Digital review copy received from publisher through netGalley.
[synopsis from 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.Since the description for Goodreads is right on the money, I am not even going to bother with my summary. I'm going to jump straight to the review and my reactions.
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.
Oh my goodness was this a great angel type book. The books coming out this year dealing with angels are above and beyond the ones from last year by a long shot. Ellie is a strong ,but ordinary teen. Which was a breathe of fresh air for once. She was so unlike other YA paranormal romance characters that I was smiling when I started reading this one. I just knew I was going to like Ellie and for that matter the rest of the characters. While Ellie was great I also enjoyed her best friend Kate, a great friend even when Ellie is not giving her the whole truth. So it was nice to read about an average teen who comes to realize that they are no so average. There was not a lot of drama from love triangles or friend disputes, so definitely my kind of book.
So often in paranormal novels there is some type of overdrawn romance that just makes me sick. Angelfire has romance but not over the top romance. When Will showed up as her Guardian I was prepared for some major romance, but was rather surprised at how well the romance was down. The romance did not dominate the book and for me at least I didn't think it played a big role until the end of the book.
But what really got me on board with this book was the fact that it took place in Michigan. Has a Michigander I love to see books taking place in Michigan. There are just not enough books that take place in Michigan, plus as a librarian I am always looking for Michigan authors or books that take place in Michgian. Plus my Alma mater Michigan State gets a few mentions throughout the book, so just for that this book moved up a few notches!
The writing was excellent. The writing just flowed nicely, wonderful pacing made for easy reading. No jarring stops or shifts story line. The flashbacks that Ellie experience were well done. Overall great writing, I will be looking for the second book in this series when it is released. So if you are tired of angel books from last year, I will suggest you give this one a type it is a fresh take on angel books and YA paranormal romance in general. Just an all around refreshing book to read. Highly Recommended.
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