The Ambassador's Mission

Book Title: The Ambassador's Mission

Author: Trudi Canavan
Series: The Traitor Spy Trilogy #1

Date Started: June 14th 2013

Date Completed: June 19th 2013

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Romance, Mystery, Adventure

Rating: Five stars

Review:

I remember when I finished Canavan's Black Magician Trilogy that I wanted more. Even though the story draws nicely to a close in this book's prequel trilogy, I really wanted to read more about Sonea and Rothen and Dannyl and Cery etc etc. Which is why when I found out there was actually more of their story to be told, I fangirled a little bit. And then I actually got to reading it and it was just perfect.


The Ambassador's Mission takes place twenty years after the Black Magician Trilogy. Sonea is now Black Magician for the Guild and her son, Lorkin, has grown up into a popular alchemist that takes a lot of the girl's fancies. But the Thieves in the slums are being murdered, and Sonea's old street urchin friend fears for his own life when his family's is taken. He sets out on a mission to bring the Thief Hunter to justice and to avenge his lost sons. Meanwhile, when Dannyl, another old friend of Sonea's, applies for the Ambassador position in the distant - and previously enemy territory - Sachaka, Lorkin allows his curiosity to get the better of him and decides to go with his mother's friend - much to Sonea's dismay. But when her protests of danger for her son are overruled, Lorkin is thrown into a dangerous country where his safety may not be as secure as he once thought it to be.

Trudi Canavan's writing is amazing. I've always loved the clear sophisticated style and techniques that still seem to flow smoothly, despite the challenging structure. The world comes to life off the page and the characters develop and change and act irresponsibly and wonderfully. She definitely knows what she's doing to the point where she hasn't written a book; she's written an entire world in the pages of a novel. For a Young Adult series, she's really very clever in attracting and entertaining her target audience, but not boring them at the same time.

The story was amazing as ever. I seem to be reading more and more books that incorporate several subplots to make one big story. Although, out of all the books I've read that do that, I definitely think Canavan is the best at carrying it out. I don't feel like any one of the plots is supposed to be more important than the other, so you really get the feeling that everything draws into one and another, and each need the other to completely make sense and continue to flow.
I think I enjoyed Sonea's story the most, but I've always loved her character, so I may be biased. But I loved all of them; I wasn't skimming through certain chapters to get to a person that I liked reading. Dannyl's story is definitely the political one, yet I was still quite interested in what happened.
Lorkin's was the most adventurous, as you'd expect; and Cery's was like a murder mystery. (I love the way each story almost has it's own genre and they still all worked together despite the clashing themes.) The links between the stories are masterfully written, especially Sonea's involvement in her son's plot, and then Cery's inclusion in hers.

Sonea is a wonderful protagonist. I loved her as the main character in the Black Magician Trilogy, and I love her now, even though she has less of a main role. She makes mistakes, and she's reckless - but she has reasons for both (e.g. she isn't the typical character that takes risks for the hell of it just to impress the readers - she actually has valid reasons for acting the way she does.) You can really see how she's grown from the first trilogy into the woman she is now, yet you can still notice those little flares of her youth in her stubbornness. I do wish there had been more involvement in her reaction to what happened to her after .......'s (can't write it because spoilers) death - I think she'd probably worry or think about it more, but it wasn't that necessary to the plot, so I can see why it was left out.
I really like Lorkin; I was a little worried at first, because I didn't know how you could create a character that was different from Sonea, yet still have the features so you could relate the two together, but actually Canavan did just that. You can definitely see aspects of Sonea's personality in her son's, but he's still a new character with his own way of thinking and keeping the audience interested.
I was glad to see Dannyl again, since he has always been a favourite of mine, but I think my heart was cut out of my chest fairly near the beginning of the book when he decided to leave someone (sorry, spoilers) behind. I didn't see it coming and it hurt.
Cery was also one of my favourites, and he's just as good when he's twenty years older. I always found it hard to imagine the troublesome street urchin older with a wife and children of his own, but it actually suits him quite well - until Canavan decided to cut my heart out there too. But his inclusion was brilliant.
And Rothen! Oh my god I've missed Rothen so much. I wish he was in it more, I really do. Rothen is just perfect and wonderful and asdfghjkl;.
I like the change in Regin took - I definitely prefer him to the novice version.
I miss ....... (sorry), just saying.And what the hell happened to Dorrien? The epilogue in the High Lord says he didn't leave Sonea's side after the battle - so where is he twenty years later? (There isn't even any explanation or anything. Sorry, but he was in my top three characters from the books, I miss him.)

