I assume this is set somewhere in England, based on the author's bio. It's written from the perspective of Emma, a 13 (or possibly 14?) year old girl who realizes that she was likely the last person to see her former best friend Abby before she disappeared. She reports their encounter to the police and is forced to think about a time in her life that she thought she'd left behind and that she desperately hopes no one at her new school will ever find out about. Although a part of her wants to try to continue with her life as normally as possible, she can't stop thinking and worrying about Abby, Abby's last words, and the events that eventually drove them apart.

This was aimed a bit younger than the YA I normally read, and some of my issues with it stemmed from the fact that I was too old for this book - definitely not the book's fault. Emma was concerned with how others viewed her in a way that made perfect sense for her age and experiences but that I found extremely frustrating. For example, back when she was friends with Abby, Emma loved sci-fi, fantasy, writing stories, and playing make-believe games in which she and Abby were adventurers fighting against an evil witch named Esmerelda. Some horrible bullying eventually led to her cutting herself off from Abby and attempting to completely remake herself, right down to her hobbies and interests (this isn't a spoiler - it comes up pretty early on). It struck me as a huge and emotionally draining amount of work for something that seemed likely to cause a new set of problems later on.

Although Emma's actions and thoughts often frustrated me, I could see where she was coming from. Every time she considered taking the route I wanted her to take - talking to an adult about her plans to find Abby, talking to her friends about the bullying she went through - something came up that made that route seem, to Emma, potentially more dangerous and/or difficult than the alternative.

This was a more realistic take on a "missing persons" mystery than I was expecting. Emma wasn't smarter than the cops, although she had knowledge, through her past connection with Abby, that turned out to be helpful. Also, there were no 13-year-olds battling adults in adrenaline-fueled climactic moments - instead, Emma mostly battled her own emotions and the reactions of some of Abby's friends.

I appreciated the scene between Emma and her friends near the end, and I liked the way the relationship between Emma and Abby's friends progressed, once I got past Emma and Sheila's horrifically awful first encounters. Unfortunately, one sore spot for me was the way Weatherly wrote about counseling. It wasn't so much Emma's reaction to the idea of it - horror and anger that her family thought worrying about Abby was crazy - but rather that her reaction was never really challenged. One character told Emma that she'd been to counseling before and that it wasn't what Emma thought. In the end, however, Emma's dad decided that it'd be better to just talk and listen as a family more. Readers were never shown that Emma's ideas about counseling were false.

All in all, this was pretty good, if occasionally frustrating and exhausting from an adult perspective. I did wonder how dated certain aspects were, though. This was originally published in 2004. The parental controls on Emma's internet seemed to be extremely strict - at one point, she mentioned that there was really only one site that she could go to that at all interested her. And is it still believable for that many parents and teens to be weirded out by teens who play Dungeons & Dragons and like sci-fi and fantasy?

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

First up a mention for that beautiful cover. Really stunning in real life, the paperback version of this book is absolutely gorgeous. A bit of a random plus point...

More importantly the story inside is fabulous - addictive and really well written, if like me you are a bit of a fan of YA tales, especially fantasy, then this one will definitely be for you.

I loved Willow - she fixes cars, she tells the future, is therefore a bit of a loner. Meanwhile in her world more and more people are joining "The Church of the Angels" - dismissed as a cult by most, the truth is that Angel's are indeed among us and they are not good for humanity at all. When a friend joins the church despite Willow's protests and then she crosses the path of angel killer Alex, she starts to understand her true nature...

Angels are popular in YA fiction right now, I've read a couple of good ones, and I have others coming up on my list - but "Angel", for me, was perhaps the one in this genre so far that hooked me in the most. A splendidly paced novel with just the right mixture of action, romance and mythology, it pretty much grips from the first few pages.

It is helped along by some rocking characters - both the good and the bad guys are wonderfully drawn, the relationship that develops between Alex and Willow is a very genuine feeling one and it is a really perfectly done book one for what looks set to be one heck of a series.

I know I'm late to the party on this trilogy - sorry about that but on the plus side I have all 3 books. No waiting. Sometimes that is the way to go - in this case it definitely makes me happy. This was excellent, if I'd been waiting for the next it would have made me grumpy.

Tytuł: Anioł
Tytuł oryginału: Angel
Cykl: Anioł
Autor: L.A. Weatherly
Wydawnictwo: Świat książki
Ilość stron: 400

 

STEPHENIE MEYER
stworzyła na nowo wampira
EOIN COLFER
stworzył na nowo wróżkę
L.A. WEATHERLY
stworzyła na nowo anioła

Willow różni się od innych dziewczyn.
Ma pewien dar. Potrafi zajrzeć w przyszłość
ludzi - wystarczy, że ich dotknie,
a zna ich marzenia, nadzieje, porażki.
Ciemne moce, czające się w jej wnętrzu,
sprawiają, że nie tylko jest niebezpieczna,
ale także niezwykle pociągająca.

Tajemniczy Alex zna sekret Willow.
Musi ją powstrzymać. Ale niełatwo jest się
oprzeć wrogowi, kiedy zna tajemnice twojej duszy.

 

Zapraszam do zapoznania się z recenzją na moim blogu:

Książki Milki

Truth be told angel stories usually don't make it on my favorite list but this one had a lot of qualities that I liked. Mainly, the kick-ass lead. Willow was great! She was tough, she stepped up her game when needed and she was in a bad situation but made it happen regardless. I could absolutely relate to her and really enjoyed her being the voice of the story.


I also enjoyed the fact that the "angel" part was a very different idea in this book. I don't think I've read another story where angels were quite like this. However, my problems began with the whole "girl doesn't know what she is and then a cute boy shows her". It's played out. I've heard that story about a million times and I'm getting a little sick of it.

I thought this book had moments of awesome mixed with a little pedestrian.

 

Originally Posted; http://thebookblogattheendoftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2013/10/reviewmini-angel-by-la-weatherly.html

This book is an example of the few YA novels where, upon reading it, i felt the author actually engaged with their own story, that they were cared about their own characters and lived with their story, so to say. It was something refreshing to see. Maybe this is because the book was published several years ago, before this whole hype of everyone feeling they have something to say and writing books that follow a general mold, only with some changes of names, places, etc. This one had a soul to it. It wasn't some lifeless, suffocating fish that was begging for attention. And that's why I loved it so much. It was a book with a backbone.

The plot itself caught my attention. It's no surprise that people regard angels as kind, loving, etc., but this, this is a really different look at the possibility of a paradigm shift (ah, Theory of Knowledge has really influenced me here). It's a book that focuses on the characters, and it definitely makes no attempt to hide the romance factor. But that's totally alright because in this case, I really empathized with the characters. I wanted Alex and Willow to be together, to get through the tough moments. I enjoyed reading all the cute and cuddly moments when they were in the cabin or near the end. I smiled like a complete fan girl when they finally realized their feelings for each other. It just made sense. It all fit together wonderfully. There was no lack of action or emotion in the story, and I was kept engaged throughout the entire thing.

It's amazing, the wonderful kind of bargain you can get for $5, which is the case with this book when I found it in a bookstore's "clearance" section. I'm glad I gave this one a chance and took it home with me, it was so worth it. It was light, adventurous, humorous, romantic, and I developed a connection with it over the course of my reading. It's not some mind-boggling, innovative new novel that will change the course of literature. It's not written in a very amazing manner either. But it has an undeniable charm that's hard to refuse.