Angelfire by Courtney Allison MoultonPublication Date: February 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books
Genre: YA (Young Adult)
ISBN-13: 9780062002327
ISBN: 0062002325
(Received for review from Harper Collins via NetGalley)
Purchase: Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Books-A-Million, IndieBound
If you live in Morehead, KY or the surrounding area:
Purchase from our local independent bookseller: CoffeeTree Books
Borrow from our local library: The Rowan County Public Library
Courtney Allison Moulton on the WEB: Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter
Excerpt from Angelfire
Book Trailer:
Synopsis (Barnes & Noble):
First there are nightmares.
Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.
Then come the memories.
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 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. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.
Now she must hunt.
Ellie has power that no one can match, and her 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 truths that may be too frightening to remember.
Thoughts:
Courtney Allison Moulton's debut novel Angelfire takes the regular angel stories and turns them upside down. Reincarnation is subject that has fascinated people for centuries and readers will find Moulton's take on this subject refreshing and very interesting. With angels, reapers, and some all out battle scenes this author wasn't afraid to change up regular angel and demon relationships.
Ellie Monroe is having nightmares. She can't quite put her finger on what she's afraid of but it stalks her dreams. Something is always just under the surface as the dreams intensify and she begins to have what appear to be latent memories. When Ellie meets Will she is opened up to a past that she never expected. Having lived hundreds of lifetimes as a warrior fighting against the reapers who would steal the souls of humans, Ellie must re-learn everything she has forgotten as she tries to save the lives of those she loves. Ellie's ability to weld the powerful "angelfire" against the demonic reapers may be the only thing that can save them.
All I can say about this one is: Wow! Courtney Allison Moulton wrote this book for NaNoWriMo a few years ago, which gives writers 30 days to create a story, and flesh out the characters and details. To be able to write even the preliminary draft of something like this is amazing. This author has mad skills! She has basically flipped the traditionally accepted ideas of heaven and hell, angels and demons, and other mythological characters on their ears. It is a very refreshing plot and will appeal to those who love YA fiction in a great way.
Ellie is a strong female lead. Though she considers herself a typical teenager, with all the problems that go along with boyfriends, high school and friendships she is so much more than that. When Ellie meets Will, who is essentially her guardian she begins to learn some very heavy details about herself. It is a lot to take in, but Ellie's character does it, moves forward and goes with it. She has a plethora of boys fighting for her attention: Will, who stands in the background, her sexy best friend Landon and Caden the bad boy, who ends up on the wrong end of the battle... How is she supposed to choose with all these options? It adds a lot of tension and romance to the story and keeps the heavier aspects of book in check.
The battle scenes were a lot more in depth than I expected and I was really enthralled by how the author was able to convey the sense of urgency and life or death decisions being made in the blink of an eye. I loved the whole idea of Ellie trying to find out things from her past lives that would allow to get a feeling for who she really was. In the end I think she came in to her own and took things as they came instead of trying to justify her actions. I felt like she grew a lot from the beginning of the book. It was not a only a battle for good and evil, but a journey of self discovery.
The supporting cast had a huge impact on the story itself and I felt like the author had a great sense of character development. I felt like I knew the minor characters almost as well as Ellie herself. That makes the story flow so much easier, when you aren't trying to figure out where each person fits. When the author takes the time to really show you how people are interconnected and what their relationships are, it helps to become engrossed in the book and develop feelings for the characters.
Angelfire is available for pre-order until tomorrow when it becomes available at your favorite bookseller.
I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!
Courtney Allison Moulton lives in Michigan, where she is a photographer and spends all her free time riding and showing horses. She has always loved reading about ancient mythologies, studying dead languages, and telling scary, romantic stories. Angelfire is her debut novel.
First there are nightmares.
Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.
Then come the memories.
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 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. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.
Now she must hunt.
Ellie has power that no one can match, and her 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 truths that may be too frightening to remember.
Thoughts:
Courtney Allison Moulton's debut novel Angelfire takes the regular angel stories and turns them upside down. Reincarnation is subject that has fascinated people for centuries and readers will find Moulton's take on this subject refreshing and very interesting. With angels, reapers, and some all out battle scenes this author wasn't afraid to change up regular angel and demon relationships.
Ellie Monroe is having nightmares. She can't quite put her finger on what she's afraid of but it stalks her dreams. Something is always just under the surface as the dreams intensify and she begins to have what appear to be latent memories. When Ellie meets Will she is opened up to a past that she never expected. Having lived hundreds of lifetimes as a warrior fighting against the reapers who would steal the souls of humans, Ellie must re-learn everything she has forgotten as she tries to save the lives of those she loves. Ellie's ability to weld the powerful "angelfire" against the demonic reapers may be the only thing that can save them.
All I can say about this one is: Wow! Courtney Allison Moulton wrote this book for NaNoWriMo a few years ago, which gives writers 30 days to create a story, and flesh out the characters and details. To be able to write even the preliminary draft of something like this is amazing. This author has mad skills! She has basically flipped the traditionally accepted ideas of heaven and hell, angels and demons, and other mythological characters on their ears. It is a very refreshing plot and will appeal to those who love YA fiction in a great way.
Ellie is a strong female lead. Though she considers herself a typical teenager, with all the problems that go along with boyfriends, high school and friendships she is so much more than that. When Ellie meets Will, who is essentially her guardian she begins to learn some very heavy details about herself. It is a lot to take in, but Ellie's character does it, moves forward and goes with it. She has a plethora of boys fighting for her attention: Will, who stands in the background, her sexy best friend Landon and Caden the bad boy, who ends up on the wrong end of the battle... How is she supposed to choose with all these options? It adds a lot of tension and romance to the story and keeps the heavier aspects of book in check.
The battle scenes were a lot more in depth than I expected and I was really enthralled by how the author was able to convey the sense of urgency and life or death decisions being made in the blink of an eye. I loved the whole idea of Ellie trying to find out things from her past lives that would allow to get a feeling for who she really was. In the end I think she came in to her own and took things as they came instead of trying to justify her actions. I felt like she grew a lot from the beginning of the book. It was not a only a battle for good and evil, but a journey of self discovery.
The supporting cast had a huge impact on the story itself and I felt like the author had a great sense of character development. I felt like I knew the minor characters almost as well as Ellie herself. That makes the story flow so much easier, when you aren't trying to figure out where each person fits. When the author takes the time to really show you how people are interconnected and what their relationships are, it helps to become engrossed in the book and develop feelings for the characters.
Angelfire is available for pre-order until tomorrow when it becomes available at your favorite bookseller.
I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!
Courtney Allison Moulton lives in Michigan, where she is a photographer and spends all her free time riding and showing horses. She has always loved reading about ancient mythologies, studying dead languages, and telling scary, romantic stories. Angelfire is her debut novel.
1 comment:
So glad to see you really enjoyed this one! I'm in the middle of it and have high hopes it keeps up with the action & characters. Love it! Fantastic review!
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