Angelfall by Susan Ee

Title: Angelfall

Author: Susan Ee

Series: Penryn & the End of Days #1

Source: Bought

Amazon

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Rating:

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.

~MY THOUGHTS~

Sometimes, we just read a book at the right time. And everything about it just kind of clicks. That's what happened with me when I read Angelfall. I have had this book since it's release back in 2012, but it has sat unread on my shelf. I have seen all the hype when it was first released, and heard everybody talking about it. And to be honest, after I bought the book, I wasn't really all that interested in reading it. So, it sat, and sat. And recently, I saw Nicole over at Girlygirlbookworm read it, and it reminded me that I also own it. And I have been in such a horrible reading slump of late, that I was willing to try anything! And I'm certainly glad that I did. Angelfall was exactly what I needed, and more!

I'm not going to go too deep on what this book is about, as it's got reviews (both raving and bad) all over the place. I am going to say, that going into it I was expecting a light fallen angel book with aspects of apocalypse. But what I got was so much darker. This book is straight up bad angels all over the place, killing for the sport. There are gangs, and later in the book there pops up God only knows what kind of creatures. And holy hell was this book compelling to read the more because of it. I felt that the darkness of the book added to why I loved it so much. At times I had trouble reading bits and pieces, and sometimes it felt as if Susan Ee was ripping out my heart with the descriptions, but I kept reading. I had to. I had to know what happened to Penryn and Paige and her mom...and Raffe!!

That leads me to what cinched this book for me. I was completely attached to all of the characters. I needed to see them all to safety, or at the very least know what happens to them. And Susan Ee sure knows how to pull characters through the ringer!!! This book is packed with action and twists that I didn't expect to happen. I felt that Raffe and Penryn's relationship, if you can even really call it that for most of the book, is completely real. And Penryn's motives throughout the book are for one person, Paige. And I never felt as if she lost sight of her end game. Which is honestly a breath of fresh air, because usually in these types of books, enters hot supernatural boy and "Why was I heading this way again?" But Penryn kept her head, and for that I am grateful. 

I loved the side characters, especially Dee-Dum. And would love to see more of them in the next book. I love when authors are able to get you excited about more than just the pair of main characters story. 

This lost half a star for me because at the beginning, the descriptions of the angels, especially there wings, was a little over the top for me. I had a really hard time being scared of an angelic being with orange wings or tiger striped wings. And that was kind of conflicting with the whole, angels came down and wiped out the world vibe I was feeling. Also, the short chapters lended to pulling me out of the story each time I flipped to a new one. I had to finally stop reading chapter numbers to be able to continue reading without interruption. Once I did that, the story flowed so much better, even with the short chapters. And that last bit was a me problem, and not necessarily a story problem.

The ending of this book was completely mind blowing, and I can't wait to pick up the sequel. I wouldn't say it was a cliffhanger per se, I mean there is closure to the arching story. But it certainly does leave my characters in a place less desired, so I want to keep reading to find out more.