Book Review: HALO by Alexandra Adornetto

Bethany is an angel sent to battle the forces of darkness in a quaint seaside town, along with her brother and sister (I'm assuming those titles are honorific), Gabriel and Ivy. Unfortunately, unlike the other two angels, Bethany enjoys her experiences as a human way too much--especially when the cute captain of the high school, Xavier, starts paying attention to her. Alas, humans and angels cannot fall in love! What will these two crazy kids do?!?

The first half of this book was actually pretty good. I was impressed by the amount of research Adornetto put into angelology and how she made the inhuman angels seem completely believable as characters but most definitely otherworldly. The chemistry between Beth and Xavier wasn't exactly burning the pages up, but it was there. Plus it was fun seeing a complete innocent like Beth face the mysteries of hurdles like drinking and boys being attracted to her. I was engaged, I wanted to know what would happen, I was caught in the midst of teen angst. That's just about everything I ask from a YA novel!

Then came the second half of the book, and everything went downhill. Since the angels are on an "urgent mission" to battle the forces of darkness, I kept expecting, you know, something bad to happen. But the only sign of the devil in the little town Bethany and Xavier inhabit is a super-obvious sneering demon from England (where else?) who shows up in the second half, so that story line was really boring. Even more troublesome, the characters remained very shallowly sketched throughout the entire book, especially Xavier, whom I really wanted to understand better. Why is he so attracted to Bethany? Why is she attracted to him? I still don't know. And in the second half, Xavier becomes so "protective" (feel free to read that as "controlling") he makes Edward Cullen look like a neglectful baby sitter.

Then again, Bethany does magically lose the sentient part of her brain in the second half, so perhaps Xavier's justified in treating her like a 3-year-old.

Plus there are alllll these inconsistencies of logic to deal with. Beth had to step out of class during slide presentations because her skin sparkles in the dark, yet she goes to beach parties at night where people are sure to notice--one would think--her sparkly skin. The angels have all human knowledge at their fingertips, yet Beth still has to learn things for class and they can't figure out how to pay an electric bill. They're supposed to be humble messengers of God, but they live in a posh mansion and don't have to work. And so on.

There is a strong religious thread in this book. Religion in books doesn't necessarily bother me--in fact, in books about angels, I get annoyed if the concept of God isn't at least brought up--but here I became a little concerned because the religion espoused seemed very fundamentalist. Bethany says her "family" supports family values (which I've always taken as code for "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen"), and there's a strong message that sex before marriage is BAD. Nearly all the girls who have sex in this book are killed. I am NOT even joking. The threat the "forces of darkness"--i.e., the one kid who cartoonishly embodies Bad News--present is ridiculous and difficult to take seriously. There are no crises of faith and no deeper layers of what's right and wrong. What you see is what you get.

Yet at the same time the innocence and simplicity of this novel is refreshing, especially in the beginning. It has a 1950s retro vibe to it, like Pleasantville before everyone got color. Xavier even drives a classic car, and I have zero trouble picturing Bethany in a poodle skirt and cardigan.

Considering that Adornetto is 18 (or was when this book was published), I'm impressed with her ability to write appealing characters and a good story, and I definitely wouldn't be adverse to reading more of her work. Unfortunately, though, this book is too long, and everything in it is treated very shallowly. I don't think there was much depth to the characters, even major characters like Xavier. There are also a lot of convenient plot devices roiling around in here. So this book was okay... ish, but I was really really glad when it was over.

Musical Notes: "Crazy In Love" by Beyoncé

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

As you may recall, I liked Hush, Hush--not that I thought it was good, mind.  But it was enjoyable for the pure silliness of the nonsensical actions of the heroine, Nora; the misadventures of her bestie, Vee; and above all the ridiculous hero, Patch, who is kind of like the baby from Who Killed Rodger Rabbit, only with washboard abs and (I presume) no belly button.  In Crescendo, however, I began to believe that Patch was a delusion because Nora is obviously FREAKING CRAZY.

It all starts before the twenty page mark.  Nora's pawing her way all over Patch's totally hot bod, begging him never to leave her.  She presses a ring so hard into their hands it draws blood.  Suddenly he's all, "Babe, I gotta go," and she's like, "WHO ARE YOU SEEING?!?"  The next day, she finds out he was at the house of her arch-nemesis slash school slut, Marcie Millar.  Aha!  Nora knew she couldn't trust that playa playa. 

Patch comes over.  She confronts him.  Patch is like, "Okay, I know you and Marcie have issues, but let me explain to you why I was over there.  I had a very good reason."  Nora is all, "I don't want to hear it!  You never tell me what you're doing!  How can I trust someone who doesn't share things with me?  I think we should break up.  I never want to see you again!!!!!!11!!!!"

HMOKAY.  Patch takes her advice and leaves.  Nora starts sobbing.  Why does every man she's ever loved leave her?  Why won't Patch call and tell her what he was doing at Marcie's?  If only he would tell her!  WHY???

