pub date: September 27, 2011
publisher: Little, Brown and Company
pages: 418
source: Christmas gift
appeals: angels, magic, contemporary, romance
content: sex (not descriptive), some swearing?
thoughts:
Odd. Strange. Original. Bizarre. Exciting. Surprising. Odd...very Odd. Romantic. Enjoyable. And lets not forget, Odd.
There were a lot of aspects of this book that I normally don't like in books I read. And yet in this story, all together, they worked.
For one example, angels. I find the idea of fallen angels ridiculous and I have a hard time taking angels seriously in my fiction. But in Karou's world, angels aren't fallen from heaven, they're a race of people (creatures? folk?) from a different world. And that works. I liked that.
There were other aspects that I would normally avoid, but really liked here, but I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not going to mention them. Just know, this is a really cool, original, exciting, and odd book.
I'm excited for the next in the series. I'm worried about how things were left at the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and how I'll find things with Days of Blood and Starlight. I will say that I thought it was a non-ending. Just a break in the continuing story without a conclusion. Another thing that usually bugs...but not so much here.
summary:
Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
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...
