Admittedly I came into this "second" book rather skeptically, given that the book listed as the first in the series is basically just a bulked up prologue framed more like a preview than an actual novel or even novella. But the concept gave me enough of an interest to press onward and see what the story would entail. Unfortunately for me, not much.The potential is there, in spades. The author is well written and has a strong voice for the characters, particularly the first person narration for the angelic protagonist Mel. Details are descriptive and there is just enough time given to them without bogging things down overall. The notion of Heaven and Hell waging corporate warfare for the souls and dominion of Earth is a premise that should spark absurdity and humor and in parts it does. By all accounts, the idea of a formidable angel woman surveying and trying to undermine the Devil's corporate campaign on humanity whilst denying a budding attraction should be a goldmine of engaging content with that kind of writing shaping.Instead however, we get a very slow, very tepid engagement of the corporate office life with Mel's viewpoints on things shifting between deep bouts of empathetic insight and aloof detachment. From the demons she works with all stumbling over themselves in shock over an angel being capable in their offices and sympathetic to their nature, to the fact that somehow the Devil, Lucifer himself, conveniently breaks from millenia of successful manipulative, seductive and exploitative behaviors to become just another bumbling, cheesily harassing office executive who has never so much as successfully flirted with anyone he didn't have the sway to have fired if he so desired. And thus is brushed off by Mel at every single turn, save for moments of deep, angelically fueled pity for his sad, sad state of existence.There is literally no sense of romance or even sexual tension in the book whatsoever between the so called main characters. Despite Mel having seemingly human moments of realistic wants and desires, reading cheesily romantic fantasy fiction and drooling over another angel leading up to a brief liaison during a work assignment together that results in the angel vanishing completely from the story afterwards, she otherwise is the epitome of bland, angelic perfection who only thinks about her work, views her demonic co-workers more like someone working a soup kitchen would view some of the more unstable and handicapped variety of downtrodden and homeless, and has zero room in her mind or heart for the Devil's very existence until an accidental touch lets her glean his soul enough to start fixating on "saving" him from his tortured existence.All which culminates into what is essentially the love a pet owner has for their dog, for all the romance they actually express in the last 15% of the book. In which Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness and Lord of Hell and all its demons, is magically redeemed to apparent full angelhood again by the sudden "love" Mel apparently feels for him and thus makes him go from being nothing but purely horny for her to somehow seeing her as the love of his life.I very rarely find books that bore me so much I can't finish reading them, but even rarer is a book that I find that barely manages to hold onto the promise of interesting content so thinly and so drawn out that I manage to finish the book only for all of it to come to naught. Mel is seemingly angelic all the time to the point of Mary Sue perfection, until she isn't in the moments where she reads naughty fiction on her phone, freezes up during public speaking only when its remarked upon that there are more than five people present listening to her, and when she's Mother Teresa to all the poor, misunderstood demons and none of them more misunderstood than Lucifer who just needs a good woman's love to fix him. Love that literally doesn't exist until the very end of the book and only after she's found her perfectly accepting and empathetic nature somehow is the one that manages to redeem the Lord of Hell himself.It is almost astonishing how one can pitch a romance between an angel and the Devil while trying to keep him from taking over the Earth via business ventures and then have the entire book essentially devoid of both halves of said plot for the entirety of it. Zero chemistry, zero genuine engagement, like the story forgot it was supposed to be a romance until the literal last second, and even then it smacks of a pity project rather than the realization of genuine emotional attachment. I have not been so bored and unmoved by the development of characters in longer than I can recall. So if you're looking for a whirlwind romance with engaging fantasy elements, I heartily suggest looking elsewhere.