Now, this alone wouldn't have ruined the book for me.  I knew Nora and Patch were going to be separated early in the story, and I knew it would be ridonkulous.  But wash, rinse, and repeat this scene for a hundred and fifty pages and I seriously could not take it anymore.  It's like Nora is the model for The Psycho Girlfriend.  I actually felt sorry for Patch in this book, the little blighter.

Nora's conversations with Patch aren't the only incongruities of logic happening here.  You know that site where the grammar Nazi picks apart Twilight, Reasoning With Vampires?*  The writer of that should read this book.  She would have a freaking field day.  Fitzpatrick's prose is enough to make Stephenie Meyer look like Rousseau--there's tons of stuff that good editing should have caught.  Take this scene, for example:

I tossed the cell into my open purse at my feet and bowed my head into my hands.  My eye throbbed.  I was scared, alone, confused, and on the verge of crying uncontrollably.

"Maybe it's from Patch," Vee said.

Chere Nora: hellooooooo!  Did you catch that?  Vee is with you!  You're not alone, dinglebat!  Unless you were speaking in the existential sense of aloneness, in which case we're all alone and you're not special so STFU.

Anyway, there is a plot in this book.  You see, Nora's dad was murrrrdered before Hush, Hush started, and in Crescendo she searches for his killer.  I'll give you three guesses who the main suspect is.  There are also some new characters introduced, most specifically Scotty the Potty, who also happens to be a Nephilim.  The world is teeming with these Nephilim creatures, I tells ye (don't ask me to explain what Nephilim are or how they fit into this world, because Fitzpatrick never does, nor expounds more on the angel hierarchy or how it works). 

The book isn't completely terrible.  Honestly.  The second half is actually pretty entertaining, since Patch mostly stays out of it and Vee and Nora go off on their own adventures to discover Nora's father's killer.  But Nora is impossible to like or root for.  And even more than that and the nonsensicalness, there's a very disturbing anti-feminist tone in the book.  Nora believes "boys will be boys" (oddly following a strange prayer scene over store-bought lasagna, which kind of made me throw up in my mouth), can't listen to her own instincts (of course, she is a psycho), and essentially falls into every negative stereotype of femininity á la the Victorians you can think of.  If this book was published in 1950, it would fit right in.  As it is, it left me vaguely disgusted.

Crescendo is basically exactly like Hush, Hush--even down to the title that has nothing to do with the story--but it's longer and dumberer. In Hush, Hush, the question of what Patch wanted with Nora kept me reading, but in this book there's no big question to keep my attention, and so all the flaws in the book become glaring.  It's kind of like when you meet someone and at first they seem shallow but fun; then you hang you out with them for a bit longer and you realize they're not only shallow but kind of mean and a sexist to boot.  The chances that you're going to want to keep hanging out with them are pretty minimal, just like the probability that I will read the next book in this series.

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*Thank you for the link, Pam!

Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Kiss is the second book in the The Guild Hunter series, after Angel's Blood.  I feel mostly same way about it that I did about Angel's Blood--only opposite.  Read on as I attempt to make sense of that statement...

Elena has come to accept her relationship with the Archangel of New York, Raphael (not that she had much of a choice), and is now closeted away with him in the angels' super-secret Refuge.  But not everyone is happy that a mortal has become so important to an archangel, and threats from the rest of Cadre--the ruling body of angels, of which Raphael is a part--soon start to roll in.  Lijuan, who is so old she is become death; and Michaela, for whom the phrase "that bitch is psycho" was invented, are the most obvious threats--but there's another angel in the Refuge who seems to trying to pit members of the Cadre against one another, perhaps to start an angelic war.  Meeeeanwhile, Elena is trying to rebuild her strength after her near-death experience, and she and Raphael share their childhood traumas and fuck like flying bunny rabbits.

I did really like the first half of this book.  It's very well-written, drawing you into the story immediately.  I think even if you hadn't read the first book, you would have no trouble getting into the story and figuring out what's going on here.  I also liked the fact that we finally got to understand more about Elena's and Raphael's pasts.

That being said, it all started to get reeeeeally really repetitive.  By the time the plot finally got going, I didn't care that much anymore, and the big ball at Lijuan's felt anti-climatic.  I think this book could have benefited from some serious slash editing--100 pages less would have told the story just as well, if not better, and I wouldn't have lost all my patience with it by the end.

So, as with Angel's Blood, I'm not sure I can really say I enjoyed reading this book.  Unlike the previous book, however, with this one I enjoyed the beginning and was annoyed with the ending.  I'm not sure I'll be picking up the next book in this series, since the set-up so far seems predictable:  every single archangel with the exception of Raphael and Elijah are bat-shit insane, and apparently at least one of them has to die in every book.  How long is this going to go on?  Until Raphael rules the world?  Come on.

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Angel Month Wrap-Up

Angels really are everywhere these days, as I discovered during my month-long angel reading blitz.  I read four books:

• Covet
• The Fallen
• Hush, Hush
• Angels' Blood

I thought reading four books might force me to read a fifth in order to break a tie, but it didn't happen--angels are not the new vampires.  Go back to your lives, citizens.

