Book Review: Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee
Release Date: 23rd May 2013

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Format: Paperback 
Pages: 282
Rating: 4.5/5.0

This book was read as part of the 2013 ODY and 2013 BSR

Summary from Goodreads:

"It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again."

Review:

At first, I thought this book was exactly what I was expecting - a girl fighting for survival, teaming up with an angel, and against all odds, they work together and even start to like each other. The plot, albeit there were some things in there I wasn't expecting, was pretty much going to way I expected it to. And then BAM, in the last 100 pages, we turn the dial up 1000, shit gets real and so much happens that you're just left mindblown.

So lets talk about the first 150-200 pages or so first. For me, this went pretty much as I expected it to. Whilst I haven't read a post-apocalyspe book before, when you take that away, you're left with a plot that you've read before. Two enemies, a girl and an extremely attractive guy, are forced to work together. They might not get along, but the hurdles they have to get over brings them together, and eventually, they start to like one another. It's a story you've read before. And that disappointed me a bit, because I had heard such good things about this book, and so far, it wasn't living up to my expectation.

And then the last 100 pages happen, and so much gets thrown your way that you just don't know what to do with it. And the creep dial is turned to the max, with some pretty creepy ass stuff going on. Can I just say, exploring the angel's world in the second book is going to be pretty interesting - I need to find out what's the deal with all the children! The end of this book is just so good, I don't understand why the beginning had to drag. Maybe it's just me, and the fact that I read a lot of these books, but the plot at the beginning could have been a bit stronger to match the ending. Either way, the ending brought this home and brought what I was thinking as a 3.5 book up to a 4.5. I'd love to give it a 5.0, just for that ending, but with a weak beginning I just can't. 

Moving away from the plot, everything else worked. Being my first post-apocalypse book, I found exploring the new world, the world of the angel's, very interesting. And our characters were interesting as well. Whilst I think Penryn is your stereotypical heroine, Raffe was fascinating - he's definitely not what you'd expect an angel to be like. And let's not forget Penryn's mother. Her illness fascinates me, and I think it has a lot more to do with the angels - hopefully more on her will be revealed in the books to come.

So overall, this is definitely a book I recommend. If you had the same problem as me, and thought the beginning wasn't anything spectacular, stick with it - because that ending if just too good to miss. 

 

Book Review: Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) by Laini Taylor
Release Date: 6th November 2012

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Format: Paperback 
Pages: 513
Rating: 5.0/5.0

This book was read as part of the 2013 ODY and 2013 BSR

Summary from Amazon:

"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is--and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?"

Review:

**This review has spoilers! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself). Read at your own risk!**

Ahh this series. It just gets better and better - which means I'm super excited for the final instalment next year (I mean, who isn't?!?). It's just soooo good guys.

Right, so onto the book. Now that Karou knows all about her past, she's travelled to Eretz to help the chimaera with their new rebellion against the seraphim. On the other side, we've got Akiva grieving over the loss of Karou, and as punishment for everything he's done, he forces himself to continue fighting the seraphim's battles. 

From there, a range of events occur, ranging from the terribly sad, to the downright awesome, to crazy moments where shit goes down. And every single thing that happened in this book, I absolutely loved. The story went places that I wasn't expecting, this occurred that I could never have predicted, and I absolutely love that. These days, predictability in books can be an issue, so it's always refreshing to come across a book that doesn't fail to surprise you. 

There were a multitude of POV's in this book, which I'm always a fan of since they usually keep me extra interested in the story. We got to hear from Zuzanna, Akiva, various chimaera and seraphim, but I particularly liked reading about Karou and her POV, now that she has her chimaera memories. It was interesting to see how Madrigal influenced her personality and decisions - how she had this fierce need to redeem herself with the chimaera because of Madrigal's actions, and also this overwhelming desire to do Brimstone proud because of what he did for her, in both her Madrigal and Karou life. It was interesting to see how she managed her chimaera and human sides.

Overall, everything I loved about the first book was carried through in the second. I absolutely love this series, and I couldn't recommend it enough.