ENVY OF ANGELS by Matt Wallace – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Envy of Angels by Matt Wallace
Series: Sin du Jour #1
Published by Tor.com on October 20 2015
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 225
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads

The nitty-gritty: A laugh-out loud skewering of the fast-food industry, filled with funny dialog and memorable characters.

I have to admit, when I first saw the cover for Envy of Angels, I immediately filed it in the “I hate the cover so I don’t want to read this book” compartment of my brain. Typically I don’t respond well to silliness, and a book cover with chicken nuggets on it was just too much for my delicate sense of humor. But then I read a couple of rave reviews, and soon after I hooked up with Tor.com and was sent an e-galley, and that’s all she wrote! Clearly I loved this novella, and I’m excited to already have the next installment, Lustlocked, loaded on my e-reader and ready to devour. (Yes, that pun was intended.) While I’m still not crazy about the cover, I can see where the design team was going, because yes, chicken nuggets play a big part in the plot. If you’ve never heard of Matt Wallace, then get ready, because he’s earned a position on my “auto-buy” list.

Welcome to Sin du Jour, a catering company that caters to some, well, very unusual clients. Their latest job is to serve a gathering of two rival demon clans whose tastes run to the…exotic. Chefs Darren and Lena are recruited to help the owner of Sin du Jour, Byron “Bronko” Luck, with the preparations and serving of this very important job, but Darren and Lena have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.  When Bronko unveils the main course for the evening—an angel!—his employees decide to take a vote: do they kill an agent of God to appease some very dangerous demons? Or do they try to fake their way out of it and spare the angel’s life? What follows is a hilarious story about a group of desperate chefs and their search to perfectly recreate angel meat. What do angels taste like? How do you replicate angel blood soup? And how does one infiltrate the corporate offices of a major fast-food chain in order to steal their most secret recipe? You won’t find out until you read this fast-paced and non-stop laughter-inducing story.

Not only is Wallace’s story wonderfully fresh and creative, but his dialogue is so funny it had me laughing out loud. The circumstances his characters find themselves in are absurd to say the least, but that makes for a ridiculously funny tale with plenty of great lines. This is an ensemble cast, as all the characters play equally important roles. From the team whose job it is to secure all the hard-to-find ingredients for the meal, to newbies Lena and Darren who are way out of their league, to the owner of Sin du Jour himself, I had a blast with each one.

I didn’t think the story could get any crazier, but guess what? It did. The antics keep escalating up until the very last page, and even an over-the-top ending couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Wallace manages to infuse his story with heart, amidst all the hilarity, and I can’t wait to get started on Lustlocked. Highly recommended for readers who love well-written humor.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.