THE ANGELS' SHARE is book two in J.R. Ward's new contemporary soap opera-ish series, The Bourbon Kings. This is a very different series than Ward's beloved Black Dagger Brother books. The Angels' Share, and The Bourbon Kings series, are contemporary books that have some romance in them, but the focus is more on the multi-generational family and their massive problems as they teeter at the top of the viperous food chain as a Kentucky Bourbon empire. Wow, these people have P-R-O-B-L- E-M-S. It's like a train wreck. I don't want to watch, but it's so mesmerizing that I can't look away.

That being said, book two did not make me as uncomfortable as book one, THE BOURBON KINGS. Is that because I knew what I was getting into as I started it, having already devoured book one last year? That's probably a little bit of it. But somehow, THE ANGELS' SHARE was just not quite as compelling to me. In THE BOURBON KINGS, I feel like I spent half the book shaking my head, and saying to myself, "Wow, these people are SO screwed up." I only shook my head in morbid astonishment for about 20% of the book this time. Maybe I am expecting the over-the-top dysfunction the characters exhibit and just rolling with it better this time. As with book one, when I finished book THE ANGELS' SHARE I found it hard to articulate what was so engrossing about these whack jobs. It's the 80s soap opera Dynasty writ large in the 21st century, and I think something in humans makes us want to vicariously roll around in other people's misery, especially if we feel they should know better and DO better than what they actually are doing.

Ward is such a talented writer that I love the story, even as I dislike almost all the characters. There are a number of mysteries, including the possible murder versus suicide of the patriarch of the family, and the possible embezzlement of a massive amount of business and personal funds. There are several romances entwining through the books, several of which definitely feel star-crossed. The lush descriptions make Kentucky and the rarefied bourbon aristocracy spring to life. The taut interactions between the many battling characters keep the tension ratcheting ever higher. Ward's THE ANGELS' SHARE is an utterly mesmerizing glimpse at the lifestyles of the flawed rich and the famous that we should all be glad we aren't living.