Review: An Exciting Start to an Interesting Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 17, 2013
ARC received from Entangled Publishing. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.I should hate this. I should rant and rave about how it's just another angel book, and how it's so predictable, and all things like this. But for some absurd reason, I love it.The sad thing about the summary is how it gives away half the book. It's nothing too hard to guess, once you start reading, but it gives out too much information for a few paragraphs.Lily is a Nephilim, the daughter of a Fallen angel and a mortal. She's part of a society called the Sanctuary, which are a group other Nephilims dedicated to destroying the Fallen and their followers. Ever since she was sixteen, a fallen angel named Julian has been following her. He's saved her life multiple times, but she still doesn't trust him, since according to the Sanctuary, all Fallen are bad.Lily and Julian are two characters that wouldn't be interesting alone, but when they're paired up, they're amazing. They're carefully developed, and they seem "real" to me, and probably to all other readers.Lily is like many other of Armentrout's characters: tough, but at the same time, extremely sweet and kind. A thing I really love about her is that she doesn't immediately trust Julian just because he's pretty. She doesn't want to get herself killed, and she's understandably cautious around him.Julian is a mix of Hunter and an older Daemon. He's extremely protective, possessive, and predatory, like other Urban Fantasy characters, but Jennifer makes him seem real.The world building was extremely realistic, but I can't get rid of the feeling that this is an older version of the Covenant. However, I still loved the detail of the Sanctuary and the normal world.I've stated above how some parts were predictable. However, others weren't. For example, the identity of the antagonist is cleverly hidden until the reveal.There is something that annoyed me, though. Jennifer seems to have an obsession with eyes, especially on the main characters. Lily's eyes are pale green, Daemon's, from the Lux series, are a vibrant green, Aiden's, from the Half-Blood series, are silver, and the list goes on. This probably won't irk other readers, since many of my friends seem to love this aspect of the characters, but it is something that I wouldn't mind toning down.I also would have liked more background to both Lily and Julian. There seems to be so many hidden secrets, and I would have liked it if there was just a little more information.Overall, this novel was amazing, as I would expect from Jennifer Armentrout. I demand the next book immediately. But since that probably won't happen, I have a Mission-Impossible-like plan of breaking into Jennifer's house from the roof and stealing her flashdrive I mean- I'll be anxiously awaiting it for the next year.