If Death Should Love Me: Fate's Endeavor Series Part 1

by C. Desert Rose

A dull roar, that's all I could hear. Souls, that's all I could see... So many people. Some good, some bad. Some breathing, some barely breathing. All souls. It was funny what you could see when you stood in the middle of the Emergency Room. Who survived, who didn’t. All of them, every one, a soul. A soul for the taking.
So begins your introduction to the floating, clustered world of souls that will have such influence on Sophia, the young Puerto Rican-American girl who has just lost her closest ally, her grandmother, "Abuela". It is just after the funeral, at the cemetery, where Sophia meets the tall, almost angelic man who will play the most unexpected role in her life.
A love story. A fantasy. An adventure. If Death Should Love Me tells a tale of “fate” far beyond the normal meaning of that little four letter word. How else would you explain why Sophia wonders what would happen If Death Should Love Me?

280 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2014

About the author

C. Desert Rose is a writer who has an immense affinity for all things inexplicable. She is the creator of the “Fate’s Endeavor” series, which explores the realms of angels and demons and meshes them with themes of life, love and loss. The very first book in this dynamic collection, “If Death Should Love Me”, this was followed by the 2nd installment entitled "Demoness Enchanted".

In addition, C. Desert Rose has authored several short stories—independently released works “A Tragedy: The Short Story of Fox and Tango”, “Crimson on a Black Rose”, "For Love and Enchantment", "Martina's Memories", "Angelic Epiphany", and has contributed 4 short stories to the All Authors Publishing House “Concordant Vibrancy Collection".

A couple more of Ms. Rose's stories can be found in the All Authors Publishing House "Divergent Ink Collection". Book One "Crackles of the Heart" features her short story, "Serendipitous Mirth". Book Two "Pleasure Prints" features her short story, "Fleeting Moments".

Ms. Rose’s novelettes include “Nethanyel’s Lady Lune" which explores folk lore, "From Whence Jasmine Blooms" which, through fanciful fiction, dives into the elements that create a fulfilling life. As well as, "Hairy Situations" a paranormal comedy that will keep you enthralled.

Future projects include the next 2 books in the “Fate’s Endeavor” series, an anthology participation in "Concordant Vibrancy 5: Extancy", as well as participation in the next book of the "Divergent Ink Collection".

Reviews

[A. Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can a love story come from death to the living or from the living to death? You'll have to find out.

With a background in horror, I really felt the flow of the darkness in the story and it being a constant companion with the living. The characters were delivered well, from the backstory to the family members, and I really grew attached to Sophia and The Soul Collector. And in a love story, their is usually jealousy and conflict, with both driving this story to the ending and setting the pace for the next book in this series. I won't give away more than that.

As a paranormal romance series, I would recommend this one.

[Y. Correa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If Death Should Love Me" is a great read which takes you on a nonstop paranormal adventure. Profound and intriguing.

I suppose that I should start with the premise. Don't want to get ahead of myself. ;-)

Azriel is the Angel of Death, otherwise known as The Collector. He was chosen to be this several hundred years ago. He was once human. Azriel hates what he has become, as he assimilates his fate with being cursed.
Azriel meets Lourdes. Lourdes is an older Latino woman who is reaching her last days in life. Through connecting with Lourdes, Azriel inadvertently meets Sophia.
Sophia is an average Latino-American girl living an average life--at least until Azriel comes her way.

This book has some great twists and turns and I really appreciated the cultural aspect of the story. I met characters that I loved, and characters that I loved to hate (like Gabriel).

Let's get to the bulk of the review.

Cons:

* Sophia, although likable was sometimes just a bit too ditsy.
* I would have liked to known a little bit more about the Higher Sources.

Pros:

* This is a well written story. I truly appreciated the aspect of reality in Azriel's speech. I mean, when you think about it, a being that is so old could not talk like we do today. So it was really cool that the author veered away from contemporary English with him.
* There were these cool little Spanish/Cultural lessons throughout the story. I felt like they could help the culturally impaired to better understand the characters and the premise.
* I was a huge fan of Junior. I can't say much more about him without giving spoilers.
* I was also a huge fan of the flashbacks as they gave the story richness and depth.

Overall this story is a great supernatural/paranormal read. I recommend it to the lovers of that genre whom also prefer vanilla romance, and lots of action adventure.

