ANGEL BURN by L.A. Weatherly

Angel Burn
L.A. Weatherly

Grade: B-


Description from goodreads.com:


They're out for your soul.
And they don't have heaven in mind... 

Willow knows she's different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into the future and know people's dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them. she has no idea where this power comes from. But the assassin, Alex, does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself does. He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces and that he's one of the few humans left who can fight them. When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil.


My thoughts on the book:

Let me start off by saying that in general, I really liked this book. The characters were likable and well-developed, and for the most part, easy to relate to. Willow and Alex fell in love quickly, but maybe being a teenager on the run from giant angels trying to kill you will do that to a person. I don't know. I've never been in that situation, and hopefully never will be. *knocks on wood* The hardest part of the story for me to believe was that Willow just got in the car with Alex and left her home, never to return. I mean maybe if I was psychic and could see someone's entire past by touching them, coupled with someone chasing me with a shot gun, then I would make the same decision. I'm not sure. I just went with it though, and I'm glad that I did. I enjoyed this book immensely. That being said, a couple of things really really bugged me about this book. 

Every other sentence had an adverb attached to its verb, and these adverbs were as follows: suddenly, abruptly, all of a sudden (okay so that's a qualifying prepositional phrase, but you get the idea), or slowly. I did not need to be told the speed in which ever action was being done. I could have figured it out for myself, thankyouverymuch. If it hadn't been a library copy of the book, I probably would have gone through and marked out all of the qualifiers. Suddenly was her favorite, and by the end of the book, I wanted to scream. Also, I understand that Willow's hair was long. It didn't have to be said every single time she mentioned her hair. Seriously. I get it. However, it's easy to repeat yourself when you're writing, and I blame the editor just as much, if not more, than I blame Weatherly. 

Another thing that kind of bugged me was the switching from first person POV to third person limited. It wouldn't have been THAT bad if it'd just been between Alex (third person) and Willow (first person), but Weatherly also included Raziel and Jonah in with the third person POVs, and it just got to be too much. All that separated the different POVs was a double space most of the time, and it got incredibly confusing. Especially because sometimes she'd separate the same POV with a double space sometimes as well. She should have done third person omniscient or broken the different POVs into different chapters and listed each character's name at the top of the chapter. That would have made it less confusing. It's not that any of it was written badly (save the suddenlys), it's just that it broke up the flow of the story when I had to stop and try to figure out who the story was following next. Sometimes the person's name wasn't said until two or three paragraphs in. 

Now, onto the good stuff... The story was unique. It's a different take on angels, and I like it. They are no longer good, pure, holy creatures. These angels are not fallen, they are just simply angels, and in Weatherly's world, angels are evil. They suck the life force out of humans. Now if that's not evil, then I don't know what is. The plot was interesting and moved quickly. I didn't get bored at all reading this book. Angel Burn is the first book in the series, and I'll be looking forward to the next one. 

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