L. A. Weatherly

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.

This book gives a whole new meaning to the phrase �ÛÏtouched by an angel‰Û.

Because as we learn in the book‰Ûªs opening pages, angels? Will bad touch you to death. Angels aren‰Ûªt guardians of humanity or messengers of God; they are inter-dimensional beings who feed on our life force, causing serious physical and mental illnesses in the people they‰Ûªve fed from. (Sort of like Glory in Buffy, Season Five.) It‰Ûªs show more called ‰ÛÏangel burn‰Û, and though the people burned by angels get sick and eventually die, they believe they‰Ûªve had a beautiful, transcendent religious experience, which has caused them to band together and create the Church of Angels, a creepy new religious movement that is basically taking over the world. The Church is great for the angels, because it‰Ûªs like getting a free pass to the best buffet ever, and it‰Ûªs gotten so good that they‰Ûªve decided to leave their crappy dying world/dimension and invade ours.

Alex is an AK, or Angel Killer, contracted by the CIA to hunt down angels and destroy them by shooting their halos to bits. He‰Ûªs kind of a mix of Dean from Supernatural and Fenton/Adam from Frailty, right down to his driven nature, terrible childhood trained to kill things, and family issues. Willow is the other narrator of our story, a typical high schooler, except that she‰Ûªs psychic and can awesomely fix your car when it breaks down. They meet when Alex is sent to kill Willow by an anonymous CIA text, but as it turns out, she‰Ûªs only half-angel and he‰Ûªs too busy trying to puzzle out how that‰Ûªs possible to pull the trigger. This is lucky for both of them, because Willow may be the only one who can stop the coming Angel Invasion, and when the angels find out, both Alex and Willow have to go on the run.

If you predict that Alex and Willow dislike and distrust each other in the beginning and then eventually fall in love, you‰Ûªd be right. Doesn‰Ûªt the assassin always fall in love with his target in these books? Still, it‰Ûªs handled pretty well; they start with basic lust because they‰Ûªre both attractive teenagers trapped in a car and various seedy motels together, and through danger and saving each other‰Ûªs lives every two seconds, grow into love. I believed it. Then they go too far and become annoyingly schmoopy, with declarations of endless devotion and whatnot, for far too long; it‰Ûªs like the author decided, ‰ÛÏnow I must reinforce their feelings by forcing them to hole up in a cabin together where they have nothing to do but gaze into each other‰Ûªs eyes and talk about how in love they are‰Û. Meanwhile, the angels are all plotting their takeover, taking over the CIA and AKs and ensuring that their mind-controlled supporters are everywhere, and basically being a lot more proactive.

Happily, this "stuck in the cabin" section eventually ends and the more thrilling plot, whereby they attempt to stop the Angel Invasion, recommences. And it didn‰Ûªt go quite where I expected (dammit, I should have seen this was a trilogy!).

Despite the book being all about the new religious movement that sprang up around the angels and how dangerous the power of belief can be (at least, when that belief is fueled by mind control), Weatherly doesn‰Ûªt have to deal with the problems a lot of other ‰ÛÏangel‰Û books do: namely, God. It‰Ûªs clear these angels are just another species, one escaping a dying world and trying to survive by any means necessary, and have nothing really to do with our human religions. This makes sense to me and is kinda cool. Angels have fooled humanity into trusting them by appearing as gleaming figures adorned with halos, wings, and flowing robes, and they exploit the religious fervor they leave in their wake, but they don‰Ûªt believe in it. They‰Ûªre like evil, self-serving magical con artists.

But here‰Ûªs what I don‰Ûªt quite get. All of this doesn‰Ûªt explain why they think of themselves as angels, which they clearly do ‰ÛÒ they use the word ‰ÛÏangelic‰Û and ‰ÛÏseraphic‰Û and so on to describe their home world and its governing council, but for them, there are no religious connotations. I find it hard to divorce the words from the ideas behind them, so I can‰Ûªt understand why beings from another world/dimension would refer to themselves using ideas and language from our world, the same way we would. They even refer to the damage they do to humans as ‰ÛÏangel burn‰Û, which seems odd to me ‰ÛÒ that seems like a term the hunters would have cooked up, and the angels themselves would have a different way of describing it. The point is, they aren‰Ûªt really angels.

The only way I can really reconcile it is if the angels have been coming to our world for so long that they actually gave rise to their own mythology as religious figures. That‰Ûªs kind of a cool notion, if the angels in the Bible and so on were actually aliens, controlling humanity even way back when, but it‰Ûªs not one really supported by the book.

Anyway, none of this detracted from my enjoyment of the story. I puzzled about it, sure, but I let it go. In truth, this is a classic story of invasion and colonization, with a twist that feels new even when it isn‰Ûªt (I mean, aliens coming to this world because their world can no longer sustain them and tricking humanity into rolling over with a fight isn‰Ûªt exactly a new story). It‰Ûªs also a fairly decent paranormal romance between characters who are equals and who are both likable ‰ÛÒ they react like real people with believable motivations.

