Fallen angels run a Paris devastated by magical infighting and colonial wars. The city is a ruined husk, as we see Phillipe (our first POV) running with his gang that hunts recently fallen angels in the ruined streets.
Phillipe and Isabelle are linked by his attack on her, which builds an interesting antagonistic relationship that carries through the book. The two of them are the heart of the story, but two other significant POVs develop, showing different facets of House Silverspire. Madeline is a human POV–not an immortal from the east, not a fallen… but she’s something more than a vanilla human too. She’s an alchemist, but also addicted to angel essence. The last POV is Selene, head of the house. We see the established political currents through her eyes–and the flashbacks to Morningstar’s POV.
The story was well setup, and the conflict rang true, as did the effort the villainous opposition put in to toppling Silverspires. Phillipe was the strongest POV for me, though Madeline was a good anchor for human level concerns–and a great vehicle to introduce Hawthorn, Asmodeous and Samariel.
I suspect I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I read it, for it just didn’t compel or stick. The language it was written with is good, the characters are well drawn, the struggle felt authentic… but it didn’t hold me. Another day, the same book might have been compelling–or, more likely, another novel by this author without fallen angels and their tropes will be right up my alley.