The pace of the book was pretty consistent throughout the whole novel; of course there were times when there wasn't action or magic or whatever, but I never got bored, as such.
There may not have been strictly exciting, but there was always something going on to aid the story. That's another thing I really liked: every chapter was there for a reason and had a purpose - they weren't there just to fill time or catch up with a character. Each one was specifically needed for something in the plot.

I didn't expect such involvement from the old characters of the prequel trilogy to appear in this book, so as each one emerged in their chapters I did freak out a little - I missed them, okay.

Imardin has changed quite a bit since the Black Magician Trilogy. Although the general foundations and such are the same, I would have found it practically impossible to imagine the city without the Thieves' Road when I was reading the first books - yet now it's all gone. The slums and Guild seem to be quite different too. The integration of slum magicians into the Guild was presented very well, I think, since it clearly wasn't simple, yet no unnecessary dramas took place to draw attention away from the vital plot.

Canavan's portrayal of magic is very original, yet still draws inspiration from the typical folklore we all know. Her characters are new and different and real and interesting and vibrant. Her world presents all the thrilling and dangerous places you would expect from a content ruled by sorcerers. I'm also very impressed by Canavan's dedication to creating a full and flawless history for her countries - you can tell she's spent a long time working out how everything played out and has taken her time to make sure she's written it just right for the audience.
I loved it.

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It has so many different genres woven into the plots that you can read what you love, and also try something a little different at the same time. Cery's plot is definitely a mystery; Lorkin's is adventurous and has a little bit of romance poured in; Dannyl's is political and Sonea's is everything in between. There's action and magic and new lands to explore and learn about. I would recommend reading the Black Magician Trilogy first, just so you know a little bit about the characters, but it isn't vital if you want to go straight onto the Traitor Spy Trilogy (although if you want to fangirl as each of your favourite characters from the original books appear in this novel, definitely start with the Magician's Guild and work your way up.)

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City of Fallen Angels

Book Title: City of Fallen Angels

Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #4

Date Started: June 9th 2013

Date Completed: June 14th 2013

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Action, Thriller, Mystery

Rating: Four stars

Review:


I don't want to start this review off sounding really negative, but I'm quite disappointed actually. I have a feeling the first three books in the Mortal Instruments series were written as a trilogy, and then the extra novels were added due to the success of the preceding books - this would explain why I feel like everything didn't tie in with the other stories particularly well; as the first three novels had. Although, I did still enjoy it and the last 100 pages was to the standard of the last two books, which were my favourites.

City of Fallen Angels starts on a high for Clary, Simon and the others; Valentine is no longer a threat and they're slowing coming to terms with their new lives of Shadowhunters and Downworlders. Then Nepilim corpses start showing up in each Downworlder's district, and the Clave suspects Vampires are to blame. Under the threat of war once again, Clary is torn between her friends, her mother and Luke's upcoming wedding and her relationship with Jace (who seems to be growing apart from her). But something darker is lurking behind the scenes ready bring Clary's world around her.
(I apologise for how terrible I've made that seem.)

I've always liked Cassandra Clare's writing style: it's reasonably basic and simple, yet she manages to get an awful lot of information to the reader whilst also making it really interesting and vivid in its imagery. The emotions come through, if a little too obviously.
Overall, everything flows really well and it's a nice, fairly easy read that still has the ability to capture the reader and draw them into the story.

