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karireyn's review
4.0
I really liked this book. This is the first Angel book I've read and it was a great one to start out with-it got me sucked into the genre and I love it!
audreychamaine's review
3.0
Ellie thought turning 17 might mean more freedom, a new car, and the opportunity to have an amazing birthday bash with her friends. What she got was demonic reapers terrorizing her, superhuman fighting abilities, and numerous opportunities to lie to her parents and come up with alibis to cover up why she’s wrecking things and coming home covered in blood, but with no visible injuries. Luckily for her, she has a new, mysterious older guy will to fill in the blanks on who she really is (The Preliator, a warrior with the power of angelfire, who dies but is always reborn), and to protect her at all costs. But Ellie is having more trouble remembering herself than she ever has before in other lives, and there’s something fishy going on in the reaper world. If she fails this time, her death may be forever.
I liked how Angelfire started out well enough. A young girl awakens to demon-fighting superpowers had real appeal to me as a Buffy fan. I had a good time reading the fight scenes, although I got frustrated at the fact that Ellie held back at the beginning each time–you’d think after the first couple she’s get over the freaked-outedness and immediately start whailing on the enemy from the get-go.
I also really liked the points when we’d get to see Ellie in a flashback of her previous incarnations. Those were often more interesting to me than the current Ellie, so I hope future books will have even more. The nightmares and memories were the most creative part of the book.
My least favorite part: anytime Ellie acted like a typical American teenager. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Moulton can make her protagonist act however she wants. However, the mall shopping and movie theater stuff just didn’t appeal to me. I guess I was hoping that Ellie would transform into more of a strong female, less focused on materialism, but that isn’t the character on the page.
Still, I was into the story and concept up until the big reveal. (I won’t spoil it). At the end, the story went in a direction I didn’t expect, and went down a notch on the originality scale for me.
Angelfire is, overall, a lot of fun, and will certainly appeal to many YA readers who are into the supernatural/action/romance type of story. Questions remain unanswered, and hopefully will be resolved in later books (my burning question: is Ellie’s father actually a Reaper in disguise?).
I liked how Angelfire started out well enough. A young girl awakens to demon-fighting superpowers had real appeal to me as a Buffy fan. I had a good time reading the fight scenes, although I got frustrated at the fact that Ellie held back at the beginning each time–you’d think after the first couple she’s get over the freaked-outedness and immediately start whailing on the enemy from the get-go.
I also really liked the points when we’d get to see Ellie in a flashback of her previous incarnations. Those were often more interesting to me than the current Ellie, so I hope future books will have even more. The nightmares and memories were the most creative part of the book.
My least favorite part: anytime Ellie acted like a typical American teenager. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Moulton can make her protagonist act however she wants. However, the mall shopping and movie theater stuff just didn’t appeal to me. I guess I was hoping that Ellie would transform into more of a strong female, less focused on materialism, but that isn’t the character on the page.
Still, I was into the story and concept up until the big reveal. (I won’t spoil it). At the end, the story went in a direction I didn’t expect, and went down a notch on the originality scale for me.
Angelfire is, overall, a lot of fun, and will certainly appeal to many YA readers who are into the supernatural/action/romance type of story. Questions remain unanswered, and hopefully will be resolved in later books (my burning question: is Ellie’s father actually a Reaper in disguise?).
patke's review
1.0
Likes
-The premise is very promising.
-Dialogue between characters was fun, for the most part.
-I liked that Moulton was very graphic when describing injuries. There were a couple sentences about tendons and ligaments showing and I got pretty excited!
-Ellie's mom was probably my favourite character. She was motherly: worried, strict, kind, loving.
Dislikes
-I thought the beginning was very slow because Ellie focused on her personal life a lot. I thought she would make fighting a priority but she didn't. It took me a while to get into it because for more than half the book, Ellie was chilling with her friends, not focusing on the major issues at hand.
-I couldn't connect with Ellie at all. Probably because I couldn't understand her motives and reasons for doing the things she did.
-In fact, I couldn't connect with any of the characters. They were very inconsistent; they said one thing, did another. Personalities didn't correspond to decisions and actions, especially for Ellie.
-Ellie and her friends were not the type of people I would get along with, which is why I didn't like them as characters.
-Sometimes the dialogue was awkward. I mean, I don't go around calling my friend a "hooker" for going out with someone. I know it's a joke but the word choice is just...weird.
-Ending wasn't really climatic for me.
To Sum It Up
-Wasn't the book for me.
-Didn't capture and hold my attention.
-Didn't care for any of the characters.
-Dialogue was engaging though.
-The premise is very promising.
-Dialogue between characters was fun, for the most part.
-I liked that Moulton was very graphic when describing injuries. There were a couple sentences about tendons and ligaments showing and I got pretty excited!
-Ellie's mom was probably my favourite character. She was motherly: worried, strict, kind, loving.
Dislikes
-I thought the beginning was very slow because Ellie focused on her personal life a lot. I thought she would make fighting a priority but she didn't. It took me a while to get into it because for more than half the book, Ellie was chilling with her friends, not focusing on the major issues at hand.
-I couldn't connect with Ellie at all. Probably because I couldn't understand her motives and reasons for doing the things she did.