During the course of reading these novels, I think I've discovered angel books are already developing their own tropes.  One of the major ones is the angel being a total jerk, but the woman unable to resist his attraction.  You know that movie Angel and the Badman?  Well, in most of these books the angel is the badman.  In fact, I don't think any of these books has an angel that is completely good, and most of them are outright bad.  Is it because good=boring?  Or is it symbolic of how corrupted humanity is?

Overall, I enjoyed Angel Month.  But I think I'm going to be avoiding any more angel books for a while--I'm totally burned out on them at this point.

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Angel's Blood

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

This urban fantasy/romance is a cornucopia of popular supernatural creatures, with vampires, vampire hunters, angels, and even zombies--yes, my friends, zombies! It does a good job of setting up a new series, although I can't say entirely liked it. Or rather, I liked a part of it and hated another part.

Elena is a vampire hunter extraordinaire. She and her colleagues chase down runaway vampires for angels, who Make vampires in return for 100 years of servitude. When vamps try to jump their parole, Elena tracks them, tags 'em, and carts them back to the hoosegow, much like a female version of Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Then the Archangel of New York City, Raphael, requests her services. He wants Elena to lead him to another archangel, Uram, who's gone a wee bit on the wrong side of bat-shit insane. Despite the ginormous amount of money he's paying her, Elena isn't really happy about this because 1. archangels are scary; and 2. she's certain either Raphael or Uram will kill her before the job's over. But you can't say no to the Godfather Archangel, especially when he's all sexy-like.

The beginning of Angels' Blood kind of pissed me off. Admittedly, Hush, Hush used up all of the little patience I have for the jerk-angel-and-the-woman-who-is-inexplicably-attracted-to-him trope; but even more annoying was Elena denying she was attracted to Raphael, even though it was obvious that she was. (Note to rom heroines: just because you're attracted to someone does not mean you have to bang them. I'm just throwing that idea out there.) One of the reasons why I hate that sort of thing in romance novels is that reinforces the idea that when women say no--which Elena did plenty of in the first half of this book--they really mean yes--which she really did. And that is bull.

Around the halfway-point, both stalker Raphael and trigger-happy Elena (seriously, I don't think this woman should be issued firearms) reallllly started to annoy me. However, at that point in the book the relationship shifted to become more equal, and I began to enjoy it a lot more. Of course, Raphael has no personality, and I have no idea why he's even attracted to Elena beyond the point that she's fiesty, but at least he was no longer a total douche. Plus, the hunt for Uram FINALLY got underway (yes, halfway through the book), so the story became much more exciting.

In fact, Angels' Blood improved exponentially in the second half, to the point that I actually truly liked it by the end. I think it does a great job of setting up the next book in the series, which I'm definitely looking forward to reading. So although I had plenty of problems with it, it did end up being a satisfying book.

And now for the twenty-dollar question:

<----Actual picture of Uram?

Angels--iz they the new vampires?

I'm going have to go with a draw on this one.

On one hand:

• The angels in this book have wings. That's always a plus--pretty wings, too.
• These angels have some pretty cool powers. My favorite was angel dust. If you try it, you'll like it. They can also create zombies and vampires, throw fireballs, and manipulate human minds.

On the other hand:

• I'm still not entirely clear on how the angel world works in this book. They're the rulers of the earth, okay--but how exactly do they rule? Is it governmental, do they own a bunch of real estate, what? There were definitely some gaps in the world building.
  
• For most of the book, the angels didn't seem angelic to me. They're just basically vampires with wings. As I kept reading, I got more used to it, but one expects angels to be counterpoints to vampires and not really one-and-the-same. Plus, if they're mostly cool because they're like vampires, have angels really replaced vamps as the new supernatural creature of the moment? No, not really.
  

Final score: vampires, 2 1/2; angels 1 1/2

Which means vampires win!!!!!! Yeah!



Other opinions:

Literary Escapism
Loves Vampires
Angieville
Babbling About Books, and More
Dear Author
Musings of a Bibliophile
Royal Reviews
The Book Smugglers
Tracy’s Place
Urban Fantasy Land
Scooper Speaks
Lurv A La Mode
Stacy's Place On Earth
Did I miss yours? Please let me know in the comments!

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Last Angelic Links

I haz been derelict in putting up my angelic links lately.  Since Angel Month is wrapping up quicker than you can spit (so to speak), I better get on the ball.

• KMont at Lurv A La Mode has a great post on the appeal of supernatural creatures.  Although it's mostly about vampires, she does touch upon how angels in YA books all seem to be creepy jerks.  It's definitely given me something to think about for my concluding post.
• Just in case you didn't know, angels are STILL the new thing in publishing.  It's nice that I'm staying current.
  
• Aimee from My Fluttering Heart has a new challenge called Horns and Halos, where you can read all the angel or demon books you want!  Check it out (I also really like her challenge buttons).
• The Story Siren reviews Evidence of Angels by Suza Scalora and Francesca Lia Block.  Not sure what it's about, but it has a brilliant cover.
• as i was saying tackles Twilight and Hush, Hush in a head-to-head comparison.  It's not exactly a deeply probing review, but I found it interesting that it says both Edward and Patch wanted to kill the heroines in the books.  Sorry, but I do not find Patch's and Edward's actions comparable at all--Patch plotted to murder Nora for his own benefit; Edward was afraid he was going to kill Bella in a fit of vampiric hunger beyond his control, so he ran off into the forest.  Which one would you rather deal with?

