Wine and creativity have always gone hand in hand, inspiring artists, musicians, philosophers, and diverse points of view through a shared bottle. For hundreds of years, wine was even a key part of the ink used to capture their thoughts. The superstars of urban fantasy agree— Angel’s Ink, the first book in Jocelyn Drake’s Asylum Tales is a winner! It took me awhile to really get a feel for Gage’s character, but at the same time I instantly liked him. he was sarcastic and funny, and although he was pretty desperate to keep a low profile, he was also willing to do anything and everything within his power to save those he loves. Even when he knew full well it would put him directly in the path of his wizard guardian. I loved his relationship with Trixie, and how the romance played out in the book. I hope we get to see more and more of Gage and Trixie together. Angels Ink is a celebration of the dreamers, the seekers, and the boundary breakers. Those creative thinkers who challenge convention and move the world forward. Sourced from premier vineyards across the Central Coast, Angels Ink produces world-class Pinot Noir and Rosé that are rich, round, and supple in texture.

There were times where he seemed to care about ethics and doing the right thing, yet it wasn't clear to me exactly when that was. For example, he would sometimes create magical tattoos for various individuals, without much care to the potential consequences (i.e. one specific example of this is that of a group of satyrs or non human beings who came to ask for magical tattoos which would have an effect on women, and the Love Interest had to remind him that magical tattoos could have different effects on different species and that this could affect the capacity to consent of some beings by making the females of some species more suggestible when it came to sex... and he didn't seem to care much about this and seemed to have mostly changed the tattoos to make HER happy, rather than because his own conscience told him to do so). I also thought the tattoo aspect of the book was so neat. I love the idea of tattooing a charm or spell into the skin, and all the good and bad that comes along with it. The potions and mixing was neat too, and I’m glad we got to see a little hint of how the process works, I do hope that Drake really delves more into it in future books. Meanwhile, Gage is growing closer to Trixie and now the men that she’s hiding from come storming into Asylum to take her from him forever and to force her into a marriage and a lifetime of servitude to her king. The secondary characters in this book were amazing, and I can’t wait to see where everyone’s journey takes them. Gideon, the wizard guardian, was an interesting twist, and I can’t wait to see how that plays out in the series. I loved Bronx the troll and Trixie the elf – the two other tattoo artists in Gage’s shop. While we got to learn so much more about Trixie than Bronx in this book, I hope we can focus more on Bronx in the next book. I’m excited to see how things work out with Sofie the witch cat, and if she’ll play a bigger role in future books.Characters are consistent, never acting contrary to what you would expect, but still able to surprise you. This book is done in 1st person. Can you imagine the Harry Potter books being done in 1st person Harry Potter? HP was much richer being done in 3rd. And I think Angel’s Ink would have been better in 3rd. We could get inside some of the other characters for a change. We then begin our proprietary process of infusing your loved one's ashes into tattoo ink. Though it is proprietary, it does involve three levels of sterilization at each process, and Your Angel's Ink is the only commemorative tattoo company in the world that has a physician on staff, certifying that each level of sterilization is up to medical standards. This book also seems to steal a lot of elements from other PNR/UF series out there. There just wasn’t a lot unique here. Pretty much everything was mediocre and this whole book was kind of blah.

Genre fans who know—and love—Drake’s phenomenal, New York Times bestselling Dark Days novels will be blown away by this dark and seductive new series. Gage is a trouble magnet. Just when you think that this guy can’t get drug down any deeper he gets thrown down another hole. Angel’s Ink is filled with many plot devices that sometimes may have you wondering where this story is going. The story is not just about the girl getting the angel tattoos. Gage also has to face his evil ex-mentor that is out to kill him and the trouble that his friends Trixie and Bronx are going through that he takes it upon himself to help solve. Gage has a little trouble clamping down on his gifts, but he tries. He wants to keep the new life he has made for himself: his tattoo parlor and his two employees and best friends Bronx and Trixie. Of course, to call Trixie a friend may be a little bit of an understatement. He is head over heels for the beautiful elf in hiding. He knows she has secrets, but as he learns why she is on the run, the two of them become closer and closer.I had some issues with the characterization of the two main characters however, which I will detail below.

Oh, and she was running from some nasty guys who wanted to force her into a marriage she didn't want. Angel’s Ink indelibly marks the beginning of something phenomenal and every reader whose tastes run to the supernatural—those who can’t wait to sink their teeth into the latest Patricia Briggs, Carrie Vaughn, Kelley Armstrong, or Jim Butcher—will want to fly with this Angel.And then the invisible hand released me. Holding my throat, I rolled onto my stomach and looked up at where Simon had last been standing. The air rushed from my lungs. Trixie stood behind him with one arm thrown across his chest, her other hand holding a large knife tightly against his throat. I don’t know how she’d managed to sneak past us both unnoticed, but I wasn’t going to question this change in events. He is gearing up for some battle for his life and he has to do it without getting caught using magic, which of course is not going to happen. I'm bored of this. I'm done. I don't care what happens to any of these characters. I'm not finishing this book, but I gave it 2 stars because frankly, the world is awesome. Overall, I just found this book to be a lot of fun. It’s Harry Potter for grown-ups (and yes I realize several adults have read Harry Potter myself included!) This was definitely a great start to a new series that guarantees to only get better. I can’t wait to see more of Gage and Trixie’s growing relationship and to see if Gage will have to forfeit that year in the underworld with Lilith. There are so many questions left unanswered and I’m truly glad some were left open as I don’t feel it would be much fun if everything was wrapped up in a nice neat bow at the end of every book. This leaves so many possibilities for Gage and his friends and promises of things to come in the next book; a book that I can’t wait to read! This is more of an urban fantasy(UF) than a paranormal romance(PNR); in fact the romance in here is pretty weak. The love scenes that are here are poorly written and awkward, so if you are looking for a good PNR this isn’t it.

There are some important things that Gage must keep secret. But at the end of the book he is sitting outside with his two friends telling them everything. Someone could have been listening nearby.Angel’s Ink had been sitting in my Audible library since December 2017, so I couldn’t say I was in a hurry to get to it. Audiobooks aren’t my main format for reading, so that’s not much of a surprise. I guess I got it because it was on sale and the blurb seemed really interesting and pretty much had everything that could hook me to a book. The funny thing is, at the time I didn’t have a tattoo yet (but I wanted to have one!) or the blog (funny coincidence with the series title, but then I don’t believe in coincidences), so I had no idea what a good fit it’ll be within 2 years, hah! Angel’s Ink is an other-earthly blend of magic and technology in the best tradition of urban fantasy that refused to let me go. The continuing Asylum Tales promise to be intriguing and wildly inventive.” After reading the second prequel to this series, The Asylum Interviews: Trixie, I just HAD to read this book! And, I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed!! Angel’s Ink is an other-earthly blend of magic and technology in the best tradition of urban fantasy that refused to let me go. The continuing Asylum Tales promise to be intriguing and wildly inventive. Kim Harrison