As much as I like to complain about all the Angel books being written recently, I sure do keep on reading them.
Putting that aside, I enjoyed this one a lot. Angels are evil and are out to feed on humanity. Awesome.
So, the story starts with Willow who can see people’s future. And when the Angels find out she can do this, one comes after and sees that she is the key to their destruction. Then every Angel in world is out to find and kill Willow. Not to mention their horde of human worshipers.
Oh, by the way, when the Angels feed off of humans, the experience is like having the most wonderful experience of your life. You’ve been blessed by an Angel. So, when I say horde of human worshipers, I mean a horde that will do anything for these angels.
Willow and an Angel hunter named Alex end up on an American cross country road trip looking for somewhere safe and trying to figure out what Willow is and why the Angels think she can destroy them.
What I really liked about this book is that it didn’t have to be Angels. In fact the Angels are basically aliens that resemble our myths of Angels. They don’t actually fulfill the myths. They are not connected to God in anyway. At least, not that we know of by the end of this book.
What I LOVED about the book was Willow and Alex. Alex is seventeen years old but everyone always thinks he’s older because he’s lived such a hard life. Watching his emotional journey alongside the physical one he has to take with Willow is wonderful. From wanting to hate her, to realizing that he admired her, to be so scared of loving her, each step made perfect sense and felt natural.
Willow didn’t do anything stupid. And this is saying a lot in young adult fiction. She didn’t make a phone call thus alerting people to their whereabouts. She didn’t spend the entire book doubting Alex’s affection for her. She was smart and resourceful, sad about having to leave her whole life behind, but ultimately eager to help beat back the threat of the Angels. The doubts that Willow did have were completely warranted as one of the first conversations she has with Alex is about how he hates a certain part of her. The same part that makes her different from everyone and that forced her to leave her entire life behind. I love intelligent female leads and Willow was definitely one.
I loved these two character apart and I loved them together. And the book is mostly the two of them, together, in a car. But it doesn’t drag or seem repetitive. Ms. Weatherly keeps it fresh and exciting. Car chases, shootings, narrow escapes, mystery, romance, and cool powers. This book had everything.
There was a lot of point of view shifting in this book. I am not really a fan of this. However, it wasn’t too bad in this one. And it felt, if not necessary then…well, it would’ve been a completely different book without it. Different characters were told in different perspectives too. It took some getting used to. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more had it all been in third person. Or at least, it wouldn’t have needed an adjustment-grace period-thingy.
The ending was fantastic. It had a conclusion, while still leaving everything up in the air and keeping the threat real. I also loved Alex at the end. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but he just has some good realizations and takes good actions.
If you take a look at Goodreads you may notice that this book is not yet released in North America. Luckily I had a friend bring it back from England for me. I mean, lucky for me…not you. Anyways, I tried and tried to find a North American release date and I couldn’t. I couldn’t even find a North American publisher. If anyone has this information, I would love to add it to this post. Please share.
Edit: A nice person from Usborne (the UK publisher) has shared that North American version will be published by Candlewick in May 2011! Yay!
If you want to find out more about the book visit the Angel Fever website. Or follow @Angel_Book on Twitter.