Angel

by R.A. Meenan

The Angel never met the Defender.
Trecheon Omnir has finally scrapped his old life as an assassin and settled into his new role as a mage. His time with the Defenders has given him an opportunity to find himself again - and reawaken his romantic side. He's found himself falling in love with not one, but two Defenders - Sacha, the head healer, and Matt, his best friend. But romance must be put on the backburner while they continue the desperate search for missing healer Leah Nealia - a search that feels hopeless.
But when Leah suddenly shows up at Trecheon's doorstep with an unknown Athánatos prince in tow, claiming Matt's long-thought-dead father is alive and in danger, his hard-earned peace is shattered. Making matters worse, Bob Ackerson, traitorous leader of Black Ops during the War of Eons and Trecheon's former commanding officer, has sent an elite hit squad called Angel after Jaden and his allies, who have gone into hiding.
With Matt and the other Defenders on their way back to Zyearth, Trecheon must take charge and find Jaden by deciphering cryptic hints to track him - all while evading Ackerson's Angel, who will stop at nothing to end them and Jaden.
This book is for anyone who - Queer and poly relationships - Overcoming trauma - Slow burn romance - Alliances with enemies - Sticking it to the man
Content Mild intimate situations, physical and mental abuse, dead family, violent deaths, mild swearing, and violent injuries.

528 pages, Paperback

Published September 21, 2023

About the author

R. A. Meenan was born in London during the golden age of science fiction, but somehow time traveled to the Modern Era (some say a mad man with a blue box was involved). She was dropped on the doorstep of a house owned by anthropomorphic cats and though they were disappointed she didn't have furry ears and a tail, they took her in to teach her the ways of elemental magic. After setting fire to her furry cat friends' tails one too many times (final score - fire: 2612, cat's tails: 0) they called an exterminator and sent her out on her way.

Now an adult (physically, not mentally), she ride-hops intergalactic military spacecraft, combing the outer reaches of space and time, writing science fiction and urban fantasy stories based on her experiences. She's also hoping to find the perfect cup of coffee and a better way to grow dinosaurs. Humans kind of look at her funny, but she's managed to make herself an honorary ambassador for furry and anthropomorphic aliens and space dragons.

She carefully feeds and brushes her wonderful husband Joe and the pair have four furry children (which are really cats, but don't tell them that). She also spends her spare time teaching essay-writing haters, molding them into people resembling Actual Students and Lovers of English.

She may not win the hearts of stiff military men or students who want good grades for no effort, but she certainly captures the spirit and imagination of time travelers, magic users, nerds, Students-In-Training, and fantasy lovers.

Reviews

[J.F.R. Coates]

R.A. Meenan brilliant pulls together so many of the threads set out by the different stories so far in this series and furthers the development of many characters. At no point did I lose track of who was who or where they were going, and no one felt out of place.

This is a great book in a series that has only gotten better with each instalment.

[Frank LeRenard]

Despite an ever-growing cast of characters, a growing complexity in relationships between them, in worldbuilding stuff, and in plot, all of these books are very easy to just sit back and watch unfold. They have that character to them you see in a lot of mass-market fiction, where you find yourself just falling inside, then glancing at the clock and seeing a whole hour has passed. I don't know how to achieve it myself, so I'm always impressed by authors who do.

This book in particular got me thinking a lot about how I want to see really strong emotions, trauma, and other such things depicted in fiction. Now, I certainly haven't personally experienced the level of trauma the characters in this series are going through, so that might be solely where my feelings are stemming from here, but I did find myself struggling to empathize a lot of the time. Early on, I got this bug in my brain that was saying things like, "This feels clinical", or "This feels like the author is showing off their research into this topic", and so on, and that was very distracting. I can't say for sure why I got that bug. I don't always when confronted with such material. I hope it doesn't for most other readers, and I'll think more about why it might have happened with me.

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

https://www.tumblr.com/aspeccharacter...

[Jonathan Hernandez]

Another fun entry in the Zyearth Chronicles.
I'm so glad we found Jaden before the book was over. I would not have been okay if he was still missing.