Review: A dark, gritty story of love lost and regained
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2013
In the third book of the Winged series, Ms. Pruitt takes us deep into the world of her angels and Winged, with a story that is in her words about love - "Love lost, love found, love regained."Joanne Watson fell off the Talmadge Bridge to her death only to find that a normal boring life is not the worst thing that can happen to a person.  After falling to her death, she is given a choice to return to her old life, go to heaven or become one of the winged and fight evil forever, never dying and never going to heaven. Joanne chooses to become winged.  During her first year she will meet and fall in love with Archangel Raphael, become a warrior who knows no fear, meet a group of fellow winged who will not only become her team but her closest friends, and lead that team against a rebellion lead by her once close friends, Gideon and Lucy.  Joanne will be forced to make choices that make normal desirable, but Joanne is not normal, Joanne is one of the Winged.Lost takes up six weeks after the battle against the rebels that took Angus' arm, James' eye, put Danielle in a coma and caused Joanne to kill friends, and all but lose the use of her right hand.  Her relationship with Raphael is non-existent, and the remaining Winged have been forced to move camp to a remote location in Wyoming.  After six weeks of practically wallowing in grief, The Power That Is has decided that Joanne and her team should go to the rebel camp as emissaries to try to negotiate with them.  The members of the rebellion, now referred to as The Lost, are to be given a chance to repent their sins against heaven and the Higher Power, be forgiven and rejoin the Winged, or reject the offer and fall.  Should they reject, the Lost will be hunted by the Angels and the Winged and killed.  For Joanne the decision isn't a simple one. Should she try to forgive those who have taken so much from her or refuse?  All she really wants to do is lay down and give up. Can she or will she rise to the challenge that now faces her?Ms. Pruitt takes us even deeper to the dark side in this new offering by giving us not just the spunky Joanne we've come to love but taking her down a path that she just might not be able to return from.  We are warned in the forward to this book that "it is dark, brutal, and ugly.  There's death.  There's addition. There's withdrawal and recovery."  Not only are we warned we are told if this bothers us, we should put the book down and move on.  We were not lied to, at times while reading this book, tears were streaming down my face, the pain so real and so brutal I wasn't sure I could continue.  We are rewarded for continuing with precious moments from a savoir we would not have expected and even a little laughter as the mysterious Barry moves in and out of the story.  The battles that we've come to expect Joanne and her team to go into are still here and they prove that even though they have been beaten and bruised, together they are a force to be reckoned with.  Old friends return, we see a different side of Poppy than we've seen before and we get to know some of the other archangels a little better.  Without giving away too much, I will say there is a scene just before the Grim Reaper makes an appearance where I had to put the book down and remind myself this is just a story, because I was crying so hard I could not see.Ms. Pruitt did not pull any punches in this book, she warned us it wouldn't be easy and that warning was so true, but the reward of a story well told was worth any pain we went through.Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team