Review: Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly (Angel #2)

Publisher - Usborne
Publication Date - 1st October 2011
Paperback - 720 pages
Genre - Young Adult/Paranormal Romance

Source - Purchased

Rating - 5 out of 5: It was amazing!

Book Info - Only Willow has the power to defeat the malevolent Church of Angels, and they will stop at nothing to destroy her. Willow isn't alone, though. She has Alex by her side - a trained Angel Killer and her one true love.

But Willow will always be a half-angel, and when Alex joins forces with a group of AKs, she's treated with mistrust and suspicion. She's never felt more alone... until she meets Seb. He's been searching for Willow his whole life - because Seb is a half-angel too.

My Thoughts - Wow, what a rollercoaster this book is! I really can't remember the last time I got so emotionally involved with a book and I felt all the pain and heartbreak that Willow and Alex did over the course of their story. And once I had finished reading Angel Fire, it was all I could think about for days afterwards. In fact, hubby got slightly bored hearing me talk about it so much!

I have to say that Alex and Willow are, by far, my favourite YA couple ever! Not only did their love grow slowly in the first book (no insta-love here!) but it has grown into a strong love that makes them seem so perfect together. So at first I really wasn't sure if I was going to like the introduction of Seb. I didn't want anything to come along that could spoil the perfection that is Willow and Alex and I most certainly didn't want a love triangle! But I have to say that Ms. Weatherly handled it perfectly and it did bring a lot of emotion into the story.

There were many times that I found myself screaming at the book or clutching my chest to stop the heartache as either Alex or Willow made another mistake that would tear them slightly further apart. I didn't think there was any way that the pair could survive the arrival of a half-angel who has been in love with Willow for his entire life and I became absolutely hooked to this part of the storyline to see how it would end. I was slightly worried that the love triangle wouldn't be resolved by the end of Angel Fire, leaving me heartbroken for another few months, but I was so happy to find out this wasn't the case!

And the storyline involving the angels was amazing too! It provides lots of action, suspense and an ending that was completely devastating. It has made me very eager for the next book in the series to find out what else the angels have planned for the humans.

Summary - All in all, Angel Fire was a completely compelling read that was impossible to put down! It had highs that would have me cheering with joy, and lows that would leave me heartbroken. I really can't recommend this series enough. You need to read these books now!

Other books in this series:
1. Angel
2. Angel Fire

Other reviews of this series:
About Happy Books / Excellent Reads / Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

Review: Angel by L.A. Weatherly (Angel #1)

Publisher - Usborne
Publication Date - 1st October 2010
Paperback - 506 pages
Genre - Young Adult/Paranormal Romance

Source - Library

Rating - 4 out of 5: I really liked it!



Book Info - Angels are all around us: beautiful, awe-inspiring, irresistible. Ordinary mortals yearn to catch a glimpse of one of these stunning beings and thousands flock to The Church of Angels to feel their healing touch. But what if their potent magnetism isn't what it seems?

Willow knows she's different from other girls. And not just because she loves tinkering around with cars.
Willow has a gift. She can look into people's futures, know their dreams, their hopes and their regrets, just by touching them. But she has no idea where she gets this power from.

Until she meets Alex…
Alex is one of the few who know the truth about angels. He knows Willow's secret and is on a mission to stop her. The dark forces within Willow make her dangerous – and irresistible. In spite of himself, Alex finds he is falling in love with his sworn enemy.

My Thoughts - In this book angels are the bad guys who have come to earth to feed off of the life energy of humans. It is because of the angels that humans suffer from things like cancer and mental illness. For me, this was an entirely new take on the angel genre that made it stand out as a unique and completely engaging read.

I fell in love with both of the main characters from the start. Willow is a young girl who has never really fit in well with her peers due to her skills as a mechanic and her psychic abilities. Her world begins to fall apart when she realises that these predatory angels walk among humans every day, and that she is in fact half-angel, half-human. But Willow shows an amazing strength of character as she comes to understand this other side to herself that she initially hates.

Alex is an Angel Killer who has been hunting angels ever since he was twelve. Despite his young age he has lost a lot of people that he loves and at times this pain emanates from the page like a living thing. But he has somehow managed to overcome all of this loss to become a caring and compassionate young man. Alex is quite possibly my favourite YA male character.

The romance element between Willow and Alex is incredibly sweet. They work well together as a couple and, although at first they find their differences hard to work around, after a while they come to accept each other completely.

The slow pace of the romance is offset by the fast pace of the action and mystery elements of the novel. Apart from a couple of slow points when Alex and Willow are in hiding, Angel kept me completely gripped and I had real difficulty putting it down once I had started reading the book.

There are  a lot of surprises throughout the course of Angel and, with the exception of one minor plot point that I guessed at about halfway through the novel, the ending was a complete surprise to me.

Summary - I absolutely loved Angel, with its complex characters and combination of unique plot, mystery and romance. I am really excited about reading Angel Fire and this has got to be one of my favourite YA books ever!

Other books in the series:
1. Angel
2. Angel Fire

Other reviews of this book:
About Happy Books / Dear Author / Feeling Fictional / Girls Without a Bookshelf /

Waiting on Wednesday: Angel Fire

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week my "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly

Only Willow has the power to defeat the malevolent Church of Angels, and they will stop at nothing to destroy her. Willow isn't alone, though. She has Alex by her side a trained Angel Killer and her one true love. But nothing can change the fact that Willow's a half-angel, and when Alex joins forces with a group of AKs, she's treated with mistrust and suspicion. She's never felt more alone... until she meets Seb. He's been searching for Willow his whole life because Seb is a half-angel too.