Remember, kids, when you click on a link, an angel gets its wings.

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Angel Appeal

What is the appeal of the angel in modern fiction?  Is it the same as for other paranormal heroes like vampires and werewolves?  Are angels, as themselves, attractive at all, or do they need to be modified into more visceral creatures to be sexy?

Like vampires, angels are usually immortal, with amazing powers.  Unlike vampires, however, their traditional mythos has them as helpers to humanity--or, more specifically, as messengers.  In fact, the very word angel means messenger.  Although angels are figures in Christian, Judaic, and Islamic (re: monotheistic) religions, they originated in Sumerian, Babylonian, and Ancient Egyptian culture.  Good angels serve as liasons between god[s] and humanity; fallen angels try to misdirect humans.  Because angels can go between worlds, they seem to be equal part spirit and flesh--beings of light and "man of god."  Exactly how much they mingle with humans is up for debate, but they don't feed off humanity like vampires do.

Vampires are children of the earth--hungry for both sex and power, they have no ability to move on, to ascend.  With vampires, immortality does sound like a drag.  They represent what humanity most fears that it truly is.

Angels, on the other hand, are the ideal, icons of what humanity can be.  Or at least that's their traditional symbolism.

The problem with "angels being the new vampires" is that, instead of providing a counterpoint to vampires, they seem to be becoming vampires.  Hungry for power and sex, their existence is rarely connected to a higher power; and they're at the very least conflicted and hardly ever good.  What does this say about our current culture?  Do we love bad boys so much we can't work up an interest in anything else?  Or is hope and spirituality so fantastical it seems safer to adapt angels to a familiar vampiric narrative?

With these "new" angels comes new tropes that have already infiltrated genre fiction--but more about that when I write my concluding post to Angel Month!

What do you think is the appeal of angels in fiction?  Can they really replace vampires?

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Hush, Hush

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick*

After reading all the reviews for this book, I was almost scared to open it up.  Let me be completely up-front about it:  every criticism you read about Hush, Hush is totally valid.  This is not a romance.  Patch is an unattractive jerk.  The heroine's actions sometimes don't make any sense, and the plot is pretty weak.  That being said, though, I enjoyed the pure silliness of it and pretty much lawled my way through the entire book.

Nora Grey is a tightly wound, goal-oriented high school student who may or may not remind me of myself at that age.  One day her biology teacher decides to make everyone switch seats.  Instead of partnering with her bestie, Vee, she's put next to Patch Cipriano.  Nora senses he's dangerous--oh, so dangerous--but somehow fails to detect the fact that he's also a jerk.  She's attracted to him and she just can't help it!  Then weird things start happening to her and she blames them all on Patch.

This is not a terribly well-plotted book, although of all the Twilight wannabes I've read (Need, Ruined--stay away from YA books with one-word titles, kids!), this is the best.  It all hinges on the question of what Patch is--of course, one can guess he's a fallen angel based just on the cover.  But why?  And what does he want with Nora?  My desire to find out is what kept me reading the book, even though Nora's wishy-washy protestations of being unattracted to Patch started to become repetitive and the book dragged in the middle.  The ending was absolutely ridiculous and I do NOT believe Patch is in love with Nora.

I could go on with other holes in the plot and characterizations, but I'm not going to.  Because, despite everything that's wrong with Hush, Hush, I honestly enjoyed it.  Of course, my expectations were pretty low--but there was something very entertaining about watching Patch push all of Nora's buttons and drive her to distraction.  I also thought Nora's various adventures were funny, and for the most part I loved Vee.  This is not an angsty, romantic novel at all--it's a farce.  And I had a really good time reading it.

And now let's get to the throw-down:



Angels--are they the new vampires?

Hahaha!  PLEASE.  No.  Edward Cullen could kick Patch's ass.

First of all:  Patch?  That name sounds like one of those silly aliases Shaun makes up for Gus on Psych.  I cannot take any guy seriously who is named Patch.

Secondly:  Is Patch trying to attract or repel Nora?  Because if it's the former, he's going about it in the most roundabout and nonsensical way imaginable (note to any males who might stumble upon this book:  this is not the way to get girls to go out with you.  DO NOT EMULATE if you want to have sex at any point in the near future).  If I was her, I would have punched him in the face at least twenty times before the first half of the book was up.  But then I don't have her problem where I'm entranced by rock-hard abs (okay, I lie--I actually do have that problem, but I resist it!  Usually).  If I had to describe what Patch looks like in my head, I'd say middle-aged used car salesman.  A sweaty one, with a wide girth, a lot of gold jewelry, and hairy knuckles.

