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beccaelizabethI liked the prose style of this, the settings, and the vivid imagery.
I lead with that because there wasn't a whole lot else I liked.
I feel lied to by the cover, the blurb, and where it was on the shelves, because I thought it would be an adventure, but it turned out to be a romance. Only if it was a romance, it was a terrible one, on account of the ending. Actually, if it was an adventure it wasn't doing much better. An adventure I would expect to involve her growing into her power and then winning something at the end, and she kind of a bit does the power thing, though mostly she did that before the story started, and then at the end she finds out about herself, which would seem like a win except for the thing where it's really unhelpful and actually everything is broken by then. And has been for half the book. Without telling her or us. So, you know, as an adventure ending, not much fun.
But it's the first in a trilogy, so it's actually an adventure beginning, only it hasn't left me wanting to read the other books at all. Mostly because I disliked what it was as a romance.
So the book is: 17 year old has rubbish ex boyfriend stalker, meets hot angel guy, big love story.
She throws stalker boyfriend through a window because his habit of sneaking up and trying to scare her happens at the wrong moment. Bit violent, but rather definitive as far as dumping him goes. He seems to finally get the message around then.
Angel guy is a big problem, because he introduces himself by trying to kill her, slices her up, and then she's all googly love feelings about him. Which is because they were secretly lovers in another life she got reincarnated from. So reading on I expected to see some kind of reason to fall in love that time around, but no, that one was love at first sight too. Or 'love' I should say, because deciding someone is beautiful and made of fire and possibly you don't want to kill him after all is not love as I understand it. They have a lot of sex and daydream of a world where their species aren't at war. It's supposed to be beautiful?
I like stories where people from different sides decide to stop fighting because of love. But this one just wound me up more and more. Because this one was all fate and meant to be and first sight and shagging, and it made me realise that's not what I want out of the setup at all. I would want more like, pawns team up and fight together. Because their lives are so similar down there on the front lines, and so different from the people who decided it should be a fight, they team up with people of shared experiences. Class solidarity I guess. And they perceive the same problems, so they work out a solution together. I'd quite like that story.
This is not that story at all.
These two just think wow and shag (and she's been keeping herself pure and he's so hot and blah blah blergh).
There ought to be a lot they have in common, but they don't seem to talk about it or be drawn together because of it. And they don't dream of a better future, they make up a fantasy of a world that was never messed up in the first place.
It's like the story is 17 as well as the characters, basically. It's so epically not my thing.
But as a romance it breaks the implied deal it makes with the reader, because it's all kismet fate meant to be hotness fire etc etc, and then actually they don't end the book together, because he's done something appalling. Which is entirely in keeping with the character she met, and the right way to treat the guy who tried to kill her, but the whole middle of the book seems to act like that shouldn't matter, and then suddenly at the end it really really does.
Because he's killed not just her family but her entire race. Which, you know, kind of difficult to forgive and forget.
So it's not a romance, it's a tragedy. But it wasn't labelled that way.
Also, I can't see where the story could go next except forgiving him and moving on from that, and honestly, I don't want her to. Even when the problem was him cutting her, the solution is that there are seven billion people on this planet, goodness knows how many on his side, and the vast majority of them have never been violent at all, so she should date one of those instead. But the books are really very unlikely to go that way. So I don't want to read it.
Very well written, but did nothing I wanted and rather a lot I didn't.
I'm sure there are people who would want to read this book, but the cover and the blurb and where it was on the shelves don't seem likely to connect this book to those readers. But then I'm not sure it's quite going to fit on a different shelf? It's about a 17 year old who is super special and magic and has a romance with a fiery angel and yet it doesn't seem to go the places that set up would suggest.
Also, recs for fic or books featuring healthy relationships that don't involve partners injuring each other would be gratefully received right about now.
(My disquiet at the relationship in this book is spreading all over my Avengers fic reading, so now sparring and saving each other with a boot to the head etc is feeling super creepy.)
