underworld. Meanwhile, Trixie has her own problems. This is an action-packed romp through a gritty world populated with quirky characters that suffers a tad from repetition, in particular recounted lists of Gage’s troubles– as if readers could forget!–and a not completely developed world. Still, it’s the first in the series, the rules of the world are in place enough to make sense, and teen fans of urban fantasy will enjoy the super fun read.– Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA