Michelle Rowen
348 pages
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Source: NetGalley
★★★☆☆
You can read the Goodreads summary here.
Samantha is an ordinary high school girl until one night she and her BFF go to an all-ages club where Samantha finds herself being kissed by her long-time crush. Dream come true, right? Wrong. Turns out her crush has just sucked the soul right out of her body. Now she's hungry all the time, but it's not for food... it's for souls. Enter Bishop, a fallen angel sent along with a rag-tag group of accomplices to set everything right again. But instead of killing Samantha like he's supposed to, he takes her on as one of the group and together they must come together to stop the woman behind the whole thing.
I've never read anything by Michelle Rowen before, so this was a bit of a first for me in that aspect. But considering I've read a few fallen angel books in my day, it wasn't totally new to me. I did appreciate the spin Rowen put on the whole fallen angel aspect, explaining that heaven and hell balance each other out in the amount of souls they have and I found that aspect of the story very interesting. It really sets this book apart from the other YA angel novels on the market right now. Although, it was just a little frustrating getting to that point of understanding because Bishop and his crew are pretty insistent of keeping Samantha in the dark for as long as possible, so the reader remains confused right along with her for a good chunk of the book.
As for the characters, I thought they were pretty flat. Bishop is pretty brooding, which is typical. I hate to say it, but I found Samantha's character to be pretty flat. I found myself wondering what Samantha was motivated by, it wasn't entirely clear to me. We don't get to know much about her and her relationship with her mother seems more like acquaintances than mother/daughter. What I did like was the bond between Samantha and her best friend. I really appreciated that even though there were times when being friends was hard, ultimately they were there for each other until the very end of the novel. This is a thread that will be carried on into the next novel and it's what will keep me reading into the series.
Three stars overall. I liked the story, but ultimately it didn't really do anything for me personally. But, if you're a huge fan of YA paranormals featuring fallen angels and/or the delicate balance between heaven and hell, you will love the beginning to this promising series. The book will be released May 29th so go check it out!
This book was ok for me, and i will continue to read it to see what happens next..great review.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh! I have this on my TBR, was hoping to get to it sooner... that's the thing about angel books, sometimes they just fall flat. I really liked Embrace though, have you checked out that series yet?
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