Black-Winged Tuesday

After an incredibly unlucky life, Herman Morrie gets another chance for success as a guardian angel in Ryan’s fun blend of quirky humor, supernatural adventures, and erotic pleasures. Assigned as the good angel for Charlie, a nervous and suicidal accountant, Herman pairs up with hedonistic angel Price to help their ward get a girlfriend, reveal his uncle’s theft from the company, and cope with his uncontrollable changes into a beaver. Their schemes hit snags when Charlie’s crush turns out to be an unrequited flame from Herman’s past with a deeply abusive partner, a sexy archangel takes a serious interest in Herman, and a fit of rage gives Herman pure-black wings. Ryan struggles to control the mythology of her work, with clunky expositions of angel/demon politics and the odd inclusion of shape-shifting humans without much connection to the plot. Her heroes all tend toward sudden bursts of confidence after years of shyness, and her villains are rather shallow. A scene of sexual assault in which the victim is eventually won over may also perturb some readers. Despite these flaws, the work opens intriguing possibilities for the future series of ordinary angel Herman standing between God and Lucifer amid more prosaic assignments of aid. (BookLife)