YA Book Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Release Date: 15 February 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Won from Bewitched Bookworms

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Goodreads description:

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.

My Thoughts...

I have been looking forward to reading this book for a long time...since February when it came out.  When I won a signed copy from The Bewitched Bookworms, I was in heaven.  The ideas in this book seemed so unique/original and I was really looking forward to it. (Do you see where this is going?)  I am really good at over-looking "angsty teen" syndrome and even insta-love, but this drove me crazy in this book: the "whiny rich girl" syndrome.

When the book starts out, Ellis seems like a normal teenager: good group of friends (incl. a BFF), some family issues at home, trouble in school, etc. I thought everything was just fine...until the whiny-rich-girl syndrome started to kick in full force. I almost couldn't get past it.  When Ellie has her 17th birthday party, all I could think about is that terrible reality television show, "My Sweet 16."  Ellie and her bestie do little besides drive around in expensive cars, go shopping at high end designer stores (with mommy and daddy's credit cards), and party.  At one point, Ellie decides she needs to change her clothes and when Will asks her why, she says this: "Because I don't like wearing the same outfit all day." I had to put the book down for a few minutes after that line.

Okay, I'm done ranting. I swear.  Because despite that ^, I really did like this book.  Actually, once you get into the fighting and more adventurous plot in the book, Ellie's whiny attitude fades into the background quite a bit. The concept of reapers was really unique and interesting.  I found them quite fascinating and well-developed.  The different types and their powers were interesting to learn about as the story unfolded.  It is also really interesting to watch Ellie slowly come into her memories and powers.  I liked her relationship with Will a lot.  While there is definitely the instant attraction there,  I thought that the time that it took to establish any kind of relationship was well-done.

Despite the above ranting, I am actually looking forward to the sequel, set to come out in February 2012.  I think that remembering her past lives is/will help Ellie to tone down her attitude and learn to take more responsibility.  There is also some wicked foreshadowing with some people in this book that left me knowing I must find out what happens.  I also can't wait to see how (if?) Will and Ellie's relationship will develop further and what new, dangerous adversaries they will encounter along the way.

This is my second "HarperTeen July" post! (3 of 5)