[Carol Cassada · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second story I’ve read by the author and after reading this book, I'm officially a fan.

The story revolves around Azriel, The Angel of Death, a job he doesn’t want to have. However, Azriel’s role brings him closer to Sophia, who he meets following the death of her grandmother. The two fall in love, however they face many obstacles in their quest to be together; including Archangel Gabriel.

My favorite parts in the book is when Azriel reflects about his past life in Africa, and Sophia talks about the memories she shared with her grandmother. Those scenes made me fall more in love with them and I was rooting for them to find true love and happiness.

If Death Should Love Me is a wonderfully written paranormal romance that offers a mixture of love, humor, and adventure.

[Brandie Holcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this as an arc, But I must say this book is WONDERFUL!!!!! I love it! I am currently reading it a 2nd time. You will not regret reading this book.

[Andrea Houtsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Note: I was given a copy of this text by the author in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.*

The main character Sophia is a young Puerto Rican woman deeply inured in and intensely proud of her heritage. She and her family have most recently suffered the loss of their Abuela, or grandmother, one of their great matriarchs. Sophia was also close with this woman so her loss is highlighted. She meets the story’s second primary character, Death himself, also known as Azriel. Chosen for the role of The Collector of souls newly passed on some thousand years passed, the angel of death becomes fascinated and emotionally connected with Sophia. This connection comes to surpass his ability to remain separate from her. He is drawn to become involved with this woman who defies all of his years of experience and understanding of the human condition. Unbeknownst to him, Sophia has been under the watchful eye of the higher beings existing in a place simply referred to as Highest Ground and assigned a guardian angel who goes by the name of Pari. These beings have an important purpose for Sophia, one which both the girl and Azriel remain unaware of for most of the story.

Sophia, in turn, becomes enamored of Azriel who remains aloof, hiding his identity yet trying to convince this girl he is just as human as she. However, secrets have a way of working their way free of the shadows that cloak them. Unable to understand the unidentified gap between them, she engages in research that reveals Azriel’s identity. As Sophia wrestles with this information, she rejects Azriel. The angel of death believes he has caused her irreparable harm with his duplicity and sets off to seek an end to his otherworldly existence.

The story is rooted in biblical mythology, giving us angels of life and death, beings with more knowledge and awareness who rank higher in the angel hierarchy and have more control over events as they play out. Archangel Gabriel resents Azriel for having been chosen for a role he believes he is more suited for, Azriel being a lowly human risen to importance instead of having always been an angel. His resentment leads him away from the path of righteousness into darkness, instigating a battle between the two that involves kidnapping Sophia to use as leverage to hurt Azriel where he is most vulnerable – his emotions.

In the process of being used as a pawn in an angelic battle, Sophia achieves a level of self-actualization, realizing her purpose with the help of her guardian angel Pari, and another soul known as Alec in his spiritual form, an autistic child named Junior that Sophia provides specialized care for in the physical realm. She does so by realizing the depth and breadth of her love for Azriel, despite all the secrets he kept from her and his true identity. It is this realization of love that enables her to come to Azriel’s rescue both physically and metaphysically.

All in all, a complex concept worth sharing as a story. Vivid characters leave impactful impressions on the reader churn through a modern day setting when society is at an increasing disconnect with religion. Sophia is clearly an extension of the author who infuses the character with all the beautiful culture of her Hispanic heritage. Azriel is the conflicted otherworldly being who doesn’t at first believe he is capable of human emotion, having perhaps forgotten his capacity or believing he lost it upon his untimely death and ascension to the role of angel of death. Pari is the guardian angel who cares immensely for her charge and is frustrated with the necessity of keeping her presence secret. Alec/Junior was an unexpected addition but a key character nonetheless, providing a nice counterbalance in the interplay between the human and divine.

I just expected and wanted so much more than what I got.

Allow me to expound.

