Review of Angelfire

My review of Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton is based on a hardcover copy of the book that was sent to me by the author as the result of winning a giveaway. The following review is my honest opinion and was in no way influenced by these events or anything else.

Goodreads Summary: "First there are nightmares.
Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

Then come the memories.
When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

Now she must hunt.
Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember."

Just when I start to question angels again Angelfire goes and changes my mind right back. For those of you who weren't aware, I'm not a big fan of the winged beings. I tend to avoid them at all costs ESPECIALLY if they are the pure kind. The oh we're so good and perfect and blah, blah, blah. I like my angels with some darkness to them if I'm going to like them at all. I want them to question their actions, I want them to note that everything isn't black and white. I want action. And I don't want a lot of religion.

Hello Angelfire!

Ellie is an epic heroine in a totally unexpected way. She's torn between the human world that she has come to claim as her own and the world in which she is warrior for the greater good. You see her torn between the two; it isn't as if one day, you know, this guy comes to her tells her she has to kick butt and she shrugs and goes along with it. Throughout the story you see her struggle to find a balance between the two, clinging to her old life while trying to fulfill the destiny she has been informed of.

And the action! Wow. Courtney Allison Moulton has mad skills when it comes to writing fight scenes. I could see the battles so clearly in my head; I could feel the pain the characters endured as well as the motions they took in order to win. And let me tell you that there is a lot of it. Angelfire is by no stretch of the imagination for the squeamish. There are bad guys AND good guys getting throttled. There is gore. There is death. And of course, there is destruction. All of which is written wonderfully. Or as "wonderfully" as it can be written.

And then there is the romance. Did I mention the romance? *fans self* SO STEAMY! And forbidden, did I mention it was forbidden? And tortured? And...and...and...you'll have to read it for yourself to find out more. ;D

I'm giving Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton a four out of five stars review. This is a must read for angel skeptics. All of those complaints I listed above? Not one of them was present in this novel. It doesn't come across as preachy in the slightest which I really appreciated and know must be a challenge in this sort of novel, these kinds of epic battles between good and evil. After reading this I have the utmost faith in Courtney Allison Moulton continuing to amaze and cannot wait to see how Ellie handles herself in Wings of the Wicked.