I read “Angelfall”. So obviously, I fell for Raffe.

I usually go around  looking for my next read. It’s like book-window-shopping for me. Lately, I’ve found several reviews and recommendations for . The book is all over the web. Lots of Blogs recommend it. At least, the ones I follow. So, naturally, I just had to read it.

First, let’s see what’s it about:

The book was written by  and it tells the story of 17 year old Penryn Young, in a post apocalyptic world, where angels are the ones making all the damage and threatening humanity. In charge of her crazy mother and her 7 year old, paralytic sister, Penryn will do anything to rescue her kid sister Paige, from the warrior angels who have kidnapped her. That includes teaming up with her enemy: Raffe, a warrior angel who she saves from a fight that leaves him broken and wingless.

So: fallen angel, what looks like a strong heroine, post-apocalyptic world, YA romance, five star ratings on Goodreads… what more did I need? Besides, I was out of books to read.

I have to admit that I couldn’t put the book down. It’s so fast paced, that I think I read it in 2 sittings in less than a day.

I’ll try to make this post spoiler-free, because some things are major plot points that might ruin your experience if you know them beforehand.

THE PREMISE

I like the idea behind the book. I’ve read a lot of YA Paranormal books, including vampires, werewolves and whatnot. But I haven’t read any about angels. So that was new and intriguing for me. Besides, the world created by Susan Ee is quite interesting. You are thrown into post-apocalyptic California, no questions asked. And the whole mess started only six weeks ago! So, unlike “The Hunger Games” or “Divergent”, where society has had time to adapt and they are back to a sort of “normality”, in “Angelfall” the battle is ongoing and humans are just resurfacing, learning what’s happened and trying to fight back or survive. So this sets the book apart from others I’ve read.

But, I do have something to say against this. The apocalypse happened just 2 months ago. But no ones seems to be sure about anything. We don’t know why the angels attacked, how they did it, what was the purpose. That drove me nuts. I know this is the first book in a trilogy, but please… tell me something!!! Nothing is for certain, and as a reader, I need to know some ground rules, please!!!

THE GIRL

Another thing that sets “Angelfall” apart is that I don’t want to strangle the female protagonist. More often than not, the leading heroine is annoying as hell. Seriously, I usually hate the girl in the books! But Penryn Young is different. Ok, seeing her 17 year old self, from my 30 years of age, makes me think of her as much younger. I don’t know why. She isn’t whinny or scared or annoying. But I pictured her like a little girl in my mind. But she is strong, determined, loyal, brave, she measures her decisions and thinks things through.

THE GUY

Raffe, the wingless warrior angel. He is sexy, witty, smart, sarcastic, blunt, a bad-ass and a great fighter. All swoon-worthy material there. *sigh*

Though… how old is he??!! That drove me crazy!!! We get little description (though very good ones), but we never get a detailed physical description. So we don’t know if he is 18 or 35. Ok, I know he is an angel, so he’s probably centuries old, but you get what I mean. From the way he acts, the history you figure out he’s had, from things he says or things that are said about him, he seems older. You can see how the things he’s lived through, have had an impact on him. But, if Penryn is 17 and this is a YA novel, he probably looks something around the ages of 18 to 22. So, picturing him as a 35 year old, must be my mind not wanting to like a barely-out-of-puberty kid.

THE PACE

Fast. That’s the perfect word for it. The chapters are short, some very short. But they all end up with a sort of cliff-hanger, so you just have to keep reading. The dialogues are very good. There are some awesome dialogues between Penryn and Raffe (they both have very witty comebacks):

“My friends call me Wrath,” says Raffe. “My enemies call me Please Have Mercy. What’s your name, soldier boy?”

- “I never kid about my warrior demigod status.”
- “Oh. My. God.” I lower my voice, having forgotten to whisper. “You are nothing but a bird with an attitude. Okay, so you have a few muscles, I’ll grant you that. But you know, a bird is nothing but a barely evolved lizard. That’s what you are.

“Leaking sacks of mutated maggots?” He raises his perfectly arched eyebrow as though I’d just failed my verbal insult exam.”

“Oh, please. Your giant head is getting too big for this forest. Pretty soon, you’re going to get stuck trying to walk between two tress. And then, I’ll have to rescue you.” I give him a weary look. “Again.”

Another things is that Susan Ee seems to have done some research on angel lore: Archangels, Nephilim and Biblical references are all there. But not in your face. The writer includes them slowly and easily. It just fits naturally.

THE ROMANCE

Here I’m of two minds. I love the fact that the book is not centered around the romance. It has a strong plot that could easily go on and be interesting, without the relationship between Penryn and Raffe. That’s a major bonus. Another thing I love is the slow pace of it. Even though the book is quite fast, the relationship between the two leading characters evolves slowly. They start as enemies. Hating each other. They are forced to band together by the situation: she needs him to get her sister back and he needs her to get his wings back. They start trusting each other very slowly. There aren’t a lot of very romantic and intense scenes, but you see how they might fall for each other. And as this is a forbidden love, you can totally see Raffe battling his feelings for her.

That being said, I needed more. There’s not enough. I finished the book and was like ” that’s it???!!!” Raffe is such a brooding, tormented character, that you just can see how sweet and tender he’s gonna be once he opens up. And as a reader, you see him falling for Penryn even though he fights it. So a romantic scene is going to be awesome!!! Just the one kiss we get is perfect. So why, oh why, didn’t we get more???!!!

THE TRILOGY

Luckily, there’s going to be more about Raffe and Penryn, cuz the ending was sooooooooooooo nice.  This is going to be the “Penryn & The End of Days” Trilogy, part 1 being “Angelfall”; part 2 “Wolrd After” and a third installment, untitled as of yet. And, apparently, there´s even going to be a !!!

Let the fan-casting begin!!!

So, have you read the book? Who would you like to play Raffe???