Book Review: The Mephisto Covenant

By: Trinity Faegen

Published by: EgmontUSA

To Be Released On: September 27th, 2011

Source: ARC from publisher to review

3.5 stars- A Good, Fascinating Read

Purchase from: Egmont| Amazon| Barnes & Noble

Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger—she is an Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx’s biggest threat.

A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant—God’s promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he’s finally found the girl he’s been searching for: Sasha.

With the threat of Eryx always looming, Jax knows he has to keep Sasha safe and win her over. But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life

A debut that's fascinating, dark, and engaging. Trinity Faegen's unique, mesmerizing mythology introduces readers to a whole new world between angels and demons and gives it a twist with romance, deception and redemption.

Trinity has put a fascinating twist on various religious themes in her book. By putting a creative spin on some well known Biblical figures, she was able to create a rich, intriguing mythology and introduce some rather unique characters that I enjoyed getting to know. From the Sons of Hell to Sasha, the Anabo whom is a descendant of the daughter of Eve, to the twist with her Russian mother and the KGB to the CIA, this book has a such a variety of interesting characters. Not to mention a romance I enjoyed despite the fact it falls into a cliche of other YA romances, but there was just something different about Sasha & Jax. Yes they are both tortured souls, because they want each other, but there's so many "what if's" and things that could go wrong that they shouldn't be together, but yet they can't help but fall in love with each other.

Sasha for me started off as character I really liked getting to know. She's an Anabo, which is rare (as in she's the second one the Brothers of Hell have ever found), she's of course very Godly, she's innocent, and embodies everything that is good. She doesn't get tempted, she doesn't stray from the path so to speak and has a one way ticket into heaven. Like a few other angels books I have recently read, I found myself starting to get really frustrated with her half way through the book. Part of that is due to the fact she's an angel, and yet she falls into the human trap of emotions, and temptations, and the other part of it has to do with some of the repetitiveness of her constant worries and being torn with her feelings for Jax and not wanting to be an Anabo. By the middle of the book she started to really annoy me, which was unfortunate because she has some great character traits. She does redeem herself towards the end of the book, but by then I wasn't as invested with her character like I had started out being.

I really enjoyed Jax and his brothers, also know as the Brothers of Hell aka the sons of Mephistopheles. I found their mythology to be the most creative and engaging to read about. Jax is a Mephisto and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about him. He's bound to earth with his brothers to collect the souls of the damned and to defeat their older brother Eryx. Talk about pure evil, Eryx is someone whom I wouldn't ever want to come across. Jax is the main love interest and despite being a Brother of Hell, this guy has a conscience. I really enjoyed seeing how he changes after he meets Sasha. Their relationship is one that's destined and also troubled, because there's huge risks for both of them in being together.

One of the things that intrigued about both the mythology and their relationship is the way Jax's Mephisto infects Sasha each time they kiss. I liked that anthology because she's light and he's dark. Throughout the book, Trinity isn't afraid to show how dark some of the characters turn when they decide to "sell their soul" or lose themselves in their selfish endeavors. Let's just say that Sasha's side effects to turning are ones similar to PMS. She's someone who could bring a guy to his knees if they ticked her off (which she does), she starts to feel angry (which she has every right to be) and she's someone who's words can cut like a knife. There's a scene between her and Jax's brother Phoenix that really ticked me off w/ her. I was applaud she would say the things she does to him.

Phoenix is another fabulous character that I really enjoyed getting to know. Jax and Phoenix have a great relationship and the two of them really made the story for me. It's ironic that these two are the ones that I felt did the most good through out the story. I also felt more of an emotional connection to these two. Despite having a broken heart that Phoenix has been trying to get over for over a hundred years, his wit and sarcasm was written in at just the right moments within the story's dark plotline.

With it's captivating cover and an incredibly creative mythology that takes the latest craze with angels and demons to a whole new level, Trinity Faegen's debut is one that is both engaging and intriguing and was in the end a good, fascinating read. This is one of those books that I'm torn on. I started out really enjoying this book, then around the middle I put the book down, and picked it up again, thankfully, because some of the things I was bothered with are redeemed by the end of the book. There are sensual scenes, a non graphic sex scene that do go along with the story's mythology between the Sasha & Jax, there's also some violence, an attempted rape scene and some language making this book one I'd recommend to older YA readers.