When the author revealed the concept of this book and shared the first few chapters I was immediately intrigued. The writing was above grade, the story a different take on the ‘Death falls in love with a human’ genre. I had high hopes.
Then an editing mishap occurred just before the book was slated to be released. Disaster, right? Yes. Exactly. The resulting cobbling-together of a manuscript comes across as rushed, the editing sadly overlooked in the full-steam-must-meet-deadline publication.
I dislike that I have to mention this at all in this review. I would much rather have launched into a critique of the story and let it be for what it is, but my reading experience won’t allow it. I was too distracted by the continual punctuation errors, atrocious sentence construction, and immature editing made worse by the awareness that I had been shipped an actual physical print copy in exchange for this review. For some reason reading a digital copy makes the number of potential editing misses/errors/style a little easier to accept since digital copy can be fixed without too much extra financial expenditure. However, to me, print is permanent. So is a first impression. Unfortunately, this book made a poor first impression for me of this author both in writing style, editing, and cover art. The whole package just screams generic, the cover art doing absolutely nothing but illuminating the most basic of concepts the story revolves around.

I was also ceaselessly dismayed by some stylistic issues. This story is told in an alternating first person narrative, with passages in Sophia’s perspective interlaced with those from Azriel’s. I like the idea but not the execution. The author denotes a difference when giving us passages that take place in Highest Ground with the Higher Sources as the narrators/subjects yet neglects to delineate the differences in perspectives when switching back and forth between Sophia and Azriel’s perspectives. The two characters do have distinct voices. Sophia is a current voice full of modern day colloquialisms, thinking and speaking with an overuse of exclamation marks. Azriel is more eloquent, his centuries of existence and otherworldly existence serving to have refined his demeanor and speech patterns. Despite these differences, however, I sometimes had to reread initial sections of passages to realize that not only had the scene changed but the narrator as well.

The text is also unnecessarily, annoyingly peppered with italicized sections identified as “Sides Notes”, “Puerto Rican Custom Lessons”, “Sophia’s Personal Dictionary Lessons”, or “Sophia’s Personality Lessons”. Stylistically, all of these asides could and should have been better incorporated into the writing itself, at worst through the appropriate usage of punctuation like parentheses. As it is, all of these tidbits of information serve only to yank the reader out of the narrative instead of adding to it. The picture they paint here is disjointed like Sophia has extreme difficulty staying focused and must constantly stop to interrupt and backtrack to get her point across. It reads to me as more of a “telling” who this character is instead of letting her show us, through speech and (re)active writing, who she is and believes herself to be. That is, after all, the crux of the inadvertent search and achievement of self-actualization resulting from meeting and falling in love with an otherworldly being and becoming involved in his world. The writing for Sophia just could have been smoother and more polished while still portraying the distinctions between her personality and Azriel’s. This includes a marked overuse of exclamation marks, a punctuation tool I believe should be reserved only for speech/dialog and even then sparingly used in favor of stronger word choices to convey the intensity.

I give this book middling marks for concept and the desire to share what could have been a top-notch, creatively original story. However, the lackluster editing and cover art fail to do the author or the characters the justice they deserve. A disappointment on several levels, I had to give this a 3 stars rating.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

279 pages of “If Death Should Love Me” is written by C. Desert Rose.

This read is focused on Amari, son of father Afolabi and mother Nandi. A young 21-year-old African tribesman, Amari learned his destiny early: he is to become “The Collector”, also known as The Angel of Death named Azriel who comforts souls as best as he can while ushering them into the afterlife while traveling the world.

Azriel also has the unique ability to see a person’s aura; a color-coded spiritual energy that tells of one’s personality (on a personal note, I had a few former acquaintances who stated that I have a Gold Aura: one who is enveloped by a Guardian Angel).

There is also Sophia Martino, your average Kansas girl-next-door (I actually have been to Kansas: quaint!) who has a rather dry life (according to her, and based on what I have read) and is a bit of a hermit; only making contact with the world when it was necessary. This includes her brother Fransisco Martino Junior who has a keen sense of how to get under his sister’s skin, and Junior, a young boy with autism who she babysits.

A chance meeting during a dark time in Sophia’s life had set the stage as well as put the wheels into motion for both Sophia and Azriel to interact on a completely different level: a level that neither party expected.

Gabriel is another character in this deep thinking story. He feels and felt that he was next in line to be The Collector, yet the Higher Ups thought otherwise. His disapproval of being passed over has made him jilted and frustrated to the point of wanting to “correct the situation”.

In an odd way, to me, this is a rather cute story. The awkwardness between these two (specifically Sophia’s mindset and curiosity, and Azriel’s disappearing acts which are reminiscent of a certain black-clad crusader) seem to work very well, forcing each other to engage in conversation in the name of piecing their puzzles together. Sophia is VERY gosh darn adorable with her nervousness and stammering (akin to my personality when I have interest in another… #Transparency), and Azriel fills in the proverbial blanks to her fumbling of words, helping her feel a bit more at ease.

