Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel - Angelfire

Angelfire

Courtney Allison Moulton

HarperCollins

HarperTeen

02/15/2011
E-Galley provided by Publisher through Net Galley

No Remuneration was exchanged.

First there are nightmares. 

Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her. 

Then come the memories. 

by Courtney Allison Moulton & Donna Campion

When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream. 

Now she must hunt. 

Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember. HarperTeen


Net Galley Marketing Copy

When ordinary seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers-monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell-she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between Angels and the Fallen, and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will, who has been waiting sixty years for her return, reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the onlyone armed with angelfire, and capable of fighting the reapers. He is animmortal sworn to protect her in battle. Her soul has been reborn againand again over the centuries to fight the reapers, and he's been there for five hundred years to protect and fight alongside her. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her-an assassin who has already killed her once. At the same time, Ellie is falling in love with Will, even though they know their relationship should be impossible. 

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, sheand Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to destroy Ellie's soul forever, not to mention the devastating ramifications for human souls. Now she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives-including truths that may be too frightening to remember.   

Courtney Allison Moulton lives in Michigan, where she is a photographer and spends all her free time riding and showing horses. She has always loved reading about ancient mythologies, studying dead languages, and telling scary, romantic stories. Angelfire is her debut novel. Harper Teen

My Take

The teen characters are rather privileged materially. Emotionally, the main character, Ellie, who is just 17, is close to her mother, but at some point her Dad has turned into a total jerk. He insults and threatens both Ellie and her mom. Neither understand it; something is going on there that is more than skin deep.She is a reasonable student and has a close circle of friends, and Will, her new guardian. My favorite character is Will. He is loyal, handsome and steadfast.

Weird things happen and it turns out Ellie is an immortal soul who will be reborn again and again to fight the particular evil of Reapers. Will protects her and is her back-up. They have been a team for many centuries, many lifetimes. Now Will has to get her to recall her self, her role as the Preliator, assigned by God to kill these lovely reaper creatures, before the big battle starts. 

Typical YA  Teen learns s/he is a ____________. Teen is either alone or on a team or family. Teen just wants to be normal again. love interest develops. There are a lot of God and Angels as understood, or expanded on, by Christianity. I thought I was reading a subliminally religious book which bothers me because it isn't in that category.

There are some unresolved but easily tied up threads. But, I believe a sequel is planned.  I would read the next one just to see where it is going.I thought the writer was trying too hard with her descriptive language. In particular, There are two references  to clenching or grinding teeth "bitterly."  I think this writer will blossom into a better writer over time.

I didn't love it and I didn't dislike it. My favorite character is Will. 

It's an okay read, even better borrowed from the library.