Greed

Seriously, I felt like I was in a reading slump. Thankfully, having a few days off for the holidays and not having to work has snapped me out of that because I've been reading quite a bit.

Greed - Karina Espinosa

Maximillion can never return to the normal life he once had—not now that he's Wrath—one of the seven Nephilim. After the failed battle with Abbadon and his demons, the death of a loved one, and the betrayal of the person he trusted the most—Max was forced to go into hiding. But not before devising a plan to look for answers: to search for the other Nephilim.
Max and his best friend/guardian angel, Jones are on the run for a month before their first clue leads them to Sin City, Las Vegas to find the Nephilim of Greed. But Nikolai's reluctance to help and fear of an unknown force leaves Max with more questions than answers.
Will he discover who is hunting the Nephilim? And if he does, can he overcome the forces of evil against them?
Find out in the sequel to Sins of the Fallen, where Karina Espinosa pulls readers back to the saga unfolding in the world of angels and demons—a world where everything falls part. 

I forgot that I had read the first in this series so I quickly re-read it because it had been awhile and I hate feeling like I'm missing something. Thankfully, these are pretty fast reads so I got through that quickly and then moved onto this one, fully ready. I will say that I liked this book a lot more than the first one. Sure, there was lots of action in that one, but this one had far more.

For the first half we find Maximillion really struggling with his new identity, knowing his mother is gone and his father has seemingly sided with the girl he loved, who basically stood and did nothing as her father killed his mother. Got all of that? So, he's rightfully angry. The only issue is that his new found Nephilim powers are coming into play and while trying to get a handle on those, he's looking for the other Nephilim, specifically Greed.

Oh, he finds Greed all right. Even at the end of the book, I don't know how I feel about Greed- is he a good guy or is he going to turn on Max when he needs him the most? We find Max's dad, we find Angela, we have more of Abbadon (the bad guy who killed Max's mom, and is Angela's father), and we meet the third Nephilim, Lust. I can basically assume the next book is mostly about her as this book gave us glimpses into Greed and how he got to where he is today and highlights some of the tragedies that have essentially shaped him. The best part is that Lust? Well Lust isn't a new character. How's that for keeping you hanging? The book leaves us with an absolute cliff hanger, but it's OK because we're left knowing major things are on the way in future books. Mostly because a Seer gives Max a really bizarre, and cryptic, message that he's about to encounter a lot of tragedy and loss. So... does he lose some of his group that's been helping him through this? I don't know, but I'm all in for future books.

The author, Karina Espinosa, has a website that you can check out for her other books as well.