Postcard For Reader

Angelfire

Angelfire
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton
Series: Angelfire (#1)
Publisher: HarperCollins
How Received: gift

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.
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I have so much love for Angelfire. Everything about this story is bloody brilliant - brilliant writing, brilliant characters, brilliant plot.

This is the only take on angels so far that I've liked. It's a well fleshed out idea that's not soaked in Christian imagery; it's fantastic. Details from the beginning of the story came to play a part in the end of the story. I don't think a single plot point was dropped, actually - only unanswered ones that will be, hopefully, answered in the next novel.

The thing that makes this story, though, isn't the brilliant plot. It's the characters. Every single one is brilliantly written (I'm going to abuse this word; it applies so perfectly) and generally badass. Take our lovely main character, Ellie, for instance. Not only is she kicking ass and taking names, but she's real - she's got her flaws and got her friendships and she's a very normal teenage girl who just happens to have these mega-awesome powers.

Will is sexy as hell, and real, and imperfect. He's got his (sexy) flaws and he banters back and forth with Elle and it's fantastic. One of the reasons I think I love him so much is his relationship with her. They're not making out because they can and they're not ZOMGINLOVE. They care for each other, but they're friends, and their relationship isn't perfect by far.

Actually, they remind me a bit of Brennan and Booth from Bones - partners who care for each other and save the world from bad guys. And the fight scenes are like Buffy, where you have the badassness and banter and humor and darkness and everything that a good fight should have.

The side characters are epic, too. All of them are fleshed out and real. Her friends all have different personalities and do different things and live real high school lives, and the more fantastical side characters just leave me craving to know more about them. (Bastian and Cadan anybody!?)

I did mention Will was sexy, right?

This book is just bloody fantastic; it comes out today (today, TODAY!) - I highly recommend running and picking up a copy.

Overall Rating & Final Comments: 10/10. Buy it now. It's fantastic.
Cover Comments: I talked about this cover a few weeks ago as one of my Friday Fronts posts.