On the plus side, I really am thankful that Miss Rose placed “Spanish lessons” where Spanish was spoken. Not only that, there were also things that were discussed culture wise that added a great deal to the story: they make for great lessons in our walking lives. I can go on both a rant and a tirade about the number of authors who put in another language within the pages of their reads and stories, yet did not provide a translation for those who do not speak that specific language. Miss Rose’s consideration in this aspect is greatly admired.

Another plus that is found within the pages of the story, are the similarities of familial get-togethers. In several cultures, as noted in the story, the ladies were in the kitchen cooking and talking and doing all things to make the holidays, well, be put together beautifully. The males of the family stayed out of the kitchen, and did things that guys would typically do in this situation: watch sports, play games, discuss current events, etc. The same can be said for other situations where family would come and gather.

Another personal note, there was a specific event that happened early in the book that cause me to reflect on certain events that happened within my family. It made me reflect on some of the things that I was feeling when said certain situations made me think about my own family. Some feelings came back, at times rushing. It put me into a place of deep thought, reminiscent of good, bad, as well as uncomfortable times.


“If Death Should Love Me” is a telling title, for sure. It is a thought-provoking and philosophical conversation piece that certainly makes you wonder if Death can INDEED love you. Farfetched, yes: yet it does make you wonder.

In several spots in the story, the sentences felt choppy. Some sentences were one to three words long. At the same time, it could speak for how the character thinks and speaks. In this aspect, I cannot penalize: there are some situations where one to three words are indeed necessary. Despite the responses and thoughts being short, they speak volumes.

Page 30 has a spelling error; “he” being used as opposed to “the”, as well as a missed period opportunity where a comma was used in the following sentence:

“As I tidied up my apartment I noticed he DVD cover of the movie I’d been watching the night before: Paranormal Activity, Oh! I puffed, putting the silly dream off to my scary movie fixation.”

As I always say, the need for another set of eyes on one’s work benefits greatly to not only the author, but the reading audience as well.


“If Death Should Love Me” is one of those stories that start off a bit slow, yet when you continue to move forward with your reading, it is actually a rather delightful story. Once you are engrossed in the story, you will have a difficult time putting it down.

[Frederick Crook · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this novel by C. Desert Rose, the main character, Sophia Martino meets a strange man at her grandmother’s funeral. She and this stranger make a connection at the sad event and later, during a gathering afterward, meet again and begin talking. His name is Azriel Devas, otherwise known as the angel of death.
An unlikely romance sprouts between the mortal and the immortal and slowly, Sopia and Azriel fall in love. This relationship progresses well for a time, but conflicts arise between Azriel and the angel, Gabriel. This draws Sophia into the battle and plot ensues. It’s a fast-paced adventure and I will stop giving away details here to keep from handing out spoilers.
I have to say that, for the most part, I enjoyed this book, even though I’ve read quite a few paranormal romance novels involving angels and mortals lately. While the author’s voice is pretty clear and humorous at points, I found the continual punctuation errors highly distracting. Mostly, this entailed missing commas, which distorted the meaning of sentence after sentence, forcing constant re-reads.
I enjoyed the little side notes C. Desert provided on occasion, explaining Puerto Rican culture or the Spanish language in a humorous, endearing manner. I did feel that these digressions were a little too liberally dealt out, but overall, they did add to the experience and made me smile.
I did get the clear message that C. Desert Rose has a wonderful imagination and a talent for writing, but I just couldn’t get past the difficulty of this read due to the poor editing. Honestly, I would have killed to edit this work and improve its readability. Errors like misspellings and easily researched words like “stereotypical”, which was typed as two words at one point, should have been quite plain. The missing punctuation derailed the progress, induced the shaking of my head, and frustrated me to the point where I put the novel down for a bit. For instance, Sophia’s brother calls her on the phone and dialogue ensues:
“Hey! Sup?”
“You called me stupid!” I whipped back.