Thirdly:  As an angel, Patch and the other winged ones in this book are just lame.  Their major powers are that they're immortal, they can make humans see anything they want them to, and they can talk to people in their heads.  Exactly how this helps angels, fallen or otherwise, do whatever it is they're supposed to be doing on earth, I don't know.  The mythology of these angels is pretty unclear--there are Grigori and Nephilim, just like in The Fallen; but there are also archangels, guardian angels, angels of death, and fallen angels (or maybe fallen angels are Grigori).  What exactly is the hierarchy of angels?  What are their jobs?  What powers do they have, and what are their limitations?  What sort of god controls the angels, if there even is a god?  I cannot tell you any of this stuff, because it's not discussed in the book.  They're just angels who influence people for their own reasons!

Oh, and these angels don't have wings.  Or they do, but they can't be seen.  To which I say... WTF???  No wings? Why don't you just have vampires without fangs, or samurai with swords?

The angels in Hush, Hush are basically the most unimpressive angels I've encountered so far in my scientific study.  At least the angels in Covet were either amusing or hawt; these angels don't even have that going for them.

Score so far:  vampires, 2; angels, 1

Next up in my über-scientific study:  Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh

Other Opinions:
Babbling About Books, And More! (KB posed a very good question in her review:  why is this book titled titled Hush, Hush?  There is nothing to connect it to the story at all.  Well, I think I've found the answer--it was inspired by Til Tuesday's Voices Carry!)
Lurv A La Mode
Lost In Books
Galleysmith
Books and Movies
J. Kaye's Book Blog
The Book Zombie
A Novel Menagerie
Book-a-rama
Fyrefly's Book Blog
Violet Crush
My Two Blessings
The Story Siren
Wordsmithonia
These are just the reviews that I remember coming across in my reader!  There are literally pages upon pages of them that you can read at The Book Blogs Search Engine.

*This is an Amazon Associates link.  Patch will lick your face if you click on it.

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TSS-Too Much of a Good Thing

November is drawing to a close, which means my Angel Month is as well (although since I started it a week into November, I might extend it a week into December--I do have to admit I'm getting mighty sick of angel books, though).  So far I've read two angel-related books:

• Covet by JR Ward
• The Fallen by Tom Sniegoski

This week I took a break from the winged ones to read something completely different, and managed to finish two books in one week!  That's double the number of books I usually finish.  Said books were:

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (re-read)
• Soulless by Gail Carriger

Reviews for both are pending.  Just to warn y'all... I didn't love Soulless.  I don't want you skipping over here all excited to read the review and being disappointed, okay?


I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving (if you live in the US, of course).  I took Thanksgiving off from the interwebz, and I have to admit, it was nice to spend a day completely away from the computer.  So I've decided from now on I'm going to be offline for a whole day every week.  I haven't decided which day yet--I'll probably change it up depending on my mood.  But I think that one day off from blogging gave me a much-needed recharge, as well as the time to finish two books; and to tell the truth, I've been feeling the need to do a mini-break for awhile now.  So there you have it.


In the next week, I'm planning to read Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and Angel Time by Anne Rice.  If I manage to finish both of those before the end of the week (which isn't likely, but I might abandon either book), I'll tackle Angel Blood by Nalini Singh. 

And never read another angel book again.  The end.

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Angelic Songs

Hi.  I'm lazy.  So instead of writing an actual blog today, I'm going to present you instead with a bunch of angel songs.

Did I miss one of your favorite angel songs?

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More Angelic Links

Naturally, as soon as I posted my last angelic links post, I found more links!  So here are more links to tickle your angel fancy:

• Want another chance to win Fallen by Lauren Kate?  You can enter at Pure Imagination.  The giveaway ends November 25th.
• I can't review every angel-related book for my project, but here are two great reviews of books I wish I could/did read:  The Vinter's Luck by Elizabeth Knox at Stella Matutina, and A Madness of Angels (Or, the Resurrection of Matthew Swift) by Kate Griffin (Griffin! coincidence?) at Once Upon a Bookshelf
• Who else besides me is cashing in on the whole vampires-are-the-new-angels thing?  Self-described horror writer Lia Scott Price, who has a new series out called The Serial Killer and Vampire Guardian Angel (TM) Diaries.  My big question:  but is there a dog?
• Finally, do you have a burning itch to write your own angelic tale?  QueeredFiction has an open call for submissions for "An urban contemporary fantasy anthology featuring queer angels of all shades and hues."  GLBT angels?  Considering angels are asexual, I don't know about this... but hey, at least they won't all be white guys right?  One can only hope.

That's all your links for this week!  Hopefully I'll be back next week with more angel book reviews--especially since the month is almost over.

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The Fallen

The Fallen by Thomas E. Sniegoski*

Source: Once again, I borrowed it from my mom.

This is a short, entertaining YA full of action and battle scenes, with a little romance thrown in.  It's not the greatest book ever, but it is a satisfying read, and I definitely want to read the next book in the series.

When Aaron Corbet goes to sleep as a seventeen-year-old, his life is pretty decent:  despite being an orphan, he's been adopted by a family who loves him; he does well in school, has a car, and works in a veterinary clinic.  Even before he wakes up on his eighteenth birthday, however, things are starting to unravel--he has a terrible dream about an ancient village being attacked.  He gets a blistering headache, then suddenly he can understand Portuguese!  The hottest girl in school smiles at him (well, that's actually a good point).  What is going on???  Then a crazy old guy in the park tells Aaron that he's a nephilim, a child of a human and an angel.  Good points: wings and superpowers!  Bad point: nephilim are considered unnatural beings and angels are determined to kill him.

