Well, as the second & last instance for this week's Mark This Book Monday a very interesting debut that I thoroughly enjoyed! It is also another of my ARC pile reads, hoping to reach the 80% ratio on NetGalley!
Angelbound by Christina Bauer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Angelbound is one of those lil gems that you really don't expect to find, and I'm really grateful that Maja from The Nocturnal Library decided to give it a chance and then shared her review with us all. After reading her review I knew I needed to give this book a chance, so I requested it on NetGalley and started reading it as soon as I got the approval!
From the first few pages I knew that Maja was right, this was going to be one hell of a fun book to read and with one with a very fresh story and a different take on a paranormal story. Different done right, without any of the usual cliches and with quite a few twists there.
Myla Lewis is our main character had she's my favourite kind of MC: cheeky, sassy and can kick arse like nobody's business! She's a quasi, which means she's part human part demon. She's got a sentient demon tail and has been fighting in the Arena of Purgatory since she was 12. She's got an overprotective mother, a best friend with a mean envy demon strike and a knack for diplomacy and she loves killing demons and sending the bad guys' souls to Hell.
Purgatory was wrenched away from the control of the quasis after a war where Armaggedon (yes, it's a name of an individual demon, it doesn't refer to the event, though it is quite an apt name for him) raised to King of Hell rank and took over Purgatory installing a puppet goverment of ghouls to rule over the quasis that live in servitude to the ghouls. Demons are treated as valuable allies and protectors by the ghouls.
Myla is not one to conform easily with the rules, be it the demon's rules, the ghouls rules or even her mum's rules and she ends up getting in trouble with her big mouth and her temper, but she can seriously kick arse and can be quite adorable when she wants, never losing her sassiness though!
Then we are introduced to the Thrax, a race of demon hunters that are part human and part angel and are easily recognizable because they have mismatched eyes. And Myla and the High Prince of the thrax end up butting heads on their first encounter and there's a big undercurrent of anger/disgust/attraction/mistrust from then on between them. And Myla being the troublemaker that she is can't help but be a diplomatic nightmare between quasis, ghouls & thrax.
There is a lot going on in this book, from the small and personal to the bigger picture of the alliances and interactions between the different races and the plays for power. Myla will get more than she bargained for when she starts discovering things about her mother's past and her own origins while she tries to train, deal with her attraction to Lincoln (the jerk/hottie Thrax prince) and somewhat continues with her normal life going to high school and adjust to her best friend finally realizing the dream of being with her lifelong crush.
The relationship between Myla & Lincoln was a lot of fun to read, from the head-butting and hatred and a confused Myla wondering why she's now feeling attracted to a guy that is a jerk and prejudiced against her, to their discovery of a common ground and an alliance & friendship that turns into something more.
There's a lot of character growth and not just for Myla and Lincoln but also for most of the secondary characters, and we find out that most of them are more than they appear at first sight. The plot progresses with enough twists to keep it interesting and keep you glued to the page, but the writing would do it on its own too. We get quite a few surprises along the way, some more unexpected than others and we end up with an even more kick arse Myla than ever!
The book doesn't end with a cliffhanger thankfully, but it does leave an open eding enough to really be looking forward to the next book.
A very refreshing and engaging debut. Very much deserving of 4.5 stars!
View all my reviews
Angelbound by Christina BauerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Angelbound is one of those lil gems that you really don't expect to find, and I'm really grateful that Maja from The Nocturnal Library decided to give it a chance and then shared her review with us all. After reading her review I knew I needed to give this book a chance, so I requested it on NetGalley and started reading it as soon as I got the approval!
From the first few pages I knew that Maja was right, this was going to be one hell of a fun book to read and with one with a very fresh story and a different take on a paranormal story. Different done right, without any of the usual cliches and with quite a few twists there.
Myla Lewis is our main character had she's my favourite kind of MC: cheeky, sassy and can kick arse like nobody's business! She's a quasi, which means she's part human part demon. She's got a sentient demon tail and has been fighting in the Arena of Purgatory since she was 12. She's got an overprotective mother, a best friend with a mean envy demon strike and a knack for diplomacy and she loves killing demons and sending the bad guys' souls to Hell.
Purgatory was wrenched away from the control of the quasis after a war where Armaggedon (yes, it's a name of an individual demon, it doesn't refer to the event, though it is quite an apt name for him) raised to King of Hell rank and took over Purgatory installing a puppet goverment of ghouls to rule over the quasis that live in servitude to the ghouls. Demons are treated as valuable allies and protectors by the ghouls.
Myla is not one to conform easily with the rules, be it the demon's rules, the ghouls rules or even her mum's rules and she ends up getting in trouble with her big mouth and her temper, but she can seriously kick arse and can be quite adorable when she wants, never losing her sassiness though!
Then we are introduced to the Thrax, a race of demon hunters that are part human and part angel and are easily recognizable because they have mismatched eyes. And Myla and the High Prince of the thrax end up butting heads on their first encounter and there's a big undercurrent of anger/disgust/attraction/mistrust from then on between them. And Myla being the troublemaker that she is can't help but be a diplomatic nightmare between quasis, ghouls & thrax.
There is a lot going on in this book, from the small and personal to the bigger picture of the alliances and interactions between the different races and the plays for power. Myla will get more than she bargained for when she starts discovering things about her mother's past and her own origins while she tries to train, deal with her attraction to Lincoln (the jerk/hottie Thrax prince) and somewhat continues with her normal life going to high school and adjust to her best friend finally realizing the dream of being with her lifelong crush.
The relationship between Myla & Lincoln was a lot of fun to read, from the head-butting and hatred and a confused Myla wondering why she's now feeling attracted to a guy that is a jerk and prejudiced against her, to their discovery of a common ground and an alliance & friendship that turns into something more.
There's a lot of character growth and not just for Myla and Lincoln but also for most of the secondary characters, and we find out that most of them are more than they appear at first sight. The plot progresses with enough twists to keep it interesting and keep you glued to the page, but the writing would do it on its own too. We get quite a few surprises along the way, some more unexpected than others and we end up with an even more kick arse Myla than ever!
The book doesn't end with a cliffhanger thankfully, but it does leave an open eding enough to really be looking forward to the next book.
A very refreshing and engaging debut. Very much deserving of 4.5 stars!
View all my reviews
Sounds really good. I hadn't heard of this one before, but now I definitely want to check it out. I like the sounds of Myla, and I like the premise of angels too!
ReplyDelete-P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
This is a book I really recommend, P.E.! I don't know if it's still up on Netgalley for request, but the eBook is pretty cheap on amazon!
DeleteThis is the second very positive review I've seen for this book. I'd not heard of it but I'm thinking it has to be put on my tbr list. Great review
ReplyDeleteI checked this one on Maja's very positive review and I'm super glad I did! I'd love to hear your opinion if you check it, Kristen!
DeleteMerry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays to you too!!
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