Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: The Bone Cup
SERIES: Archangel Chronicles #6
AUTHOR: L.J. LaBarthe
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 240 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2014
BLURB:
Gabriel and Michael, hand in hand and leading the Brotherhood of Archangels, the Venatores, and the Archdemon Guild of Glass Knives, march into the mouth of madness to retrieve the Holy Grail with the blessings of both God and Lucifer. They cross dimensions and battle for the future of all realities: Heaven, Hell, Earth and Purgatory.
In Purgatory they are reunited with Naamah and meet her children, who are terrified of her. One of her allies is an angel, but they can’t identify the traitor. Gabriel faces his worst fear when Michael is injured and he might lose the unwavering comfort Michael embodies. If Gabriel cannot save the Holy Grail, he risks losing more than his one true love—all of creation might be destroyed along with them.
REVIEW:
The alliance between the Archangels and the Archdemons is still going strong and the search for the Grail is coming to a head. With spies planted within Naamah’s home and the search for a way into Purgatory coming to a close, things seem to be looking up, at least for now. Naamah has her own spy, however, one who has so far managed to evade detection, and without knowing who it is, the Angels are courting disaster. The pressure is building for both Gabriel and Michael, between the need to retrieve both the Grail and their friends safely, and if they can’t find a way to retrieve the Grail soon, more than just their own lives will be lost.
It was really great getting to finish up this current story arc and while I, as always, wish there had been a little bit more action, I was pretty happy overall with the story and how things worked out. While Michael and Gabriel will always be one of my favorite couples in the series it was still really nice getting to see others such as Raziel and Uriel featured, even if it wasn’t as much as my OTP. There was also a ‘new’ couple introduced though all I can say on that score was finally as I’d seen that coming for at least a couple of books now and while I didn’t get the scene I originally envisioned between these two, I was intrigued by what we were presented with nonetheless. And really, the ribbing afterwards from various other characters was highly amusing. 😀
I really enjoyed how everything came together and its always impressive how many characters the author keeps bringing together from the previous books in the series. Honestly, you need the glossary in the beginning of the books just to keep them all straight! There was good pacing throughout the book and while I didn’t get my massive action sequence at the climax of the book, I will say that the way Naamah was defeated was completely unexpected and surprising…I may or may not have had an Indiana Jones moment. You’ll understand if you read the book. 😛
Overall I enjoyed the book and things left off on a really great note. As there are more books in the series, I look forward to continuing on to the next story arc as it looks even more interesting than this one but if you’ve been reading the books up until now, this would be a good one to stop at if you need a break. If you’ve enjoyed the previous books you’re sure to enjoy this one but if you’re interested in the series and haven’t read any of it yet, you should start at the beginning in order to get the most out of it. 🙂
RATING: 
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