Review- Angelfall

I know I've done a mini review for this book, but it deserved more. Here it is.

 Angelfall. Where have you been all my life? This book has left me speechless. It ties for the best book of 2012. I don’t care that it came out in 2011, it is clearly transcendent.

 

Despite its focus on angels, the premise is highly original. Recently, angels have inundated the reading waves, but these books have been nothing like Angelfall. This book breaks the mold.

 

When the story begins it has been 6 weeks since Angels have disseminated the world—only pockets of humanity remain. 16 year old Penryn is responsible for her disabled sister and her schizophrenic mother. During her attempt to move her family to a secure location, they end up in the middle of a fight amongst angels, resulting in her sister being kidnapped. To save her sister’s life Penryn has to make a deal with an Angel, Rafael.

An angel who has recently lost his wings, Raffe is only concerned about himself. He has never cared too much for humans, but Penryn has offered to help him find someone who can sew his wings back on. In exchange, he will take her to where her sister is being kept.

Together they forge an unlikely bond as they travel across the deserted Silicon Valley streets heading to the Angel headquarters in San Francisco. Along the way they are attacked by a gang, captured and held hostage, but together they escape and head to the final showdown between Rafael and the Angels.

In the end, nothing is the way you would have hoped, but the characters have grown so much and there are interesting twists and subplots that come to a successful conclusion.     

 

This book has everything.

 
1) A really original plot, that had me perched on the edge of my seat for the 6 hours it took me to read it. There was even a creepy subplot about children who have been reconstructed into evil killing machines, that made the hairs on my neck stand up.

 
2) An amazing heroine who doesn’t whine or complain, but does what she has to do, to save her family.  Too often in YA books, the heroine dissolves into a ball of tears the instant her nails break.

 

3) An amazing Angel, Raffe, who is the ultimate definition of swoon worthy.  No insta-love, but a romance that hummed along right beneath the surface, which left me wondering if the characters felt it too.

 

4) And a creepy setting that heightened the book’s overall tension.  Having grown up around the area that the book takes place it was surreal to hear about it being so desolate. The author uses amazing descriptions and Imagery to make the setting seem so vivid.  The writing truly conveyed the wasteland that the Bay Area had become, which made the story more real, and less a work of fiction.    

 

This book was an amazing start to what will hopefully be a successful series.

Review of The Exemeus by "I'm an eclectic reader"

Hello all,

I'm back after a little break. Today I'm reposting someone else's post about our book. It's included below:

I have to start this review with a confession. I don’t like the name Hyalee, which happens to be the name of the main character in The Exemeus. I can’t help it. The name just doesn’t work for me. So I had trouble liking a character named like that. It’s a weird pet peeve of mine, and here more importantly, I have the feeling the name didn’t match the character, which is another pet peeve of mine. At around page twenty, I was convinced this book wasn’t going to be for me. But I kept on reading, hoping to find something I liked.

And I did. Because by the time I very well realized it, I was halfway through this book and eager to read more. Even despite my initial reservations, I absolutely loved this book. I devoured it. By the time I was at midway point, I couldn’t stop reading anymore.

The story is amazing. Dephon is trying to find a way to survive ninth grade in the post-apocalyptic world she lives in, which is pretty dystopian. By the way, Dephon is a pretty cool name, which made up for Hyalee’s name being not as cool, in my opinion. But Dephon has powers, powers the government want to eliminate, because, like most dystopian governments they’re highly allergic to anythigng that can cause a threat to them. So they want Dephon out of the picture, and they literally sent an army of assassins to do so. Dephon has no choice but to fight back, and help the greatest warrior in history. Problem? Hyalee, said great warrior, well, she’s dead.

And that’s where the rollercoaster ride that this book is truly picks up, and everything beyond that point is amazing. I didn’t just enjoy this book, I LOVED it. Dephon isn’t your typical YA fantasy character, and neither is Hyalee, but they both pretty much rock. The society of Trepton, where they live, isn’t entirely dystopian but it comes pretty close. Most of all I loved the background story, the setting and the lore.

If you choose one YA novel to read in January and you like fantasy, choose this one.

Review-Pure by Jennifer L Armentrout

At the end of last year, I got the ridiculous notion to review all the books I read for the year and put it on one blog. I quickly realized no one would want to read that hodgepodge and so I'm going to individually review all of my favorites from last year, until have enough favorites from this year to think about.


My first pick for the year is Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  Prior to this book, I had read others in this series, as well as her other series, Obsidian. The books were all good enough to make me finish, but not quite strong enough to make me crave more...until this one.

 

I loved this book. The main character Alex poses a threat to the covenant and the entire governmental system, because, once she turns 18, she will raise the god killer. Her "mate" will be able to suck power form her and become this destructive force that is powerful enough to wipe out the gods. The covenant and a secret society, desperate to ensure this doesn't happen, attempt to nullify her as a threat by condemning her to servitude... or worse.