I can't really say anything more about the plot, since that's basically it.  Young boy is unexpectedly thrust into the Other World, danger ensues.  The first 100 or so pages are pretty rough, mainly because the writing has moments of pedantry and TMI that drove me crazy.  For example:

He signed in with a password that he had obtained from the library his first year of high school, and called up a search engine that he used often when researching information for school papaers.  The screen appeared and, choosing one of the varied spellings, he typed in the mystery word.  He hit the Enter key and held his breath.

Oookay, good to know.  Wouldn't want him just firing up a computer without a valid password!  There were also times when I found myself thinking, "Hm, someone's using a thesaurus."  So Sniegosky is no JK Rowling--but even though the writing style occasionally bothered me, I can see where might not bother younger readers (who are really the audience for this book), so I can't fault Sniegosky for it.

As I said, though, the first half of the book was a little rough, story-telling wise.  I felt completely lost as to where the author was going was the narrative.  But then... the angels arrived.  Which brings us to the big question:



Are angels the new vampires?

Still no... but they are pretty kick-ass.

The title of The Fallen refers to a group of angels called the Grigori who had their wings removed for fraternizing too closely with humans.  But by the end of the book, I couldn't help but wonder if the Grigori were the only angels who were fallen--as a rule, the angels in this book are not the kind, fluffy angels that you find on greeting cards.  They're warriors who kill both humans and each other indiscriminately with their flaming swords of fire.  They have doubts and wonder if they're truly following God's purpose; and they're no better at talking to Him than humans are. 

Make no mistake, though--they are definitely not human.  In fact, they show some marked similarities to vampires:

They were deathly pale, almost luminescent in their whiteness, and their features were perfectly symmetrical--too perfect.  Aaron felt as though he were looking at mannequins come to life.

They sound like the Cullens! 

In another parallel to vampires, they treat humans like animals, literally calling them monkeys, and capturing and keeping some for use as servants.  Even these humans are treated like dogs, or worse, and disposed of quickly when they outlive their usefulness.

In other words, the angels in this book, even the "good guy" angels, are hard-core gangsters.  Once they show up, things get pretty intense and the book becomes nearly unputdownable.

I also like the fact that Sniegoski ties the angels to a god, and a heaven, although it's not necessarily a Christian view of either--it's clear that angels in fact have only the vaguest idea of what human religion is and how it works.  But there is a God (I'm going to assume only one) and a heaven and hell, and the angels consider themselves to be in the service of Him.  I actually really appreciated the religious elements in this novel, because come on--they're angels.  You're going to have an entire book about angels and avoid talking about God?  Someone already tried that; it didn't work out well.

So, while I wouldn't call angels the new vampires at this point, I did absolutely love them in this book.  They were fascinating and mesmerizing and dangerous and exciting.  I definitely want to see what they get up to in the next book.

Score: vampires 1, angels 1

Strange similarities to Covet:

• In The Fallen, Aaron is very close to his dog, who is preternaturally smart.  And of course we had Dog from Covet.  So... why the dogs in all these angel books?  Are dogs angels?  Do all good dogs go to heaven?  Are they harbingers of angel-caused doom?  Do I need to keep an eye out?
  
• In both The Fallen and Covet, all the angels are male.  ALL OF THEM.  Now, if I remember my catechism studies correctly (and I believe I do), angels are actually asexual.  So I guess male is the default sex.  Because, yeah, who would want to be a woman anyway, right? *eyeroll*  I'm going to also go out on a limb and say they're all white.
  

Other opinions:
None that I could find.  Have you reviewed this book?  Let me know in the comments!

*This is an Amazon Associates link.  Do not click if you love freedom.

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Covet

Covet by J. R. Ward

Source: My mom loaned it to me.

Can one find angels riding Harleys (apparently shirtless) or playing crickett and talking with English accents? Do demons truly prowl our waking life, waiting to get a hold of us and give us lots of shiny stuff and fabulous sex? These are the questions I found myself NOT asking after reading Covet. Questions I did ask: is Trez a supernatural creature, or just the nicest pimp ever? Shouldn't Vin have lost all his rich stuff? And, if Jim has to save seven souls, and this is presumably a seven-part series, doesn't that mean at least three of the books will be total fails? Cuz I'm not sure I want to read those three.

But I get ahead of myself, as usual. Covet is the first book in JR Ward's Fallen Angels series. Ward is more famous for her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which is about vampires, and which I haven't read--so I had no idea what to expect from Covet. Although, I have to admit I expected more than what I got.

The set-up is this: Good and Evil are getting tired of going back and forth in their struggle for dominance on Earth. So God decided that one person will have the chance to save or damn seven souls, each afflicted with one of the seven deadly sins. When it's over, the side with the most wins will have total control of Earth for eternity. I feel compelled to point out that this outcome makes noooooooooooo sense on either a theosophical or quantum level, but whatever.

