Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

Published by: Skyscape
Released: August 28th, 2012
Edition: 1st, Paperback
Genre: Young Adult Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic
Pages: 284

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

I honestly don’t even know where to start with this review. The only thing that I hate is that I didn’t start this book sooner. It was everything I wanted and definitely lived up to the hype (in my opinion). It was action-packed, fast paced, intriguing, and not just another love story. I loved every single minute of it. This book will hook you from page one and won’t let go until you devour the entire thing. Well at least it did for me…

The Writing

First things first, I absolutely loved the writing. It was very easy to get into and all the details were so vivid that I could see everything so clearly. I wasn’t confused and bothered by a huge info dump. The world building was straight forward and easy to understand. It actually almost can read like a contemporary to me because it was so easy to get into.

One thing that I loved was how fast paced it was. I wasn’t bored for one second. The minute the story begins you are on a ride from beginning to end. Penryn is constantly moving and you just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Also, this wasn’t just another girl falls for angel story, it wasn’t even a romance story at all. It centered completely on Penryn trying to rescue her sister. I loved this! No instalove with this one!

The Characters

When you’re small enough to have to look up at everyone around you, there’s no such thing as a dirty fight.”

Penryn was such a delight to read. She is relatable and so interesting. She is driven completely by her need to rescue her little sister. The only thing that I questioned was the fact that she actually left her mother behind. Her schizophrenic mother on top of that. But you can hardly blame her, so much was going on and she was completely focused on trying to save her sister.

I also really enjoyed Raffe. I didn’t immediately like him or “fall for him” but I did enjoy him. I liked his cocky, arrogant attitude and his banter with Penryn. I enjoyed watching their trust and mutual need to protect each other grow. I can’t wait to read the next books to see where this goes because that ending completely shattered me. I could feel his pain as he was holding Pen and it just hit me right in the feels! 😦

“I knew from the start that your loyalty would get you killed. I just never thought it would be your loyalty to me that would do it.”

The Story

This book is a great setup for what could be an amazing series to come. It has all the right stepping stones and I am definitely looking forward to reading more. It’s interesting to see where this angel apocalypse is headed.

Penryn spends the entire book trying to find her sister and once she gets together with an angel that she saves whose wings were cut off, I was just waiting for them to fall for each other. I was so happy that this did not happen. There is a bit of hint towards romance at the end, but the story wasn’t centered around it for once. It’s so much more. It’s about family, and humanity. This book is dark and got a little creepy for me there at the end, not going to lie. But it’s intriguing and unique.

Conclusion

I am so glad I decided to read this book and that it lived up to the hype! This is definitely going to be one of my new favorite series I can already tell.

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I definitely recommend this book! As always, thanks for reading!

Until next time,