Broken Angel
(House Phoenix: Book One)
by S.
W. Vaughn
Description
Gabriel is lost...
Drawn into the New
York City underground in search of his missing sister, Gabriel Morgan is
running out of money, options--and hope. Until a brawl in the basement of a
seedy Brooklyn bar drags him deeper into the shadows than he's ever been.
Gabriel is found...
By the leader of a
secret society of underground fighters, who operates a network of vicious,
no-holds-barred matches where millions change hands. They have no rules. No
limits. And they have Gabriel's sister.
Gabriel is broken...
Taken prisoner and
forced to join the organization, Gabriel undergoes a brutal training program in
preparation for the ring. To earn his sister's freedom, and his own, he'll
submit outwardly to the demands of his captors and take the new name they give
him--while in secret, he plans a daring revenge that will either shake the
society to its twisted core...or seal his own deadly fate.
Gabriel is Angel.
And when Angel
fights, he'll do anything to win. Because the price for losing is his sister's
life.
Excerpt
“We’re off
to a bad start. Let’s try again.” Slade stood and stared down at him. “You are
Gabriel Morgan. I am Marcus Slade. I’m a businessman, and I have a proposition
for you. That’s why I brought you here.”
“A proposition,” Gabriel repeated numbly. “Funny, but this doesn’t feel like an offer.”
“Oh, I have no intention of allowing you to refuse. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”
His mouth opened, shut. This psycho was going to kill him. How could he get out of this? Struggling wouldn’t work. In his current condition, he couldn’t physically overpower Slade. The man was as strong as one of
Diego’s goons. He’d have to play along until he could think of something else.
“All right,” he finally said. “What do you want?”
“It’s simple, really.” Slade’s mouth curved into a cold smile. “I run fighters and girls, and they make me a lot of money. You are going to fight for me.”
“The hell I am,” he snapped before he could stop himself. “You’re talking about those basement beat-downs your pal Diego does? No. And why do you want me?”
Slade laughed. “First off, Diego Mendez is no friend of mine. I don’t know how you ended up with him, and I don’t want to know. Second, those ridiculous little pissing contests you’ve been hanging around are not fights. The organization doesn’t even recognize them.”
A lead weight settled in his stomach. This bastard belonged to the organization? At once he recalled Diego’s reaction when he looked at Lillith’s picture.
He was definitely the right one, the man said. And Slade had mentioned fighters…and girls.
Oh God. No...
“You’ll fight for me, Mr. Morgan. I happen to have something you want.” Slade walked to the door, opened it and leaned out. “Get in here.”
“What is going on?” The woman’s voice, tinged with fright, came from beyond the entrance. “Apollo, let go of me! Please. Tell me what’s happening...”
Gabriel’s chest became unbearably tight. He pushed himself to his feet, no longer caring what Slade said or did, and took a stumbling step toward the door, and another.
He stopped. An enormous man filled the entryway, glared at him and stepped through, pulling a dark-haired woman in after him. Her head bent forward and cascading hair hid her face, but he didn’t have to see it. He'd known the instant she spoke.
She lifted her face. Her eyes met his. “Oh, my God,” she whispered as one hand flew to her mouth.
He barely managed to remain standing. He swallowed hard, but the lump in his throat stayed.
Lillith.
Review
By Jessie
Potts
This is my first
S.W. Vaughn book and I'm really happy I had the opportunity to read it. I love
the characters, I love the plot, the intricacies between the fighting Houses
and the struggle of being an owned man.
Gabriel Morgan has
been beaten by his father for 17 years all in the name of protecting his sister
Lillith. Now that one happiness in his life is missing, and he will stop at
nothing until he finds her. Unfortunately that leads him in to an underground
fighting ring complete with prostitution (guess where Lillith is) and protected
by the cops who have their own House. The head of Ulysses House, Marcus Slade,
sees something in Gabriel. This burning desire to protect at all costs. He uses
the threat of rape and murder of his beloved sister over Gabriel and forces him
to become one of his fighters. As I'm sure everyone is aware of, no one
graciously accepts being forced to fight. This leads to Gabriel meeting Jenner.
I loved Jenner's character. He was cold, brutal yet esoteric. Jenner transforms
Gabriel into Angel, complete with life size tattoos of wings on his back, and
slowly breaks him, to build him up again.
This book was truly
magnificent. I could smell the sweat and blood in the ring. Hear the jeers of
the audience, and feel the crunch of bone beneath my fist. Vaughn is very good
at pulling out the details with stark words and feelings. The plot moves
quickly along, and Gabriel is a far cry from the underdog hero who rises to the
top. Far, far, from it. The ending will have you cringing and wanting to bang
this book against certain character faces. It is sad, but needful if our hero
is to ever finally stand on his own. I know the second book will be even
bloodier, and I can't wait to see what Jenner ends up doing. If you like gore,
brutality, fighting, dirty tricks, cheap whores and worse... you will devour
this book.
About the Author
S.W. Vaughn is the pseudonym of Sonya Bateman, author of the urban
fantasy novels Master of None and Master and Apprentice from Simon &
Schuster. Vaughn's work tends to run a bit darker than Bateman's. She lives in
central New York with her husband, son, and a lot of cats who are often named
after movie or TV show characters - like Fizzgig (The Dark Crystal), Coda (Brother
Bear), Mothra (Godzilla), and
Blooregard Q. Kazoo (Foster's Home for
Imaginary Friends).
The House Phoenix series is straight-up
thriller - no romance, no paranormal. The series features a secret society of
underground fighters, a large cast of characters with twisting interaction, and
a detailed world placed on the dark side of New York City. Broken
Angel is the first in the series, and is followed by Devil's
Honor, Mask of the
Serpent, and Shades of
Black. Currently, Vaughn is working on the fifth and final book of the
House Phoenix series, Alpha Male,
which she hopes to have available for Summer 2013.
Links
