The Night Everything Fell Apart

Vacillating wildly between existential angst and moments of inappropriate hilarity, Nash’s first book in the Nephilim urban fantasy romance series is a sharp biblical tale with some minor inconsistencies. Young Arthur Camulus is a Nephil of the Druid clan, the offspring of a witch and a Nephil demon. He’s also a direct descendent of the famous Merlin. After Arthur breaks away from Mab, the aggressive, power-hungry alpha of his clan—who sells drugs and runs an S&M dungeon in her spare time—he undergoes his Ordeal, a grueling transition from dormant power to full demon form. He joins forces with his secret lover, Cybele, who’s a dormant power from Mab’s trailer park enclave of Demon’s Hollow, Tex., to uncover Merlin’s final resting place and retrieve his staff of power. The archangels of Heaven and Arthur’s fellow Nephilim hope he will fail; to muddle the situation further, a mysterious Nephil wants Merlin’s staff for his own destructive purposes. A slow, somewhat confusing beginning transitions almost seamlessly into a plot bursting with action and character development, albeit cluttered with clunky sex scenes and discomfiting hints of sexual assault. Nash (Blood Debt) can’t quite keep all the balls in the air, but she gamely keeps trying. (BookLife)