I recently wrote about my library allowing me to ‘check out’ books to read on my iPad.  I love this feature and just finished another selection.  The drawback?  I really struggle to read plus 500 pages in two weeks.  I was like a school kid yesterday morning, waking before dawn to finish the last 10% of the book before it disappeared.  It was like homework…..except for getting to choose my reading assignment, enjoying the subject matter, and never fearing an essay question I wasn’t prepared for.

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz is the second in his Cemetery of Forgotten Books series.  I read The Shadow of the Wind many years ago.  I have a terrible memory when it comes to a book’s details.  Instead, I can go back to a title and tell you how I felt after reading it.  I can remember liking, loving, hating the story but tell you little of the plot.  I remember loving the language in The Shadow of the Wind.  It was so easily and beautifully written that I looked forward to reading another.

Well I went back to my library, via my laptop, and searched on fiction available now and ran across this book.  So I checked it out, opened my iPad, brought up my Kindle ap and voila, The Angel’s Game waited for me to begin.  Like the last time, Zafón took me to Barcelona and dropped me in the middle of the city in the first half of the 20th century.  This book was darker than I expected with a body count that rivals any Bruce Willis movie out there but not quite pulp fiction.

It’s part mystery, crime, paranormal and I dare say love story albeit rather sad.

The language carried me forward again but I wasn’t nearly as invested as I think I was in the first installment.  I will definitely read The Prisoner of Heaven but only when I can get it from the library.  Since I speak nor read any Spanish, I can’t help but wonder if some of the success of these books needs to be given to Lucia Graves.  She has translated both of the books I’ve read and done a superb job.  One piece of trivia I enjoyed learning was that she is the daughter of Robert Graves, noted poet.  Keep that in mind the next time you’re at a trivia night somewhere in town.

So Is It A Good Story?  Good.  Not great.  I think it’s something to read if you enjoy various types of literature and read a great deal.  But if you’re not an avid reader, I wouldn’t spend time on this one.