Review brought to you by OBS Staff member Annabell Cadiz

Note: Many spoilers contained!

Synopsis:

Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures hunting her, killing her. But when Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie’s power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness.

Ellie’s role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives, and for truths that may be too frightening to remember.

Review:

If you are an author, let me give you a warning in advance: NEVER send a reviewer the uncorrected proof of your book for a REVIEW! It’s just not a smart idea. I got an uncorrected version of Angelfire and the grammar mistakes aside, the book was interesting and a good effort, but can use a LOT of work.

The very opening of the book was just so utterly boring. The entire first chapter was just so pointless. I had to fight to not put the book down and actually give it a chance. I found most of the time while reading this book, I had to fight the urge to completely give up on it. The writing style needs a lot of work.

Well the main character Ellie is supposed to be portrayed as the heroine within the novel, I think she could use some work. Simply because she is constantly thrown into fight scenes doesn’t mean she is a strong female character. She acts more like a damsel in distress through having Will protect her. She also makes incredibly stupid decisions, i.e. going out to drink with her friends when she knows she has enemies after her. She really just started to annoy me by like chapter three. The way she spoke was just too ‘immature teenager’ and had the quality of a yelping puppy, painful to the ears.

As much as I appreciate Will’s attempt at playing a stalker, he was just too creepy. There is a way to portray stalker like qualities and make it fun. Will was too evasive, he never wanted to answer any questions or be open. As much as I can appreciate the dark and brooding male lead, he was just as annoying as Ellie. I guess the author strives to make Will the protective, loving, male lead but he was self-indulgent and had no real depth. That was also Ellie’s problem, there wasn’t any real depth to her either, she was just another teenager. The only thing that set her aside was the fact that she was given the task of being the Prelaitor but she doesn’t live up to the hype of her gifts.

I really hated the fact that Will kept having to hit Ellie on the forehead to activate her powers. I would have understood Will having to do it the first time but he kept doing it, and it made Ellie seem incapable of handling her own gifts which inevitably is true throughout the book.

The dialogue was too forced and too clumsy. There was no soul behind the dialogue. Ellie CONSTANTLY had a question and Will was walking around like he was an open encyclopedia in such a monotone like way. It made sense that Will would have so many answers since he had spent five hundred years watching over Ellie but there are just things Ellie needs to learn on her own, and some things don’t need to be verbalized. Too much of the story was being told to the reader instead of allowing the story to show it.

The only real thing that the book did well on was the mythology behind the plot. You can tell the author did a great amount of research and created a thoroughly intricate and elaborate plot. I was very surprised when Archangel Michael showed up and enlightens Ellie to the truth of who she is: Archangel Gabriel. That was a really great twist and one I did not expect.

Even though the book is very action packed and that did keep me from putting the book down, the fights scenes even lacked depth. The novel felt as if the author had written a ton of fight scenes to make up for the fact that she seemed to lack the ability to add passion, heat, to the fights. Ellie and Will just seem to fight because that’s what the author wrote, not because they were determined to rid the world of evil.

The romance between Ellie and Will was too cliche throughout the entire novel. Secret mysterious boy comes into girl’s life, helps show her who she really is, and proclaims he has always been in love with her. Girl suddenly goes from hating him to being madly in love with him. The only time I really cared anything at all about their romantic relationship is toward the end where Will finally confessed his love but tells Ellie he can’t be with her because he is her guardian. I liked that the book didn’t end with a happy bubbly ending.

Angelfire is a decent read. There are small aspects of the novel that are enjoyable and interesting but not enough to take time out of your day to read.