Huh? OH! She is calling him stupid! Granted, this is a minor issue, but it’s enough for me to stop reading and look back as I ask myself, “When did he say she was stupid?” Further, much of the dialogue was missing these important commas around character names, so a sentence like, “You can do this Sophia!” instead of the intended, “You can do this, Sophia!” was quite commonplace.
Another really distraction I found was the fact that a hard return was missing on a few occasions during dialogue, causing the most time-consuming derailment of all. One character would ask a question and, because no hard return occurred, the question was answered on the same line, making it appear as if the question was answered by the asker. The next line would be of the same character speaking, which made it quite clear that something was wrong. This happens at least twice in the manuscript.
One bad habit I noted while reading was the inclusion of Sophia’s thoughts/narration shoved in between another character’s dialogue, making it unclear, at times, who was speaking. I won’t hunt the instances down, but here’s an example:
“Blah, blah, blah.” I couldn’t believe he just said that. I stared at him, stunned. “Blah, blah-bah!”
Okay, not right. It should be:
“Blah, blah, blah.”
I couldn’t believe he said that. I stared at him, stunned.
“Blah, blah-blah!”

See what I mean? The narration, being completely separated here, makes it quite clear and flowing.

Okay, so, we have a wonderfully strong story here, in plot, character building, and author voice, plagued by editing errors. C. Desert Rose is clearly a talented storyteller and I look forward to another work of hers, though I hope it’s treated with more care in the editing process.
A good story with a fair reading experience, I give this 6 of 10 stars.

[Queen Spades · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: Before receiving this updated copy in exchange for an honest review, I acquired this work via Amazon. Therefore, my review will be placed on the comparison between the sale copy and the updated copy provided by the author.

Cons

1. I found Sophia’s back and forth a little too dizzying. Some of her parts could have been eliminated instead of dragging the story out a bit longer than needed.
2. I would have enjoyed more background or incorporation of some of the other pivotal characters—like Pari but especially Gabriel. I found Gabriel’s segments absolutely captivating and felt a bit of loss once focus had to shift to a different part of the narrative or another character.
3. A bit more about Sophia’s history with love of the romantic sort would have done well with the tidbits to break up the tension in “If Death Should Love Me”.
4. The Higher Sources should have received more spotlight.
5. I’m pretty sure this is a “me thing” but I wanted to be shown the power of “Fate” and “Love at first sight” rather than told. How could the author convince a reader like me—who has a bit of skepticism towards the concept of instant connection—that this could definitely get pulled off? Yes, the Higher Sources are brought in, almost as if to say, “It is because we deem it so and it has to be.” However, how many people have rebelled against one’s supposed role? Azriel’s thought processes had me convinced but the mark was not quite struck with Sophia—oftentimes coming across as more physical lust than the building blocks of love.
6. The style where the dialog and narrative lack clear separation were stumbling blocks from time to time. I’m not saying the style is incorrect, by any means. Nonetheless, due to how I was taught in school (and because it is easier on my old eyes), the break between dialog and narrative is smoother for my comprehension and connectivity.
7. Syntax wise (but this is also a “me thing”), there was a bit of comma overkill. The main area was in places where the comma was placed immediately after the name whether in narrative or in dialog.

Pros

1. The abstractness of the cover art won me over. It left me free to use my imagination in reference to how Sophia, Azriel and the rest of the characters looked.
2. The pacing of the story reminds me of the rumblings of a dormant volcano—it fit with the building of drama leading to the ultimate conflict.
3. Sophia’s quirky mannerisms gave some breaks when the drama was getting a bit too thick. Due to the intended target audience, I didn’t mind a bit of comedy mixed in with the paranormal romance.
4. There was a villain I loved to hate in the form of Gabriel and I hope this won’t be the last time we hear from him.
5. Azriel was syrupy good, extremely touching. The flashbacks into his previous existence and his day to day torment add to his captivation as a character.
6. Pari’s dedication to her charges—fierce and adoring.
7. The element of surprise in one character being way more important than previously believed.
8. It is apparent that the author did extensive research on the architecture of angels, demons and mythology, especially with Azriel and Gabriel. It added even more authenticity to an even more riveting undertaking.

Rating: 3.75 rounded to a soft 4.

If Death Should Love Me has wonderful potential. The roller coaster drama and the characters are things which remained with me, long after I put the read down. More attention to background and smoother tempo with conflict could have garnered this a higher rating. However, I am intrigued enough by the premise to check out the other books in the series, as well as see improvement with this author.