A Hundred Words for Hate by Thomas Sniegoski

 This book is fourth in the Remy Chandler series, which consists of A Kiss Before Apocalypse, Dancing on the Head of a Pin, Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Hundred Words for Hate, In the House of the Wicked, and Walking in the Midst of Fire at present.

Remy (Remiel) has finally listened to his friend's advice and begun to date once more, though he is still fighting with his grief over Madeline's death. He is forced to stand up his new belle, however, when he is contacted by one of the Sons of Adam...literally, one of Adam's direct descendants, who have survived through the centuries as an extremely long-lived cult whose sole purpose is to guard Adam, who is still alive thousands of years after his exile. As we immediately wonder, and are answered fairly quickly, "What about the Daughters of Eve?" Well, they turn out to still be around, as well, though they hate the Sons with a passion which has not dimmed through the millenia.

The author blends old Judeo Christian mythology about angels and the battle of Lucifer and his Fallen into the weave of this tale quite skillfully, and perhaps blasphemously, but it really turns out to be a marvelous story, with plenty of backstabbing and double-dealing from perhaps everyone but Remy.

It seems that the Garden of Eden, Man's original home, was cut loose from contact with earthly reality after the Fall of Man, and has been drifting out of contact ever since, but the signs and portents indicate that it is about to return, and be accessible once more. Each faction has some reason or use for the Garden, and Remy, who as it turns out was the angel assigned to seal the Garden away from everyone back at the time of Lucifer's rebellion, is caught up in the swirling mix of agendas, trying to do his angelic duty without assuming his angelic form and nature once more.

Another fine story in the series. I need to backtrack and find book #3, and then move on to five and six, which are evidently in print now.