Mundie Moms

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Book Review- Angelfire

By Courtney Allison Moulton
Published by Katherine Tegen Books/Harper Teen
To Be Released on February 15th, 2011
Source- ARC from author/publisher
4 stars- I enjoyed it.

This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.

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 (quoted from Goodreads).

Angelfire presents a new, unique spin with it's Angel mythology. It's one I found intriguing and presented in a unique way.

With the help of her Guardian, Will, Ellie's memory comes back in bits and pieces over the course of the book. In so doing, she begins to remember her past lives, the terrible reapers she's hunted down and destroyed, when she met Will, how she's died and who and what she is. Ellie is the chosen one. She's the one who can end the Good vs Evil war, the only problem is she's more human now than she's even been and those human emotions are causing a problem.

I had a hard time with Ellie not getting all of her answers she asks about her past lives, which she asks a lot. Being this powerful being, I wanted to know more about her, take for granted there is more that will be revealed in the next book. I liked that Will is there to help her re-awaken her powers, and gives her short answers to who she is by training her and protecting her. What kept me reading this story was Will and Ellie's relationship. I liked getting a little glimpse into their history together and seeing how they both have changed and the sacrifices they've made to be together. I wanted the chemistry to be more than what it was, but at the same time that's exactly what kept me reading the book. It's a complicated, forbidden romance that made me want to yell out loud at them to just kiss and get it over with and at other times had me mentally yelling, "finally."

I really liked Will. He's so devoted to protecting Ellie, and training her. Where she lacks self confidence, he has faith in her and her abilities. Though he's not human, I really related to his wanting to do the right thing and not become like the monsters he's fighting against. There's so much more to his character that I'm looking forward to getting to know about over the course of the series. I liked that both Will and Ellie both see the good in each other that they both lack to see within themselves.

Ellie is a character who can be a tough, kick butt type of girl you wouldn't want to cross when she's in her fighting mode. I really like this side of her character most. I didn't connect as much with her human side. Maybe if I was in high school and was reading this I would have liked that side of her more, as she likes being with her friends, partying and is trying to make her mark in the world. It's this whole other side *keeping it spoiler free*, the one that Will brings out of her, that seems to give her a sense of who she really is going to become character wise. There's so much more I am eager to know about Ellie and Will's past and what's gone on between them, as the little teasers Courtney gave me left me wanting more. I liked the secondary characters and can't wait to find out more about them and Ellie's parents. I think that there's something hidden about her father, and I'm anxious to see if my hunch is correct. There's a lot of things left unanswered that leads into the next book and I'm looking forward to finding out what the answers are.

Angelfire has a lot of great action, a chemistry that kept me turning the pages to see what would happen with Ellie & Will, and has me looking forward to reading more books in this series. There is some violence, mentions of domestic violence and underage drinking that may not be suitable for all readers. I'd recommend this to YA readers 16 & up.

*We are giving away an ARC for Angelfire on Monday, as part of our Birthday Bash. Next month we'll be giving away a signed ARC of Angelfire, which will be our debut book of the month.

4 comments:

  1. Been looking forward to this book for a while. Glad to know you like it :-)
    (I take the MM's book reviews quite seriously!)

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  2. I absolutely LOVE Angelfire! I thought it's complex, romantic, and very engaging. I'm glad you enjoyed it too!

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  3. Thank you for your comments!

    Rachel- Thank you for the compliment. Now I'm worried... I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. :D

    DJ- I agree! I loved the chemistry w/ Will.

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