31 January 2011

Fallen Angel by Heather Terrell

Fallen Angel Bookplate


Heaven-sent?

Ellie was never particularly good at talking to boys—or anyone other than her best friend and fellow outcast, Ruth. Then she met Michael.

Michael is handsome, charming, sweet. And totally into Ellie. It’s no wonder she is instantly drawn to him. But Michael has a secret. And he knows Ellie is hiding something, too. They’ve both discovered they have powers beyond their imagining. Powers that are otherworldly.

Ellie and Michael are determined to uncover what they are, and how they got this way . . . together. But the truth has repercussions neither could have imagined. Soon they find themselves center stage in an ancient conflict that threatens to destroy everything they love. And it is no longer clear whether Ellie and Michael will choose the same side.

In this electrifying novel, Heather Terrell spins a gripping supernatural tale about true love, destiny, and the battle of good versus evil.


I didn't really like this book much. First, I should probably know better than to keep reading angel books when so many of them annoy me. Yet, for some reason I do. Perhaps I am hoping for gems, which is entirely possible since I decided to read this immediately after Unearthly, which was deifinately a gem. Fallen Angel wasn't really one of them, though. It fell kinda flat and predictable. The story is the same as a lot: a girl finds out she has crazy powers and, over the book, discovers she's an angel with the help of her (also discovering) boyfriend. By the end of the book she also discovers she's (unfortunately) the Mary-Sue Angel who's born to bring about the apocalypse. Meanwhile her parents, who are also (suprise, suprise) angels, aren't telling her anything about who or what she is, so, other than the fact that they wouldn't be around to ground her, it really wouldn't harm the book at all if they weren't even there. Even if all of the Mary-Sue tendencies of the main character were forgiveable (she can fly! she can read minds! she has the popular new boyfriend! she's pretty and envied by the popular girls even though she doesn't see it!) the book has other problems. I dislike the boyfriend character, Michael, and his constant insistence that Ellie disobey her parents and other authorities without consequence (and, often, with reward) and his mysogonistic protection of Ellie. I dislike the stale, almost formulaic pace and direction of the plot: girl finds new boy, girl finds powers, boy shows her he has powers too, girl finds out a bit about powers, girl gets grounded, girl finds out a lot about powers, powers are confirmed by bad guy, girl runs away to protect boy, boy pops up at climax to protect girl, happy makeup denoument. Also, the book reads rather like an adult romance novel. The sex scenes are cheesy and over-descriptive, and, frankly, gross because they always include someone biting someone so the couple can drink eachothers' blood. In all, I'm not too pleased with this read, it seemed too much like an adult romance stuffed into a stale paranormal shell, and I'll probably pass on any more by this author.

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