I'll be reading the next one just to see where the author takes the Angel Invasion plot. show less

I have rated Angel Burn right dead center of a 1-5 rating system. If I could, I'd rate the first half a good, solid 4 and the second half would waver between a 1 and a 2.

The first half of Angel Burn is filled with action, interesting characters, a really unique twist on "angel lore", and is fast-paced and just downright fun reading. It's not great literature, but it was fun and it had me reaching to pick up my book whenever I had a few spare minutes to read (and actually, it kept me up show more until a good two hours after when I should have been asleep last night).

But then, about halfway through the book - just about when the love interest really takes over the relationship between Alex and Willow, the book started to lose its edge. Between the realization that these two teenagers "love" each other, the convenient placement of skills and money (who rides around with that much money, seriously), the overuse of the term "half angel" (I think I counted it five times in two paragraphs), the "you" "no you" "no you" back and forth between Willow and Alex in their lovesickness moments... it all got to be too much. I felt as if Weatherly went from creating what could have been a very kickass story and fell in love with her own characters so much that she went into some daydream world and wrote out a story that, in all honesty, should have been kept in her own mind.

The result? A very unsatisfactory ending and one that really disappointed me. Even the climax, the moment we were all waiting for, was flooded with regrets, teenage angst and moments that had me rolling my eyes so violently that I gave myself a headache.

In short - great idea, great beginning, really crappy ending. I'd hoped for better. show less

OH MY GODS. The Goodreads synopsis author is not exaggerating AT ALL when they say that L.A. Weatherly has reinvented the angel. She absolutely reinvented the angel and in a way that kicks so much ass, I don't know that I can accurately describe it!

In Weatherly's world, the angel that we know as a peaceful messenger of tranquility has been firebombed and remolded. Weatherly's imagining of the angel is not one of a benevolent entity full of love, but rather a crazed, vicious, human soul eater show more monster! Angels are such a hot topic in literature right now that it would be easy to dismiss Angel Burn as more of the same. But let me tell you, it is not. Angel Burn was like part fairytale, part The Terminator. These unimaginable monsters just keep coming and coming for Willow (and other humans). And just when you think the story is going to reach a lull, Weatherly kicks it right back into high gear.

There was no putting this book down for me. I consumed Angel Burn. It was just that good. The characters were simply amazing. Off the hook amazing. Alex is really hard to relate to in the beginning of the novel because we just know him as an assassin. As his relationship with Willow unfolds, we get to see how amazing he truly is. Willow is such a strong female character. I heart her with puffy unicorn stickers and little flowers. She has no idea that she is part angel and is suddenly in danger of being killed. This character could totally have been written as a shrinking violet type who needs someone to rescue her. While Willow does need Alex's help, she needs no rescuing. LOVE LOVE LOVE these characters.

Totally unique plot + Angels on another level + effing amazing characters = Angel Burn. Read it because you will love it. show less

This book seriously just came out of nowhere, punched me in the brain with its awesomeness and left me trying to understand exactly what the hell had just happened. It had all the elements of your typical “girl discovers she’s not 100% human” book, which was a pretty big reason for me to not like it since I’ve been so picky about creativity and uniqueness lately. So why did I love it so stinking much?

I’m still not completely sure, but here are a few reasons that probably contribute show more to it:

I love Willow and Alex as separate characters but I also love them as a couple. For me, as a reader, that’s an incredibly rare thing to find. Willow can be nice and gentle and naïve. Alex can be cold and snarky and rough around the edges. But the book alternates point of views, so we get a glimpse into their heads as they interact each other. I felt like I was getting to know Alex and Willow as they got to know each other. And their chemistry was amazing. Admittedly, I wasn’t a fan of the last few chapters because their relationship changed so dramatically and it clashed with how they had acted toward each other the entire first half of the novel, but I have hope that their brilliant, quarrelsome and hilarious romance will make a comeback in book two.

Another thing I love is that even though it did have a lot of the typical “girl discovers she’s not 100% human” elements to it, it was done in a completely new way. In this book, Willow isn’t intrigued about finding out what she is. She’s miserable. She doesn’t want it and she spends a good half of the book trying to ignore it unlike other books where the characters are often come across as this - “I’ve got supernatural powers? Nope. I don’t believe it. They don’t exist. Nope. Wait. Cute boy tells me they exist. They exist! I AM AWESOME WITH SUPERNATURAL POWERS!”

And the pace was perfect. It’s a long book, sure, but I was never bored. Alex and Willow spend a good chunk of the story getting to know each other, but there was never a dull moment. High speed car chases, angel smack-downs and witty banter? Perfect. And when the romance began to thicken, I appreciated that it took breaks to spotlight other characters beside Alex and Willow, even the villains of the novel. It really gave the book substance so it won’t be written as just another angel romance.

Overall, if I didn’t already make it clear in my novel-length rant, Angel Burn is definitely a book to check out. Romantic, entertaining, action-packed, intense and even scary at times - it’s definitely a surprising addition to my favorite list. I recommend! show less