-In fact, I couldn't connect with any of the characters. They were very inconsistent; they said one thing, did another. Personalities didn't correspond to decisions and actions, especially for Ellie.
-Ellie and her friends were not the type of people I would get along with, which is why I didn't like them as characters.
-Sometimes the dialogue was awkward. I mean, I don't go around calling my friend a "hooker" for going out with someone. I know it's a joke but the word choice is just...weird.
-Ending wasn't really climatic for me.
To Sum It Up
-Wasn't the book for me.
-Didn't capture and hold my attention.
-Didn't care for any of the characters.
-Dialogue was engaging though.
livarleth's review
3.0
I give this 3 stars because it was a well written book and the story was interesting as well. The story just never really interested me. Maybe I have read to much YA. But the story isn't really the typical YA story so I don't really know why I never really got absorbed in the book. I simply just don't feel like finishing it, though I'm sure that there are lots of people out there who likes this book or are looking forward to reading it.
My conclusion is that it is probably a very good book but it never really made sense to me. Other people will probably feel differently.
My conclusion is that it is probably a very good book but it never really made sense to me. Other people will probably feel differently.
thenightofcups's review
3.0
I enjoyed this book because it was right up my alley. It was urban, and very Buffy-like. Will was shockingly NOT an asshole (unlike what we've seen recently in YA fiction IE: Edward, Patch, Lucas), and I liked him very much. Ellie was kind of a strange character. There's not a lot of consistency with her, and I really felt the whole time like I was just on the cusp of reading something really great but never quite got there. I sense Ellie, but not enough of The Preliator. There needs to be more of that. Even when she regained her memories, she was still too much of Ellie. I get that she's become more human, and that's a big part of it. But still. I just wanted more intensity from her. The only time I felt that was when she was talking to Will about their forbidden love.
I believe her father is being possessed by a Vir. Just throwing that out there.
I believe her father is being possessed by a Vir. Just throwing that out there.
jeremybost's review
3.0
It was okay. I wish the girl's powers had arrived faster, though. And a bit too much of the novel was caught up with rich people's parties and love, etc.
bexsbookshelves94's review
2.0
This review and more can be found at:
Reading Under the Covers
This book has always been one that I have wanted to read for a long time and I was incredibly disappointed if I had read it when I was a lot younger then I am now I might have loved it but I just didn’t.
I am not sure what was worse. The character’s or the story writing. The story at it’s core had so much potential to be an amazing story but it just wasn’t.
The writing was very sloppy and felt like it had been written by a teenager. It lacked a lot in storytelling and it was slightly all over the place which made a lot of this story very confusing to follow that I found myself getting more and more lost as the story kept going.
The characters we’re such a bore. There was no character building and they all lacked a personality. A main character should have the best character building in the book, after all they are the one taking is through this story but this main character was just boring and I feel like she didn’t grow at any point in the story. She was the worst main character ever and it was just awful.
I so very much wanted to like this book and I just couldn’t and I hate that fact. It had so much potential but a brilliant book. The ‘mythology’ within the book gave it a good foundation to build in but nonetheless I am incredibly unhappy with this book.
Reading Under the Covers
This book has always been one that I have wanted to read for a long time and I was incredibly disappointed if I had read it when I was a lot younger then I am now I might have loved it but I just didn’t.
I am not sure what was worse. The character’s or the story writing. The story at it’s core had so much potential to be an amazing story but it just wasn’t.
The writing was very sloppy and felt like it had been written by a teenager. It lacked a lot in storytelling and it was slightly all over the place which made a lot of this story very confusing to follow that I found myself getting more and more lost as the story kept going.
The characters we’re such a bore. There was no character building and they all lacked a personality. A main character should have the best character building in the book, after all they are the one taking is through this story but this main character was just boring and I feel like she didn’t grow at any point in the story. She was the worst main character ever and it was just awful.
I so very much wanted to like this book and I just couldn’t and I hate that fact. It had so much potential but a brilliant book. The ‘mythology’ within the book gave it a good foundation to build in but nonetheless I am incredibly unhappy with this book.
_camk_'s review
5.0
I loved this book. What a brilliant debut novel by Moulton.
There is everything I love in a good fantasy YA novel. A strong herione, monsters, a cute boy and lots of action.
I liked Ellie because she was a three dimensional character. She was accessible and believable.
Will was also a very well written character. He knew what he needed to do and tried not to let his feelings get in the way.
Cadan was also a cool character who I hope to see more of in the next book.
However, I did hate Ellie's dad. There's more going on there I think than Moulton let on so lets hope that gets cleared up in the next book.
Although, parts were slightly predictable I still really really enjoyed the book.
There is everything I love in a good fantasy YA novel. A strong herione, monsters, a cute boy and lots of action.
I liked Ellie because she was a three dimensional character. She was accessible and believable.
Will was also a very well written character. He knew what he needed to do and tried not to let his feelings get in the way.
Cadan was also a cool character who I hope to see more of in the next book.
However, I did hate Ellie's dad. There's more going on there I think than Moulton let on so lets hope that gets cleared up in the next book.
Although, parts were slightly predictable I still really really enjoyed the book.