Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee
Genre: Dystopian, PNR
Series: Penryn & the End of Days #1

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

This is one of my top favorite angel books besides the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh, though that is more adult and UF. Not only does this involve angels, but a dystopian world as well. I have a thing for both dystopians and angels so win-win situation here. It has a beautiful cover too, does it not?

The book captivates you right from the beginning. In fact, you can read the first 5 chapters here. Uh, yes, you read right: FIVE whole chapters. FREE. Once you're done reading the first five, you will quickly realize that you need to buy the book.

I hate when you read a book and you think, "Uh, hasn't this been done before?" Not the case in this book. There will always be similarities between books that have the same genre and characters (such as werewolves, angels, vampires, etc.) Sometimes it's just a nice similarity that happens and it makes you think of other books and sometimes it's glaringly obvious where the author has gotten their inspiration. This is just refreshingly original. There are good and bad angels, but the good angels are mostly absent. The world is deteriorating not because of demons or by (what I think would be at fault one day) humans. Instead, the world is in chaos by the wrath of angels. They brought the apocalypse with them because God told them to or because it was time, which ever. Either way, humans are now living in fear of angels.

Penryn is such a strong character. She has to be, not because of her current situation in a dystopian world, but because of the problem with her mother. The mother's character is so vital in this story. Sometimes when someone gets into a life-or-death situation, they luck their way out. It's been done so many times though. Penryn actually knows how to fight and the reason why she knows how is sad, but believable, and it really works in this story. It makes the story believable and ultimately better because you can tell she is a survivor.

I would definitely recommend this story. I read a lot of books and I like 99% of the books I read. I don't know why, I just do. Either I have good taste in picking out books or I'm just not a picky reader. *Shrugs* I am picky about giving out 5 stars on GR. I reserve those for those really special books. I don't want my shelves on GR to be over-flowing with 5 star books - most of which, I can't even remember the story off the top of my head. The 5 stars are the best of the best that I will want to re-read when I have time, that I'll definitely buy hardcover copies of, and I can remember most of the story off the top of my head because it's that memorable out of all the books I've read. I struggled a bit with the rating of this book and in the end, it got 5 stars from me :0) That should tell you to run out and get this book. It's not available in print yet, but it will be soon. For now, it is available as an e-book.

I can't wait until the 2nd book. Eep!