The person chosen is Jim, a character whom I loved. Jim works construction, and at first he seems like your average joe, if a bit of a loner. As the story continues, however, it becomes clear that Jim has an extensive backstory as well as a dark side. Although Jim wants to save the world from evil, one can't help but wonder if his methods will prove more damning than his intentions.

In the first book, Jim has to save Vin diPietro, the owner of the site where Jim is working construction. Vin is super-duper rich and has a beautiful girlfriend to go with his perfect life. Unfortunately, as Jim belatedly realizes, Vin isn't supposed to be with Divina--he's supposed to be with Marie-Terese, a club hooker. Luckily for everyone, Vin realizes this all on his own. Hooray, the world is saved. OR IS IT?!

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about this book. The majority of it was humorous and fun, and aside from Jim, I loved the characters of Adrian, Eddie, Dog (although why Dog is even there is a mystery), and the other angels. I can definitely see how Ward's books can be addictive. But there were other elements of the writing that just bugged the heck out of me. For example, Ward has this habit of writing a question as a statement. I can see where this might emphasize a flatness of tone, but she uses it wayyyyyy beyond the point to where it has any useful intonation. And what was with calling Vin's girlfriend, "his woman," or "your woman"? WTF? Oh, sorry, let me rephrase that: WTF. How caveman can you get? I kept expecting them to follow it up with, "Woman pretty. Man make good hunting. I drive big noise machine home now. Argh! *chest beating*"

There are larger issues I had with Covet, too, mostly with the characters. At first Vin seems fairly interesting, but it turns out he has no personality at all. And Marie-Terese--uhg, can you say cookie cutter character? The hooker-with-the-heart-of-gold strikes again. I don't have a problem with prostitute heroines as a rule (although it's seriously icky for a romance novel), but I do want to understand and sympathize with her decision to get into that line of work. I did not get that with Marie-Terese. I might have respected her more if 1. she wasn't dragging a little kid around with her, or 2. she didn't hate what she did, or 3. she didn't turn into a mound of putty every time Vin showed up. And the explanation for why she got into hooking in the first place (which came way too late in the book) only made things worse. Major Issues train coming down the track! If I was Vin, I would start running.

Covet was okay, but has major problems with execution. It just didn't feel like the author entirely thought it out before writing it (and I don't mean that in an avant-garde, experimental way, either). There is a certain charm to the book--especially when it comes to Jim's character--that might have me coming back for more. It's definitely not a book to turn me into a JR Ward fan, though. As Colin the angel put it, "There is a point in every endeavor when one feels the burn of too many vertical steps." Unfortunately, I felt that way more than once while reading this novel.

And now for the big question, the entire reason I decided to read Covet in the first place...



Are angels the new vampires?

In a word: no.

While reading the summary, you might have noticed something. Or rather, the lack of something. That's right, angels! Although the series is titled The Fallen Angels, no angels, fallen or otherwise, make an appearance before page fifty. And even after that they don't play much of a role until the very end. So to call this series The Fallen Angels seems something of a marketing misnomer. It also makes it hard for me to judge if they're "the new vampires." But from what there was of them, I'd say no. Vampires are compelling, sexy, and dangerous--from what I've seen of Colin, Bertie, and the gang, they are none of those things.

As for the fallen angels, they have potential (although they are not dangerous), but I have many unanswered questions about them. Why are they fallen? What exactly is a fallen angel in this alternaverse, anyway? And while angels aren't exclusively Christian figures by any means, I find it to be simply wrong that these angels perform Pagan-ish rituals. WRONG. And kind of lame. You couldn't have come up with something better, Ward? So far I'm not impressed with the angels' powers--not by a long shot. Angels at the very least should have either awesome cosmic powers or kick-ass fighting skillz. And wings. These angels got nothing. They better pick up their game if they expect to even be equal to vampires on the literary circuit.

Score so far: vampires 1, angels 0 (vampires win by default whenever angels fail to impress me)

Next up in my über-scientific test: The Fallen, by Tom Sniegoski

Other opinions about Covet:
Smexy Books
Dear Author
The Good, the Bad, and the Unread
Darque Reviews
Love Vampires
Alpha Heroes
Did I miss yours? Please let me know in the comments!

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Angelic Links

That little guy just gets creepier and creepier every time I look at him.

I'm taking a quick break from all the feminist rhetoric today to devote some time to my Angel Month project (you're welcome, men-folk).  May I present:  links!

Want to read your own angel books?  The Story Siren is hosting a contest for two hot YA books about angels:  Fallen by Lauren Kate, and Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.  The contest closes December 8th, so you have plenty of time to enter.

Bermudaonion has a great interview with Bruce Foster, who engineered the pop-up book, Angels.  There's also a contest to win the book!  It ends November 27th, so again, plenty of time to enter.

Finally, the oft-proclaimed doyenne of vampire fiction, Anne Rice, talks a bit about why she's now writing books about angels at The Wall Street Journal.  I also loved what she said about the appeal of Twilight.



Stay tuned for a review of my first Angel Month book, Covet!

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My Favorite Reads: Archangel

My Favorite Reads is a meme hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books.  You simply blog about books you read and loved before you started book blogging!

