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.
Why I read It: No particular reason, I just saw it and liked the blurb.
Review: I've seen so many mixed reviews on the blogosphere for Angelfire and so didn't have great expectations for it, which is good because while I did like this book, it was only okay for me.
Firstly, I want to get the ranting out of the way. I hated the heroine of this book, my days, Ellie was so annoying! At first I thought she was pretty awesome and would break the age old cliche of stupid, whiny heroines but nope, she just carried on the trend. Firstly, she's rich, she has massive parties at her house and an expensive car bought for her, but is always moaning because her Daddy's a bit mean. She also let's Will protect her all the time, she's meant to be THE MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THE WORLD.
Will was sweet, yeah, but he was typical. Mysterious, mythical, tall dark and handsome, he also has a nice scottish accent. I liked Will but he didn't bring anything new to the story. I did like their romance, it developed at a nice pace and they still weren't together by the end which was really good.
The story was original, whilst angels/demons theme wasn't the way that it was put was original. I really enjoyed the storyline and it's great development and pacing. The writing was good, despite a lot of brand dropping and despite all of the issues I did enjoy it.
Will I be getting the sequel? Yes, but it isn't a MUST READ, it's one that I'll add to the list.
Overall, Angelfire had a few character issues but a good plot line and pacing.
Overall Rating: C+
Stand alone/series: First in a series
Release date: 15th Febuary 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book recieved via Read It, Swap It
Great honest review, I still haven't read this one but the summary really caught my attention.
ReplyDeleteThe ya cliche of reluctant heroine/dark, mysterious, tortured stranger gets old for me if there isn't a lot of originality in the rest of the plot. I have heard mixed things about this one too and am on the fence about whether I should read it or not. Thanks for the honest review though!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being honest! I just got this one from a swap, so I'll be reading it soon and see for myself if the heroine really is so cliche'd as you say she is! :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't like Ellie much at the start, but I felt she did get better at the end. Thought the plot was pretty cool, so will be reading the next one too! Great review :).
ReplyDeleteThe reasons you mentioned you didn't like it are exactly the reasons I dont think I'd like it either..I might give it a go when it's a bit cheaper
ReplyDeleteThe Cait Files