Saturday, March 19, 2011

Book Review: Angelfire

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton - (2011 Debut Author Challenge: 2 of 12)


"First there are nightmares. Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

"Then come the memories. When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street corner at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the keys to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

"Now she must hunt. Ellie has power that no one else can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember." (Cover blurb on book).

Before I joined the 2011 Debut Author Challenge, I found an interview with the author of this book on a web page. The cover and the cover blurb caught my interest immediately. When I found the 2011DAC a few days later, I knew I had to sign up. What better excuse could I possibly find to buy more books? And once I registered, this book was added to the list without a second thought.

After finishing it, I have to say that I'm glad I read it. From what I've heard, a lot of people are writing angels these days, but this is the first book I've read in a while including that kind of subject matter. It was a nice change from vampires, which are okay, but I've read a lot of those recently. Besides, this book also deals with reapers, which are pretty awesome if you ask me.

The main character was realistic. Her voice had a nice flow to it, and I found myself reading a lot faster than I wanted to... because I like to make my books last at least two days. The side characters all had their own voices and Ellie's friends all sound like teenagers, which was good. Of course, like always, my favorite character was a side character and a villain.

Over all, I found the storyline to be engaging. The overarching plot line was interesting and I found myself wanting to find out more about Ellie's character, as well as the world of the reapers. And while all of this supernatural-big-picture stuff is happening, there's the part of Ellie that is desperately clinging to her old life, which makes it easy for the reader to relate to her.

On the whole, I genuinely liked this book and I'm looking forward to the second book.

This book can be found in stores and online:

Angelfire

Happy reading!

PS: I think I'm doing away with the rating system from here on out. I'm finding that it's really difficult to determine what sort of rating I would give a book, when my opinion tends to change on a day to day basis. If you would like to see the rating system continue for book reviews, let me know! I'm willing to keep it if it's important to you.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

There should be a new post within the next few days,
so keep your eyes open!

K.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The TBR List

You know what we need around here? A TBR list. I don't know about you, but I have a To Be Read pile that's nearly taller than me (Granted, I haven't stacked them all up, so I can't say for sure). Which means... I think I'm going to keep a running list on here.

  1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
  2. The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher 
  3. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
  4. Plain Kate by Erin Bow
  5. Darklight by Lesley Livingston
  6. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
  7. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  8. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  10. Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
  11. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
  12. Mocking Bird by Suzanne Collins
  13. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
  14. The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
  15. Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier
  16. The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
  17. The Seeker by Phil Morimitsu
  18. Dracula by Bram Stoker
  19. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
  20. Daughter of Exile by Isabel Glass
  21. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  22. Basilisk by N. M. Browne
  23. Choke by Chuck Palahnuik
  24. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
  25. The Book of Dreams by O. R. Melling
  26. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
  27. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanne Clark
  28. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
  29. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  30. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  31. Sabriel by Garth Nix
  32. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  33. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  34. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
  35. The Teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda
  36. Ulysses by James Joyce
  37. Primavera by Francesca Lia Block
  38. Ecstasia by Francesca Lia Block
  39. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  40. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Volume 1: The Pox Party by M. T. Anderson
  41. Eldest by Christopher Paolini
  42. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
  43. The Psychology of Consciousness by Robert. E. Ornstein
  44. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
  45. The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) by James Patterson

(That list is rather longer than I thought it was... considering the fact that those are only the 'for fun' books and only the ones on my shelves. I'm not sure if I ought to be sad or happy about this).

What is on your TBR list?