 

This book is incredibly well written. The action starts from the beginning and continues non-stop until the end.  It is believable and well written in a way that makes you feel like you're there. But the best aspects are the characters Alex and Aiden. Their relationship is intense, their attraction to one another smolders, seeping through the pages. Like most YA love stories, is a forbidden love, but it doesn't feel rehashed. Jennifer L Armentrout makes this plot device feel new and original, breathing a life into all of its own.

 

She manages to make Alex seem headstrong and powerful, while still giving her an heir of uncertainty and most importantly, femininity. Her ability to fight with the big boys, but to still be gentle enough to love and be loved by Aiden, made her a character easily worth remembering.

 

Aiden is an amazing character. Armentrout does a great job of making him stoic, dependable, and noble. Aiden’s adherence to rules could be a bit grating at times, but when he ultimately breaks the rules it means even more to the story. Armenttrout puts these two drastically different characters together in a way that forces them to grow.  Armentrout made the dreaded second book be better than the first, a rare feat from any author. I truly look  forward to reading more from her in the future.     

The fun in fiction

Today, on the day of our successful book launch, I thought I should write about why I love ya fiction.

Fiction in general is amazing to me. You can create an alternate world where there are flying pink monkeys, where Sarah Palin became president, where the flu is an alcoholic beverage and no one should tell you anything about it. I love fiction because it is so totally freeing. As a writer of YA fantasy, you're unencumbered by the rules of society, free to alter the world in whatever way you see fit. But fiction to me is more than just freedom. Fiction is a platform for your beliefs-- a place where you can (subtly) talk about and comment on whatever you want, the things that resonate with you the most.

 Today I read a post criticizing my characters' names, of all things. It was like a flash back to third grade. Ever since I was a child people have made fun of my first name because it was different. Despite everything that America stands for: the freedom to be different, to be original, to forge your own path, people have always asked me why my parents didn't conform. Why I wasn't named Sally or Susan or Alicia.

Overtime I have grown to love the oddity that is my name, but I realized that their are other people who haven't had that luxury. People who are ashamed that their name is different than the traditional. So I wanted some of my characters to have those same issues. People will always ask me why I picked "weird" names, such as Hyalee and Dephon for my lead characters. I picked it for the people who will never see their name in a book or on those key chains at souvenir shops. So for just a brief glimmer in time, people can be absorbed into a character who isn't normal, right down to the spelling of their name, and hopefully everyone can identify with that on some level-- even the Sallys, Susans, and Alicias of the world.

This is why I love fiction. For just those moments of freedom.  

Book Launch Tomorrow

      With the new focus of my site pertaining to books and book reviews, I'm going to start taking note of books that are coming out this year. I'm going to talk about the launching of my favorite books like the sequel to Demons at deadnight, Angelfall, Legend, anything by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and of course the launching of The Exemeus series, which by the way launches tomorrow.

        I am beyond excited that the world will get to finally read our work. I hope you all love it as much as we do. To kick off the launch we're having a huge release day party on all of your favorite blogs, as well as two months of back to back blog tours and book giveaways. Below is our tour schedule. Hope to see you there.

January 1st: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading
January 3rd: Release Day Party The Exemeus
January 4th: Book Excerpt and Giveaway @ The Book Daily
January 5th: Book Excerpt @ Classy Me Books
January 6th: Author Interview @ Forever Book Lover
January 7th: Book Excerpt @ Hollow Readers
January 8th: Book Review @ I’m an Eclectic Reader
January 9th: Author Interview @ Cassidy Crimson’s Blog
January 10th: Book Excerpt @ 365 Days of Reading
January 11th: Author Interview @ Majanka’s Blog
January 12th: Book Excerpt and Giveaways @ Andi’s Young Adult
January 13th: Author Interview and Book Excerpt @ The Victorian Vanity
January 15th: Book Review and Author Interview @ One Emily’s Bookshelf
January 17th: Author Interview and Book Excerpt @ Books and Tales
January 19th: Book Review and Giveaway @ I Heart Reading
January 21st: Book Review and Excerpt @ Kari’s Bookshelf
January 22nd: Author Interview @ Suzanne van Rooyen’s Blog
January 23rd: Book Review @ The Single Librarian
January 25th: Book Review @ Sara In Bookland
January 27th: Book Review @ Forever Book Lover
January 29th: Book Excerpt and Giveaway @ Cassidy Crimson’s Blog
January 30th: Author Interview @ Blooding Book Reviews
January 31st: Book Review @ 365 Days of Reading
February 1st: Book Review @ Bianca2B

The best YA books 2012 (part 2)

The second part of my list  of young adult books for 2012 is coming soon. Currently, I'm gearing up for the launch of The Exemeus, but I'll update the list soon and finish my reviews.


-Folami Morris