Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Title: Angelfall
Author: Susan Ee
Publisher: self-published
Publish Date: June 14, 2011
Genre: YA, paranormal, dystopian
Pages: 340 (ebook)
Source: From author for review
Series: Penryn & the End of Days #1
1. Angelfall
2. Untitled (expected pub 2012)
3. Untitled (expected pub 2013)

Synopsis:
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.

From Goodreads

This book totally caught me by surprise. I was interested in it when I first heard of it, but then kind of lost it in my big TBR pile. I am so dumb.

I loved the combination of dystopia and angel mythology in this story. It was such a different way to look at angels. One of the things that I loved about the concept was how it was about angels, but not about religion. A lot of angel stories delve deep into religious topics, such as those in the Bible. In Angelfall, the existence of angels is crystal clear, but they are still unsure of the existence of God. Some of the angels’ names were familiar as religious characters, and fallen angels as well as Nephilim were mentioned, but it wasn’t as blatant and in-your-face as some angel novels.

This plot is non-stop. Like, never. And for this reason, I fell behind on schoolwork, I stayed up late, I was distracted in class... I did not want to be doing anything other than reading Angelfall. Penryn, Raffe, and their world and situation consumed my thoughts until the very end. And even then, I was left thinking about what would happen next, and how much I wished it had ended with more. I can’t say more than that.

Penryn is such a stubborn, courageous, stubborn, reckless, and loyal character. Did I mention she’s stubborn? I love her as a character and how she develops throughout the book. She is bent on rescuing her sister and she doesn’t care who gets in her way. Especially not someone (or some angel) from the race that destroyed her world. Raffe is her ticket in. Her way there. She doesn’t trust him, he doesn’t trust her. But they need each other to get to their endpoint. There was some sexual tension growing between Penryn and Raffe throughout the book, and I was left with a swollen and sore heart at the end. Their relationship blossomed and grew in such a fantastic way.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK! I’m still kicking myself for not reading this sooner. I want to read it again. I want to make everyone I know read it. As soon as I finished this book, I immediately added it to my favourites list. I am dying to see what happens next in this series. All I know is it’s coming out in 2012, but nothing more specific than that. But I really hope it’s sooner rather than later!

Thanks to Susan for sending me an ebook copy for review!