Monday 20 December 2010

Angelfire review

Angelfire
Courtney Allison Moulton
15th February 2011
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. (goodreads)



I received this book for review courtesy of Netgalley and Harperteen. (And I love them for it :D)


I loved this book. I know I love a lot of books, but this book was awesome. No, not just awesome, this book was Bad-Ass. Completely, totally and utterly Bad. Ass. And I loved it so much for that, because I haven't read a bad-ass book in a long time.


Ellie was awesome, because despite the fact she was kick-butt, she was so human (which did remind me a bit of Buffy, but please, that is a high compliment from me. When I start making comparisons with Buffy, that equals high levels of awesome.[and by this, I don't mean the plot, I mean Ellie's character was slightly reminiscent of Bufy, in a good way] I'm going to stop digging a hole for myself now...) In the book it is revealed that Ellie is the Preliator, the warrior, who fights and kills all of these monsters called Reapers, with the aid of Will, who I will fangirl about later. I could completely relate to her in the way that she didn't want to do this, she didn't want to be the Preliator. Her reasons to be upset were valid, but at the same time, I would be quite happy if I woke up one morning, a pretty man came up to me and said he was my guardian, and it was revealed that I could suddenly kick butt. That sounds pretty awesome to me. But the nightmares and the constant dying kind of detract from that, I guess. That would be pretty scary. (also, on a pretty unrelated note, despite the fact her dad was a bit of a meany [I have my suspicions about why] her Mom was actually there for her, unlike most of the absent parents in YA fiction. Just wanted to throw that in there ;D)


The Reaper society and hierarchy was really well done, and I became really interested in how the Reaper world functioned and worked, and that there were several different types of Reaper, varying from the chilling Vir to the brutal and uncompromising strength of the Ursids, which I thought was really interesting, and I'm eager to learn more about them in the next two books.


Will. I seriously love Will. He is so sweet, strong, handsome, amazing, you get the point. He's just so swoonworthy, but alas, I cannot love him, because he's Ellie's. And that ending! I'm backing Ellie and Will to get together all the way. If they don't, I will be so annoyed. They're so good together!


There was so much action in this book, and I loved every minute of it. There really aren't enough kick-butt chicks in YA, apart from Katniss and Katsa, of course, and it's a shame, because I think it's awesome. Don't get me wrong, it's all good and well when a dashing man jumps in and saves the damsel, but it can get a bit tiring to constantly read about these wet sappy little girls who don't have a clue how to stick up for them selves. And I want myself a pair of Khopesh swords, because they're so great. Seriously, I mean they have gut hooks and everything. Also, I liked that it wasn't afraid to be gory. There was that bit with the fight with Ragnuk, where half his face had been practically burned off. It was gross, but I loved it all the same (that sounds weird...)


Overall, this book was SO GOOD. And I'm so happy that I got it off netgalley, but now it means I have to wait even longer to read book 2, Wings of the Wicked (I love that title, by the way) which is going to be awesome. And the ending it so good as well! As I've said. Totally Bad-ass. I loved it. When it comes out, read it. Seriously. It's kick-butt. 5 stars :D

3 comments:

  1. somehow I missed this title on netgalley, just requested it!

    hopefully I get approved :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This one sounds so awesome! I LOVED your review. It was fun to read. The minute you mentioned Buffy I knew I could trust your opinion and I'm totally following you now :) I agree, we need more kick butt (but not obnoxious) female characters.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great review! I just ordered this book a few days ago and I cannot wait to get it! I'm glad to hear that Ellie is such a strong character--I'm so sick of reading about whiny, needy female characters as of late--it will be a breath of fresh air. :)
    I just started a review blog, so maybe you could follow me or if you have any advise, I would love to hear from you! Thank you!
    http://909reviews.blogspot.com
    -Angel
    P.S, I'm your newest follower. :)

    ReplyDelete

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