I've also always been impressed by how Clare can have so many subplots going on at the same time and then weave them together to make one main plot. I used to think she must have planned it out in an exceptionally detailed way, but now I seem to get the impression it's just how she writes: which is a very useful talent that I wish I could steal.
I do admit that I felt Clary and Jace's story was a little detached from the rest of the plot, but it didn't lower the standard of the book too much.
I really, really liked the mystery side of the plot though. Clare tends to include a lot of mystery in her stories, but it's never really the main theme. The same goes for this book, and yet I still found myself trying to work everything out before the characters did.
Ultimately, I did work out a fair bit of it - but it wasn't your typically predictable whodunnit.

Clary is a very good protagonist, but I have a horrible feeling I'm getting a little bored of her. When I read reviews for this book - and even the blurb - they implied that Clary was suddenly a different character: now, she was never weak and she always had a strong character with attitude and a lot of courage. But I feel like after her Shadowhunter training she'd be a bit more sarky like any of the Lightwoods. (However, I am glad that she still got scared in the attack situations - because even after a few weeks of training, who wouldn't be terrified of a seven-foot hellhound that was out to kill you?)
I'm annoyed about Jace. I absolutely love Jace, and his character has always interested me and he's always been a brilliant addition to the plots - but Clare just seems to be repeating herself with his conflicting emotions. I know the way he feels isn't going to be gone in a second, but it really doesn't change at all, which just gives less to look into in his character. (After the plot twist though, hopefully we'll see a few more dimensions from now on.)
I have and always will love Simon. He's the most believable character and he's just a lovely person, even though he makes mistakes - the biggest of which are definitely shown in this book. I love his and Clary's relationship, and I'm really proud of Clare for actually not making it all about a love-triangle, but actually showing that friends can have just as tight bonds as lovers can. Isabelle continues to be awesome and kick ass.
Alec continues to be adorable.
Jocelyn still gets on my nerves a little bit.
I like the new character of Kyle - he's cool and awesome and I completely sympathise with his situation.
And Magnus continues to be utterly fabulous and adorable and amazing and hilarious. The Mortal Instruments would not be the same without him.

I understand that Clary and Jace are supposed to be the main love interest in the books, but I actually find the other relationships a lot more interesting - and realistic. It's not that I dislike either Jace or Clary, I just find their story a little bit too repetitive - and since they have the most 'screen-time' together, I feel like I know pretty much everything there is to know, which just takes out a lot of the thrill of it.
Alec and Magnus, on the other hand, have very little time in the limelight, but my favourites parts of the book are when they are having their conversations. I think it's rare to find a relationship like theirs, especially in teen novels, that's presented in such an affection way - yet still shows the inevitable fights and disagreements. The reactions both characters have are completely reasonable, and I just find their relationship a lot more dynamic and interesting than the others.
I also really love Simon and Izzy together - and it's nice to see the softer side of Isabelle.
(Maia and Jordan was also a nice little thing to add in there, and I was glad it was drawn out for a while so it was more believable - yet it still didn't interfere with the main story.)

I like the way the chapters follow the story of a variety of characters. Simon has just as much narration time (although in the 3rd person...) as Clary does. And I always look forward to Jace's chapters too. And we also got a bit of Magnus and Isabelle in there too.

Where has the humour gone though? There's the occasional sarky comment, but I didn't laugh out loud that much, like I did with the other three books. I don't know whether it's because the story is getting more serious and dark, or if I just wasn't in sync with the comedy, but I didn't find it as funny as the other books.

Like I've already said, the last 100 pages was the best part: we had epic fights scenes and finally a really tense ending that involved pretty much everyone. It was fairly typical for a Young Adult hostage/stand-off situation, but actually there were other elements included that made it different enough to still be interesting and engaging. And the last plot twist was very, very good. I always tend to like Clare's endings, and this was no exception. I can tell where the plot might go from here, but I can't actually predict how everything will spin off, so I'll just have to read the next book to see.

