Angel of Music ebook

Having read the stellar reviews of this book, I bought it and eagerly awaited for it to arrive. I love Phantom of the Opera spin-offs, even though I have yet to read one that I think is true to either Leroux or ALW, and I was hoping to be impressed by this one. Sadly enough, I wasn't.

The book is set directly after Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical ends. Having read Leroux and seen the musical over a dozen times, let me first say that I have NEVER doubted that Raoul, to the best of his abilities, loves Christine. In this book, however, Raoul suddenly becomes very out of character and turns into a drunken jerk. Many fan fiction writers seem to use this cheap ploy to get Christine and Erik back together again and I'm tired of reading about it. Perhaps they feel that they can only get Christine and Erik together if they write Raoul horribly out of character - that says something.

So now that the author has conveniently eliminated Raoul as a romantic rival by zapping his true character and replacing him with his evil twin, Christine leaves him and returns to the Opera to get the monkey music box that once belonged to Erik - oh, I'm sorry, the Angel of Music (AoM). Poor Erik isn't called by his name in this book; only one character knows his name and he doesn't even say why he knows it when no one else does. It apparently wasn't enough to rob Erik of his charm, backbone, and personality - his name must be taken away too.

Anyway, Christine manages to make her way down to the AoM's lair and finds him there. She initially thinks he's dead but once she discovers he's alive she is determined to make him better. She enlists the help of her conveniently-never-mentioned-until-now-but-so-dear-to-her-heart friend, Dr. Joseph Graham, and somehow AoM survives. AoM decides to see if he can convince Christine to love him - except this time he's going to use romance instead of intimidation. Throw in a priest and a marriage, and that's the book in a nutshell.

The author needs an editor very badly; the numerous punctuation errors were quite distracting, especially the author's fondness of commas. After one hundred glaring punctuation errors I gave up and stopped counting for the sake of my sanity, but I was still irritated by the numerous spelling errors and incorrect verb tenses.

I never got involved with this story - there was just something about how the book was written. I felt as I was being told the story, rather than being allowed to immerse myself in it. The pacing was confusing - the first few chapters dragged but by the end of the book years were passing by with just a sentence or two to mark them.

The characterizations, or should I say lack of them, are horrible. AoM is just a shadow of his former self - gone is his allure, his power, his charm. He's just a devoted puppy who runs after Christine and begs for attention. Once in a while things get interesting but it's always too little, too late. Christine is even worse - she is a complete child and never grows up in this book. She had no reason to act mature - if things didn't go her way, she'd pout like a spoiled brat and enlist the aid of the priest and/or the doctor to back her up and make AoM see the error of his ways, for she was always right and anyone who disagreed with her was always wrong. I swear, if I EVER again have to read about how beautiful Christine is and how ugly AoM is (and how he should never forget this), I will scream. Raoul, as I have previously mentioned, was apparently taken over by his evil twin. The doctor is a classic Sue - he was a combination psychic/psychologist, for he seemed to know what everyone was thinking and how they could solve all of their problems with ease.

This book really enforces the prejudice against self-published authors with good reason. I have read much better fan fiction for free online and I have read fan fiction of the same poor caliber for free as well. Do yourself a favor - skip this book and spend your money on something else.

From the Militant Recommender Book Review Blog
[...]
D.M. Bernadette's Angel of Music is a follow-up to Leroux's classic and what might have been had Erik lived and Christine come back to him. It is beautifully written as the author creates a romantic Victorian style narration which sets the mood for her lovely, dreamy vision of life in and around (and under) the Paris Opera House.
It begins with Christine sheltering in Raoul's lavish home after he rescues her from the Phantom's lair, or rather she saves him when Erik allows them to leave. She is living in her own room and recovering, though as time passes, she has trouble forgetting one aspect of her time underground with the Phantom. His kiss. The kiss she gives him to save Raoul's life. It should have meant nothing. Been distasteful, even, yet, whenever she thinks of it... it thrills her!
Not long after the occurrence they are visited by a police inspector named Berneau, who interrogates her and insinuates Christine may have been something more to the Phantom than she is letting on, which she can only deny so much. Stressful as this all is for her, Raoul insists she accompany him, as his fiance' to a party given by friends, where, not only is she the center of gossip... Raoul is regaling his friends with stories of the Phantom and Christine and making things worse for her, so much so... she realizes she has finally had enough. She will never fit into Raoul's world and he doesn't seem to love her as much as when he thought he had to fight the Phantom for her. Now that Erik was dead... the passion seemed gone and he never so much as kissed her, because he could still picture her in the Phantom's arms. She leaves Raoul for freedom and her father's modest home where she can live on the small stipend he left her.
As she happily cleans her small home she decides she would love something to remind her, not of the Phantom so much as her Angel of Music, some token belonging to her long time teacher and the one who truly loved her as she was.
The Opera House is closed after the tragedy there, still she finds her way to the cellars far below and with her lantern searches for the paper-mache monkey music box she knew was dear to him. What she finds, instead, is the heart of this entrancing love story. Erik is still alive, but just barely and it is Christine's decision whether to save him or let him go. Without a doubt, Christine, and the author, bring Erik back to life. He is, here, incredibly passionate, yet maintains a bit of the old Phantom, suspicious at times and even harboring thoughts of violence. New characters are introduced and are a wonderful addition to the world of Erik and Christine.
I discovered Angel of Music while searching for new Phantom fiction to read and this is one that Phans will embrace as Ms. Bernadette creates a viable alternate reality for our beloved characters! Don't miss this one!

"Angel of Music," by D. M. Bernadette, is a touching, romantic story of the love between Christine Daae and her Angel of Music. In the weeks following their escape from the opera house, Christine and Raoul realize that Christine does not fit into Raoul's society circle of friends and lifestyle, and they call off their engagement. Christine begins to reminisce about her time as the pupil of the Angel of Music and remembers the Phantom's monkey music box. She goes to the now closed opera house to search for it in the Phantom's cellar. She finds something even more precious.

I found this book to be very entertaining, although not without its flaws. The author has some very clever ideas. I especially liked the imagery of the evil Phantom versus the good Angel of Music. Christine declares that the feared, murdering Phantom of the Opera is dead; only her beloved Angel of Music remains. It did bother me, however, that the Angel is rarely referred to by his name, Erik, even by Christine. Only one character seems to know Erik's name, and how and why he knows Erik's name is never explained. The ending of the book seemed rushed, as well, with the first nineteen chapters covering eight years of time, and the final four chapters cramming in twenty-two years of life. I also noticed several word-choice and typographical errors that should have been corrected in editing. For example, "make due" versus "make do, "loosing" versus "losing," "in tact" versus "intact," "preformed" versus "performed" and "gristly" versus "grisly."

Even with the aforementioned flaws, I liked this book. Christine and her Angel were well suited to each other. I also enjoyed the details of life in the opera house and the new characters of Joseph, Henri, Thomas, Fr. Gaston and the persistent police inspector Berneau.