The book I chose this week fits into the theme I've set for the month, angels.  It's not only one of my favorite books, but the standard by which I measure all books about angels.

The book:  Archangel by Sharon Shinn



Archangel takes place in another world called Samaria.  There, humans live with angels in a bit of an uneasy partnership:  angels are the governing body, more or less, and since their songs and prayers to Jovah keep Samaria running--bringing water, sunshine, even manna from heaven if they ask for it--humanity is fairly reliant upon them.  And the angels in turn generally feel pretty superior.

The highest-ranking angel in all of Samaria is the Archangel.  As the book opens, the young Gabriel is preparing to take over this post from his predecessor, Raphael.  He knows that in order to rule he must find his Angelica, the human woman (angels are only allowed to marry humans) destined to be his wife.  And when I say destined, I mean Jovah's got his hands all over this world:  most people in Samaria have stones inbedded into their arms at birth that flare when they meet the man or woman they're supposed to marry.

Unfortunately for Gabriel, his Angelica, Rachel, is not inclined to be singing to save the planet or making babies with one who is winged.  In point of fact, she's a slave.  Yes I know--you would think a world ruled by angels would be utopic, but it's not.  There's a nomadic race on Samaria that is considered fair game for slave traders.  The angels look the other way because the nomads don't rely on them to sing prayers--they sing their own prayers, and the angels kind of hate them for it.  Rachel's entire tribe was wiped out in a raid, and now she's a slave in a wealthy household.  And she remembers it was angels that attacked her tribe.  So girl's got some issues.

Nevertheless, Gabriel carries her off to his aerie, and Rachel tries to train for the changing-of-the-archangel ceremony on the Plain of Jordan and learn how to fit into the angelic community.  And she also gets to know her husband, sexy sexy Gabriel.  Yum.  With the wings and the shirtlessness, and the dark looks and leather pants (because angels HAVE to wear leather pants, that's like a rule or something...).

What I love most about this book is the absolute believability of the characters and the setting of Samaria.  I can see most of the locations in my mind--to this day--as if I'd visited them myself.  Shinn really does a great job of transporting you to another world as you read the book.  Rachel and Gabriel I got to know as if they were friends, but even the secondary characters are wonderful.  I was totally pissed when the second book in this series didn't take up where this one left off so I could find out what happened to them after laying awake for nights on end wondering.

Plus, the music--this novel bleeds music.  At the aerie, there's someone singing constantly, and the angels live and breathe music.  Being able to sing is also a pivotal part of Rachel's personality and how she heals herself emotionally from the trauma of being a slave and seeing all her family and friends murdered.  I can't imagine reading this book without mentally trying to set it to music.

Archangel is a brilliantly written novel that has all the themes I love to read about--not just love (I did mention this was a love story, right?), but equality and freedom and even the importance of faith.  I can't recommend it enough.

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TSS: Angelic Edition

So, it's Sunday. And you know what that means.

Here's what I read this past week in November:

• I Shot You, Babe (DNF)
  
• Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind
• The Laurentine Spy
• Heat Wave (DNF)
  
• Ruined (DNF)

Not bad for me! Of course, technically I only read one complete book this week, since I started Prehistoric Art a few weeks ago... but let's not focus on technical details, kay?



Announcing--Angel Month!

Have you noticed a proliferation of angel-themed books lately? Well, I have. I even have a few in my TBR pile. So I've decided to do a totally scientific (haha) analysis of whether or not angels are the new vampires. This may actually be easier than I think it will be, since several well-known vampire writers have just released angel-centric novels. I decided to make a reading theme for myself this month and read all the books I have in my TBR that are angel-related:

• Hush, Hush (actually on order from the library, so hopefully I'll get it by December)
  
• Fallen (the one by Thomas E Sniegoski, not Lauren Kate (note to self, do a comparison of all novels with the title of Fallen))
• Covet
• Meridian

Of course, at the rate I read, it'll take me a good month and a half to read these four books, but I'm going to give it a go anyway. I'm also thinking of doing some special angel-related posts in honor of Angel Month. And if you have any good angel-themed books to recommend, please don't hesitate! (As long it's not an angel banging a mermaid, please--I have to draw a line somewhere. ~_^)

Fun Stuff!



And speaking of angels... (pause for awkward segway), the holiday season approaches. And that means presents! Enter, the Book Blogger Holiday Swap. It's a secret santa for book bloggers. I think it's a great idea, and I hope all of you join and that I get matched with one of you so I can send you a present. ^_^

Secondly, the dates for the third Mystery Readathon have been scheduled as January 16th-17th, 2010. I had tons of fun with the Mystery Readathon in August, so I'm definitely looking forward to it for January.

I've also decided to join the Women Unbound challenge--but I will post more about that later.

Finally, updating my own reading challenge, M from Alberti's Window talks about The Challenge of the Avant-Garde by Paul Wood and her particular interest in Caillebotte's (Impressionist painter) domestic scenes and how they relate to modernity. It's not exactly a review so much as a thoughtful response, and it's an excellent post. Check it out, and have a lovely week!

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