I would recommend City of Fallen Angels to anyone who likes romance, fantasy, mystery or action. I would usually say comedy, but it wasn't as obvious as it has been in other books. But don't be disheartened by this review: I really did enjoy it, and the other books are even better, so you should have a look at them. If you are going to read the Mortal Instruments, you need to read them in order to fully understand what's going on since Cassandra Clare lies to span her stories and developments over various novels at a time. Enjoy.

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Origins: The Fire

Book Title: Origins: The Fire

Author: Debra Driza
Series: Mila 2.0 #0.5

Date Started: June 9th 2013

Date Completed: June 9th 2013

Genres: Adventure, Action, Thriller

Rating: Three stars

Review:

I was a bit disappointed to find out that this is literally 17 pages long, and that the rest of the ebook is the first seven chapters of Mila 2.0. I didn't read the excerpt, because I'd much rather read the whole thing in one go - something I'm doubting now if I'm honest.


Origins: The Fire tells of a girl who wakes up in the middle of the night to find her house on fire. After climbing out of her window and working her way down to the ground she notices a car in the driveway, and realises her parents are back home early and inside the house. Instinct kicks in and she goes back into the house to get lost in the flames trying in vain to find her parents.

It wasn't written terribly badly, but nothing caught my attention particularly. The style is very simple and evidently aimed at Young Adults due to the lack of detail and adventurous description. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I feel that the story had a lot of potential to become very interesting, and just didn't.

The story was your typical dramatic YA theme. As this is a novella, I'm not completely disheartened for the novel; this was obviously made to get some kind of attention and make readers get through the first seven chapters, to encourage them to read the whole thing. Like I said, I haven't read the seven chapters because I'd rather read it in one go. But it was pretty obvious what was going to happen in the fire, although the end had a nice unexpected twist that I assume is where the actual novel continues from.

The protagonist, which I assume is Mila, even though there is no name mentioned at any point, annoys me a little. Perhaps it might be because of her utter brainlessness in the fire, but she annoys me a little, and I'm not entirely sure why. She just doesn't seem to think through things - and let's face it, very few people would go back into a burning house when they're just got out of it to find people they don't even know are in there, especially not a kid (and there's fair enough).

I was expecting a futuristic, sci-fi kind of setting, but it turned out to be a typical suburban household. I'm not really interested in normal life like this, so I do hope that the actual novel is different.
It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. I am slightly dubious about what Mila 2.0 itself is going to be like, but 17 pages of a very short novella isn't going to completely decide my thoughts.

I would recommend it to...I'm not really sure. I read this to see if I would like the novel, but I'm not really encouraged. Despite saying that, I do think I am going to try the book in the hopes that more time and effort has gone into it to make it more interesting and better written.

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The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

Book Title: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #0.1

Date Started: June 8th 2013

Date Completed: June 9th 2013

Genres: Adventure, Action, Thriller, Fantasy

Rating: Five stars

Review:

I really liked the look of the Throne of Glass series, and I thought am good taster for the books was to try one of the novellas that had been released. I'm really glad I did, because I enjoyed this story massively and I can't wait to read the other novellas and the actual novels.


The Assassin and the Pirate Lord is a short story about the Throne of Glass' protagonist, Celeana Sardothien (I think I spelt that right). Celeana is a sixteen-year-old female assassin, and one of the best. When she's sent off to conduct business with a pirate, but finds when she gets there that the circumstances of her mission were not quite as she expected, herself and Sam, another young assassin whom Celeana grew up with and is constantly bickering with, decide to create a plan to free a group of slaves. But just because they're trained assassins doesn't mean everything will go quite as smoothly as planned.

I really love Sarah J Maas' writing style. It's simple, but you get a lot of attitude and emotions from the characters even though it isn't told from the first person.
The action is also flawlessly detailed; I could picture everything that went on vividly, despite the lack of long-winded descriptions. All the sentences flow really well together and I just really enjoyed it.

