Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Review: Angelfire: Courtney Allison Moulton


Angelfire: Courtney Allison Moulton
Synopsis: Goodreads
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.
Cover:
   So I don't really like his cover it's kind of blah compared to how amazing this book was! I would of been cool if it was an action shot of Ellie attacking a reaper or of her and YUMMMMY WILL. 
My Review:
       Okay I have so many things to say about this book and a lot of it is good. I really enjoyed it for so many reasons, so I am forewarning you, this might be a long one, but you will just have to wait and see. **Some spoilers**
                Okay so to begin I am a huge of fan of stories that start right away very naturally without feeling forced. By page 35 the male lead Will had already made his appearance and was telling Ellie about her true identity. The author did a lot of describing yet I didn’t feel overwhelmed. Ellie’s family was kinda rich and so were most people in this town. I thought that was a nice change from all the other books were the main girl is kind of just regular and they don’t care about their clothes or much of anything. The book flowed at a good pace and there was always something going on.
                Let’s now begin with Ellie. I actually really liked her. She seemed very strong, non whiny, smart, and very realistic. I like how she had friends that actually seemed like they were her friends, her BFF actually seemed like she really knew her cared for her. I enjoyed how even though Ellie was rich she wasn’t a snob. I loved how she would want to smack the crap out of Will for driving her insane at times and being so cryptic. There were times I was thinking in my head come on Ellie just smack him maybe that will get Will to talk!!! Ellie was just so strong at times. Like when she wanted to tell Will how she was feeling she made sure not to say anything because how the situation played out. She was able to make herself vulnerable without being walked all over. Even at times when she wouldn’t know what to think, she didn’t go straight into denial for the next chapters. Even though at times she would be thinking about Will she never turned not even a smidge stalkerish. One last thing about Ellie is that she is smart. When Will was explaining to her how the world worked you know Reapers are evil and that's the way things are,she questioned it and didn't automatically accept it. She has a mind of her own, and even though things might falling apart al over her she remains cool.
          Okay now WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay many have seen random postings of mine about Will and his yummyness. When I say he’s yummy it’s because he is! He’s a good mix of yummy, sexy, honest, cute, funny, sarcastic, mysterious, strong, vulnerable, smartassness and other words I can’t think of.  I loved how he has served Ellie for 500 years yes that’s right I said it, ,he has stayed by her side for 500 years. Even waits for her to be reincarnated 20 years or so to help her remember to be a preliator and serve as her guardian. I liked how the author didn’t automatically make Will a dick and make Ellie chase after hime throughout the majority of the book until he gave up and told her a little bit of the truth. No instead he sought her out, gave bits and pieces of information, and still maintained mysterious and trustworthy. (IE… Fallen: lauren kate) Some of my favorite scenes were when he would tell Ellie “so like yeah, I was hoping you would remember on your own by now but you haven’t so BTW I’m a reaper!)” He would say it so calmly! Omg and all those romantic scenes!!! So much tension, the way he would look at her or the things her would say…………, I almost screamed when I found out in all those 500 years of being together that was the first time they kissed. What self control!! It’s so hard for me to put into words the various parts I loved about Will because there are so many that I can’t remember them all. Just know if not for anything else this book is definitely something to read because of Will!!!     
                I enjoyed the side characters a lot. Ellie was going through a lot with her parents. I mean her dad WOW OH WOW can you ASSSHOLE!!!! I really thought man he must be possessed I think he’s a reaper, (btw this is still my guess even though it has not been proven and no evidence but who knows maybe book 2 will reveal my theory!) His character though hard to read was very intense and real. The mother she was extremely caring and just want the best for Ellie and really tries even though she’s really lenient. Kate her BFF had me laughing with her personality. She seemed to care Ellie a lot and I have feeling (another theory in the making) that she will be finding out Ellie’s true secrets. Landon seemed very realistic, just because he liked Ellie doesn’t mean he was automatically turned into part of a love triangle.  He likes Ellie for a long time but that doesn’t mean that he’s pining over her and now how will Ellie ever choose between the two!
                Though I loved many things I enjoyed there were a few I was not a fan of but very few. Okay so Ellie got a brand new car I mean $30,000 audi andof course the author rips it to shreds. Every time some type of damage was bestowed on the car I cringed and I couldn’t believe her parents did not kill her.   With that said in this world of angels, fallen, reapers, arch angels, I kind of expected them to I don’t know have potions to fix stuff. I don’t know like when her car was ruined or during her partied when she was thrown through the window I mean everyone saw that and I thought that was huge but it wasn’t made into one which bothered me a bit. (I don’t know it’s weird) Another thing that bothered me and I find kind of annoying in books are long fight scenes. I mean I understand she kills reapers so I know she has to fight but I just feel it should not be more that 2 pages of battle or else I feel like I have ADD and get bored or can’t concentrate on the book because I don’t know what’s going on.  I mean when I was almost done and the big climatic scene came where there was a big fight I think it lasted like 10 pages or so. I tended to put the book down at that point because I can’t read that much action I am the type of reader that likes reading dialog. I couldn’t get the concept of what the arch angels were the fallen, the reapers. I didn’t understand it and I couldn’t tell what was what and why. I still don’t know it just was kind of confusing.
                So overall I think this was such a great debut for this author. Awesome storyline that reminded me of other books but yet was still very unique and different. It has a good paranormal romance, action, story line,, and characters. I am very excited and sad because the book was really good so I want to read the next one but since this book just came out a few months ago who knows when I will be able to read the next one. So all in all a great book and must read! Thanks for those who stuck it with me, and read my long long review!
                                         4
HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK!

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a awesome book, great review thanks(:
    ps love the book cover, her red hair is beautiful!:D

    lisa
    http://turningpages94.blogspot.com/

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  2. Your blog is beautiful! This books sounds excellent. Like you, I get tired of the hero always being a jerk to the heroine yet she still chases after him. These two sound like they're soulmates and partners in every way. A more realistic take on love. Very nice review.

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  3. Thanks for the great review, Melissa! I'm so glad you enjoyed Angelfire!! And yes I love VA tooooo!!! XDD

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