A lot of time has gone by since I finished reading this book, so this has actually worked to my advantage in that there will be less nitpicking and more focus on what really bothered me about this read. If any of you are not familiar with my rating system, it goes like this - 1 star for each: story, characterisation, world building, compelling, writing. Each category was worthy of at least a half star. Everything about this book was just 'okay'.
There were elements here that have been done before (several times, really) and there were just too many tropes/cliches for me to take this book seriously. Right off the bat the characters are just so... meh. A 'crazy' mother, a fragile sister that requires protecting, and the main character: a super Mary Sue.
(show spoiler)
We first meet the angel as he falls from the sky and crashes onto the hood of a car. Please! How many times have we seen that in movies? That specific scene also had some point of view issues. There were so many point of view issues! This story is told in first person present... this is Susan Ee's first book.... so I gave most of these a pass (mostly tricked myself into not seeing them so I could finish the book).
I felt like the angel character really held back the main character. There was a part of this book that was great! It was towards the end when the main character is on her own. This was something like 2-3 chapters. If the entire book had just been like this, without the angel character getting in the way, the book might have been better for me. Instead, we get the same crap of an angel falling in love with a human (monkey, ahaha, we haven't seen that one before, either~) so there can be a silly love story twist at the end. Boo! I knew there were romantic elements coming in to this, but it didn't feel like the main point, more like filler when filler wasn't even needed.
I'm not saying that the two characters didn't work well together, either. The focus was just on the wrong stuff. For example, I'm really tired of reading stories with angels in them and where the main character thinks so often about the way their eyes look or their 'velvet steel' skin. It was repetitive in this book and really didn't add anything. I wish a different direction would be taken to show how a character is falling for another character without focusing on looks/obsessions/petty things. These parts also made me think less of the main character, specifically how easily she was distracted from her mission.
The book had proper closure but it was so super cheesy. If anything, the ending for this could score a movie deal with one of those low budget companies (you know, the kind that turn Dean Koontz books into films) or a television show on ABC/WB. It's kind of sad that I am picturing a bad movie/show from a book, usually I imagine a movie/show being epic and it turns out being bad compared to the book. *sadness*
Sorry folks, this one just didn't work for me but I am giving book #2 (free with Amazon Prime) a chance! Angels, demons, mythology - these are all at the top of my list of things I love... so maybe I came in with expectations that were too high. Expectations are taken down a bit now, so maybe I will enjoy the sequel better. :)
-Side Note: My family tricked me! They were supposed to leave last weekend but instead stuck around for an additional few days. I'm pretty sure all that excitement is now behind me. So so so happy to relax now and read read read. Yay! :D
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