The story was original and carried out very well. The concept is simple enough but the world around the ideas was built up so well in such a short amount of time, I knew what was happening almost immediately, which allowed me to pay more attention to the finer details and just enjoy the story. (Maybe it wasn't the kind of story that makes a reader think, but I don't think every book has to have that; this story worked perfectly well without that kind of style.)

I really like Celeana. She's kick ass and awesome and has a lot of attitude, but not to the point where she gets annoying. Her arrogance is definitely there, but she doesn't play around with it too much, and it's realistic. She definitely has the relevant emotions too, and they're presented perfectly for the situation. She's a very believable character in my opinion.
I also love Sam. I can see why he and Celeana are always at each other's throats, but I think they're a brilliant pair. (There's definitely chemistry there - and it's shown very subtly, but enough to imply something's going on. I'm curious to see whether this is continued on in the other novellas and the actual books.) I think their relationship is really interesting because it has the different dynamics and sides: their full-on anger at each other; the childish bickering; the reluctant affection; the brother/sister bond they seem to have.

I think it's very hard to create whole stories within novellas because there's so little space for development of the plot, but actually this book had a complete story in it and was done very well so that none of it was rushed, but the pace wasn't too slow either. I'm very impressed.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves to read action and adventures. It's a really thrilling story, but also has one quite moments that work really well. It's a brilliant introduction into the author's work and I'm really looking forward to reading more of Maas' writing.

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Across the Universe

Book Title: Across the Universe

Author: Beth Revis
Series: Across the Universe #1

Date Started: June 6th 2013

Date Completed: June 9th 2013

Genres: Romance, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rating: Three stars

Review:

My expectations for this book weren't that high, if I'm honest: I suspected it was going to be a typical Young Adult romance novel, so I had already accepted that when I began reading it. But actually, even though I didn't expect a brilliant novel, I was quite disappointed by what I read - admittedly, because the beginning started off so well I thought it was going to be better than I'd first thought. It's a shame really that the quality wasn't consistent in my opinion.

Across the Universe is a Sci-Fi novel set on a spaceship that is headed for a new planet. Professionals on a wide range subjects have been frozen in stasis until they reach the new planet after an estimated 301 years of flight; including seventeen-year-old Amy Martin. But when Amy is mysteriously woken up early and nearly drowns in the process, she is thrown into a new world she doesn't understand: one with strange new people that stare at her flowing red hair; one where a Plague wiped out half of the ship's population long ago; one where a shadowed murderer is killing off the frozen people on by one.

Beth Revis' writing was quite good for a Young Adult novel. It was reasonably sophisticated and flowed quite well so that it wasn't too hard to get through word-wise. I did feel that some of the words used (e.g. gah, ech etc.) lowered her standard, but at the end of the day that's just my control-freak writing instinct kicking in - it didn't affect the overall text too much.

The story had a lot of potential, but I really don't think it was carried out as well as it could have been. Looking back on it, the main basis of the plot was really interesting and exciting: a crime mystery while on a ship with a girl that has no idea what's going on has promise for a huge range of twists and turns. But not that much actually happened. And what did happen didn't always connect with the overall story very well - it was almost like a TV series: a strong base plot running through everything, but all the other components and parts were a bit isolated from the general synopsis.
I also think some of the involvement and graphicness of the Season (you can probably guess what that is) was overused, over exaggerated and just uncalled for.
I'm not saying the idea wasn't good - and relevant - but its was presentation was just over done to the point where I felt it was created just for the hell of it.

