Wednesday, February 16, 2011

review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

pub date: February 15, 2011
publisher: HarperCollins
pages: 464
Source: NetGalley
challenges: debut author, 350 page, ebook
appeal: fallen angels, teen romance, supernatural, strong female narrator
content: scattered swearing, violence, some underage drinking

goodreads:
When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.
 
me:
Well, I'm rather sad to say I didn't enjoy this book much. Especially since I read all 464 pages of it. Honestly, I had no idea it was this long when I requested it from NetGalley.

Why didn't I enjoy it? Mostly I didn't buy into the premise. I am able to suspend disbelief for post apocalypse, dystopian, supernatural, and paranormal, but apparently not for fallen angels. Once a fictionalized God and religion get in there, I just don't buy it. It all seems rather ridiculous. So, that ruined the book since that was the whole point.

There were other things--Will reminded me of a faithful little puppy dog, the way he followed Ellie around everywhere. It was too long. I wanted Ellie to care less about her high school friends (like I did) and more about fighting grim (which was the fun part). And I wanted her to remember more about her past, and a lot quicker!

I think Angelfire will appeal to a lot of readers, especially those who like fallen angel books. It's exciting and has an interesting plot. Ellie is a strong heroine, she is a warrior and there are a lot of well written fight scenes. There is some forbidden romance, which is always fun. Will is a good (non-human sort of) guy, even if he did remind me of a puppy.

This just wasn't my kind of book. I think I need to stay away from fallen angels...

3 comments:

The Insouciant Sophisticate said...

I didn't really like Angelfire either especially because Ellie was so wrapped up in her "normal" high school life when that wasn't very interesting. Will also paled in comparison to Will from Sophie Jordan's Firelight, IMO.

Enna Isilee said...

I'm with you. Totally.

melissa @ 1lbr said...

You know, I didn't make it past the first third of the book. I'm sure it is a great book for someone, but for me, right now, I couldn't finish it. Love to hear the thoughts of someone who did :)