End of Year Read-A-Thon Update

Jenny from Juliababyjen's Reading Room and Dana from Danasquare are hosting a Read- A- thon from December 9th - 22nd called End of the Year 2013 #ReadingCram.

So it's Monday evening and I thought I should make a post about my progress during the first week of the read-a-thon, so here it goes.

This week I've read a total of 724 pages and 2 and 1/2 books.

• Angelfall - 151 pages 
• Body and Soul (Ghost and the Goth #3) - 316 pages
• How to Ruin your Boyfriends Reputation - 257 pages
  
  
  

I have also managed to cross off some of my goals :)

• Complete my goal of 50 books for the year (COMPLETED)
• Read the final book in two different series. (COMPLETED)
• Participate in 3 of the daily challenges 
• Reach 20/26 for my A-Z challenge (currently at 18/26)
  
     

 Books I'm hoping to finish by the end of the Read-a-Thon

Review- Angelfall (Susan Ee)

Synopsis  

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.

 - Goodreads.com

 My Review

AMAZING!!  Just wow, after that ending I am breathless, speechless and in need of picking my jaw up off the floor. From the blurb on the back the plot sounds pretty straightforward, Penryn our main heroine aims to seek out the whereabouts of her younger sister who was taken by an angel warrior. But the author manages to take this plot and weave a story of mystery and intrigue, with a touch of romanticism. 

The story opens up with Penryn along with her mother and sister, escaping their home in the night, trying to seek solice in an apocalyptic San Fransisco. During their escape attempt, a group of Angels ,cause of the destruction and harbingers of the apocalypse, swoop down in pursuit of one angel, who they precede to fight and cut the wings off. Leaving him bleeding in the middle of the street, but not before stealing Penryns younger sister.Penryn then teams up with the angel, Raffe, whom she saved from bleeding out in the streets, and their adventure begins. Each with their own agenda in mind; Penryn to save her sister and Raffe to get his wings back. 

Susan Ee, does a great job with world building and character development. Despite most of the story revolving around Raffe and Penryn, even secondary characters are given a distinct personality. There is Penryn’s mum, who is ....let’s just say it... she’s certifiably insane. A schizophrenic, with hallucinations of demons, who carries rotten eggs as keepsakes, and is the cause of her youngest daughters paralysis. Then there’s Obi, the leader of a resistance camp set up to try and take down the angels, he’s level headed, fair, and patriotic. 

As for the main characters, Penryn is a kickass heroine. She’s strong, reliable, loyal and isn’t afraid to take anyone down even if they’re twice her size.  Then there’s Raffe, picture of flawlessness and perfection. He’s got a smart mouth, and is cocky as hell (excuse the pun), and the sexual tension between the two is palpable at times.

“He says my name as though he is tasting something new, rolling it over his tongue to see how he likes it. There’s an intimacy in the way he says it that makes me want to squirm” Penryn, Angellfall (Susan Ee)

This book also has just the right amount of creepiness and gore, to keep those who think a book about angels would be light and cute. 

“She bites into the angel’s throat. Worries it like a dog with a chew toy. Pulls back from the gushing torn flesh. Spits out a chunk of bloody meat. It lands with a wet thunkon the floor next to the other bits of flesh” Penryn, Angellfall (Susan Ee)

There were a few things in the book that I wish there had been more of, angel lore being one of them. The story of “The Watchers” is briefly mentioned, angels sent to earth that took human wives. The fruit of their copulation; the Nephilim, brought destruction to the earth. “The Watchers" were condemned as punishment and made an example of for other angels. Infamous angels are also name dropped, Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, but we learn little about them in the book apart from Michael being a warrior and Gabriel being the messenger of God. I would have loved to learn more about these angels and their back story. Which brings me to my next point.

Throughout the story we learn very little about Raffe’s history, only that he was responsible for killing the abominations of angel/human relations, the nephilim, and that he is strictly against relationships between humans and angels. I can only hope that in the next book we learn more about his past....

Overall this book was fantastic, and deserves more recognition in the YA community. Its a paranormal/ apocalyptic/ romance/ action/ adventure... pretty much there is something for everybody. So I urge you to pick it up NOW!, I honestly don't believe you'll regret it.

Things I loved about the book:

• We jump right into the action from the start, no unnecessary build up. It starts fast-paced and keeps it up the whole way through.
• The author does a great job painting the scenes of a torn apocalyptic city, full of dangerous but beautiful angels, and deadly humans with nothing left to loose.

  Things that I didn’t so much like about the book: 

• Nothing. But I would have liked more about angel history and more regarding Raffe's backstory.

My rating: 5/5