I like Elder as a protagonist. He was a good protagonist, if not always believable, and his personality is likeable enough for me to enjoy his chapters and understand his judgements and actions.
Amy, on the other hand, is the perfect stereotype for the helpless girl. I was really not happy about this. I'm not saying that all female protagonists have to be able to kick ass or make a sarky remark, but I don't like them being shown as completely useless when Amy is obviously a very intelligent girl. And then, halfway through, she suddenly has a reason to be small and timid - and then she suddenly starts making her own decisions and standing up for herself. This might be quite believable, but the contrast between her before and after is just too much: I feel like Amy was two different characters in this book. (But I suppose better late than never.)
Harley is my favourite character because he's realistic and lovely and misunderstood. I really wish he'd been more involved. Also, his main part in the story wasn't build up to enough - I usually like sudden happenings like that, but it didn't feel like a climax to me because there really was no indication. (I also wish she'd presented some of the issues in a more sensitive way. She wasn't being downright blunt or mean about them, but I do think that the subject wasn't addressed in completely the right way - especially not for a teenage audience.)

The pace was all over the place. The beginning started off really well, I feel. I was actually reviewing my first impressions of the book and starting to think that maybe I'd like it overall. It was a real shame when things started going downhill from there.
The pace was just really inconsistent. I admit, near the end I started to like it again. The last 70ish pages were really good and the ending was brilliant. But the middle 300 or so pages just didn't work for me. No a lot happened, everything started to crowd in on itself and it was like twenty other little subplots were thrown in to try and claw back some interest.
(I also felt that Harley's story wasn't shown in enough detail. I was really interested in that, but Revis neglected to explain everything to the reader and the opportunity was lost fairly early on.)

I also really liked the ideas: the mysterious Plague; how the mental patients are actually more normal in our society; the conspiracy of the flight etc etc. But I don't think they were explained in enough detail. This may be because there are two following books to Across the Universe, but unfortunately my curiosity isn't enough to make me want to read them.

The romance was okay. But there were hints of a love-triangle that never happened (I can't decide if that's a good thing or not) and Harley's previous relationship wasn't explained enough for my taste (but then again, Harley was the character I found most interesting). The love didn't consume the entire plot, so to speak, but I did feel it got a little in the way.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it was that I didn't like about this book - the characters were mostly good and and the main plot was exciting and interesting - I just felt it didn't tie together.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Sci-Fi romances, but don't expect too much. I know a lot of people really like this book, so it might just be my personal opinion that it wasn't that good. It's not completely awful - as I first thought - but it isn't a really good read either.

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How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Book Title: How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Author: Neil Gaiman

Date Started: June 5th 2013

Date Completed: June 8th 2013

Genres: Romance, Mystery, Fantasy

Rating: Five stars

Review:

I really need to read more Neil Gaiman novels. They're brilliant and engaging and mysterious and wonderful and I need to read more of them.


How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a very short novella that tells the story of how Enn goes to a party with his friend Vic and has the common social-awkwardness of struggling to talk to girls. However, when Enn finally does manage to stutter a word out, it seems that the girls may not be quite as ordinary as he expected.

Gaiman's writing is always amazing. It's engaging, it's exciting, it's humorous, it's realistic. The flow and pace is so perfectly set that you really involved in the plot within the first sentence.
I think, especially in this book, he is able to infer a much more detailed and mysterious plot line below his actual words that creates a menacing and puzzling atmosphere for the reader.

The actual story left me wanting more. At the beginning, it does state that this story continues in another of Gaiman's books: which explains the abundance of loose ends on the last page. I definitely want to know what happens next, as so little is revealed, and yet so much is suggested like clues for a detective. In a way, I'm not sure how well it does work as a novella, since it's left open so wide at the end.

I really like Enn - he's the typical nerdy guy, but he's got a kind of naive innocence that's narrated so believably that I really emphasise with his character and want him to do well.
I quite like Vic too, he's definitely the cool kid who abandons his friend at the first girl, but there is a sense that he genuinely wants his friend to get somewhere in life.
There aren't really any other characters that have much significance other than that, which is why I wished it went on for a little longer so I could learn a bit more about these characters or at least get introduced to a few more.