I lead with that because there wasn't a whole lot else I liked.
I feel lied to by the cover, the blurb, and where it was on the shelves, because I thought it would be an adventure, but it turned out to be a romance. Only if it was a romance, it was a terrible one, on account of the ending. Actually, if it was an adventure it wasn't doing much better. An adventure I would expect to involve her growing into her power and then winning something at the end, and she kind of a bit does the power thing, though mostly she did that before the story started, and then at the end she finds out about herself, which would seem like a win except for the thing where it's really unhelpful and actually everything is broken by then. And has been for half the book. Without telling her or us. So, you know, as an adventure ending, not much fun.
But it's the first in a trilogy, so it's actually an adventure beginning, only it hasn't left me wanting to read the other books at all. Mostly because I disliked what it was as a romance.
So the book is: 17 year old has rubbish ex boyfriend stalker, meets hot angel guy, big love story.
She throws stalker boyfriend through a window because his habit of sneaking up and trying to scare her happens at the wrong moment. Bit violent, but rather definitive as far as dumping him goes. He seems to finally get the message around then.
Angel guy is a big problem, because he introduces himself by trying to kill her, slices her up, and then she's all googly love feelings about him. Which is because they were secretly lovers in another life she got reincarnated from. So reading on I expected to see some kind of reason to fall in love that time around, but no, that one was love at first sight too. Or 'love' I should say, because deciding someone is beautiful and made of fire and possibly you don't want to kill him after all is not love as I understand it. They have a lot of sex and daydream of a world where their species aren't at war. It's supposed to be beautiful?
I like stories where people from different sides decide to stop fighting because of love. But this one just wound me up more and more. Because this one was all fate and meant to be and first sight and shagging, and it made me realise that's not what I want out of the setup at all. I would want more like, pawns team up and fight together. Because their lives are so similar down there on the front lines, and so different from the people who decided it should be a fight, they team up with people of shared experiences. Class solidarity I guess. And they perceive the same problems, so they work out a solution together. I'd quite like that story.
This is not that story at all.
These two just think wow and shag (and she's been keeping herself pure and he's so hot and blah blah blergh).
There ought to be a lot they have in common, but they don't seem to talk about it or be drawn together because of it. And they don't dream of a better future, they make up a fantasy of a world that was never messed up in the first place.
It's like the story is 17 as well as the characters, basically. It's so epically not my thing.
But as a romance it breaks the implied deal it makes with the reader, because it's all kismet fate meant to be hotness fire etc etc, and then actually they don't end the book together, because he's done something appalling. Which is entirely in keeping with the character she met, and the right way to treat the guy who tried to kill her, but the whole middle of the book seems to act like that shouldn't matter, and then suddenly at the end it really really does.
Because he's killed not just her family but her entire race. Which, you know, kind of difficult to forgive and forget.
So it's not a romance, it's a tragedy. But it wasn't labelled that way.
Also, I can't see where the story could go next except forgiving him and moving on from that, and honestly, I don't want her to. Even when the problem was him cutting her, the solution is that there are seven billion people on this planet, goodness knows how many on his side, and the vast majority of them have never been violent at all, so she should date one of those instead. But the books are really very unlikely to go that way. So I don't want to read it.
Very well written, but did nothing I wanted and rather a lot I didn't.
I'm sure there are people who would want to read this book, but the cover and the blurb and where it was on the shelves don't seem likely to connect this book to those readers. But then I'm not sure it's quite going to fit on a different shelf? It's about a 17 year old who is super special and magic and has a romance with a fiery angel and yet it doesn't seem to go the places that set up would suggest.
Also, recs for fic or books featuring healthy relationships that don't involve partners injuring each other would be gratefully received right about now.
(My disquiet at the relationship in this book is spreading all over my Avengers fic reading, so now sparring and saving each other with a boot to the head etc is feeling super creepy.)