The concept of the girl's bizarre nature (can't really say more than that if avoiding spoilers) caught my attention, forcing me to actually get the rest of this story and read on. I'm really eager to find out where exactly these girls are from and how they'll affect Enn and even Vic.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes little reads that are brilliantly written. There's a lot of humour, as well as a flare of mystery in the story. You'll want to continue the story. This novella is also a brilliant introduction in Neil Gaiman's writing if you haven't tried anything of his before.

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Angelfall

Book Title: Angelfall

Author: Susan Ee

Series: Penryn and the End of Days #1

Date Started: June 2nd 2013

Date Completed: June 5th 2013

Genres: Romance, Dystopian, Fantasy, Adventure, Comedy, Action, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: Four stars

Review:

I've been hearing about Angelfall for a very, very long time. Described as an 'internet phenomenon', I knew that the hype for this book was already incredibly high. This actually made me doubt how good the actual book was going to be. In my opinion, it didn't live up to the madness surrounding reviews. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a absolutely brilliant book that will be sitting on my favourites shelf for quite a while.


Angelfall is set in a dystopian Earth after angels have invaded and destroyed everything with their superior power. With only a few hundred survivors, Penryn Young is among those who escaped the first waves of death. She's on the run with her wheelchair-bound sister Paige and her schizophrenic mother when they run head-first into a execution by the angels - of one of their kind. In a desperate attempt to create a distraction for her family, Penryn attacks the angels and manages to save their victim, but her sister is carried off in the process. What follows is an adventure across the US to San Francisco for Penryn to rescue her younger sibling, with only the help of a wingless angel.

The one negative thing I have to say about this book is the writing. Since the book is a debut from Ee, I wasn't surprised to find that the writing didn't really flow in a lot of places and words were repeated a great deal (e.g. beginning practically every sentence with I).
However, there's actually a lot of potential in the description and movement of the text - I'm slightly disappointed because I felt it was almost like this version was still a draft that just had to be revised a couple more times to get the writing perfect.

I read a lot of dystopians - and most of them are violent. But none are presented as so hauntingly horrific and violent as this one. I usually feel that clashing genres like dystopians and then supernatural and fantasy as well are hard to make work since the overload of different cultures just doesn't move smoothly against each other. But actually, it kind of worked here; the mixture of magic and demons and destruction were relevant to the plot rather than being throw in there to attract more readers.
The romance was just right. I rant a lot about plots becoming romance focused - and I would essentially call this book a romance novel. But actually, I found it very bearable and subtle enough to noticeably be there, but not have the plot revolve around it. Very well done.

I really liked Penryn - she was still able to find humour (that was actually funny) in a lot of serious situations without making it too comical and hard to take seriously. She might be the typical strong female protagonist with all the martial arts talents and resourcefulness, but there's something else about her that I can't quite pinpoint - but it makes her a lot more relatable and enjoyable to read from the perspective of. She's also more concerned about her missing family that swooning over her wingless angel (thank god).
Raffe is a very good male interest as well: I thought he'd be the typical strong, moody, emotionally-distraught angel - and he was - but he was also a lot more likeable because Ee presented him as actually caring, but being more concerned about his predicament. Like I said, the romance is just right.
(I also really like Dee-Dum - don't ask me why, I'm not sure myself. But the twins are really interesting in my opinion and I hope they're in the next book.)

I was dubious at first of the pace, since the first chapter implies that not a lot is going to happen, but things picked up pretty fast from there. Angelfall is a short book, so there's always something going on. I just wish it was slightly longer so the characters had time to get into more trouble and we got to learn a little bit more about them. I feel like the book was over before it had really begun - which is a shame because I actually really really enjoyed it.

I would recommend Angelfall to anyone who likes to read romance, dystopians, action, fantasy, comedy. It's quite a light read - although some parts are harder to get through because of the inexperience of the author - but it's still enjoyable to read. There's a lot that happens, and everything's obviously open for a sequel. Can't wait.

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