Sunday, February 3, 2013

Book Review: Shadows in the Silence

Your strength in heart and hand will fall. . . .
Ellie knows that the darkest moments are still to come, and she has everything to fight for:

She must fight for Will.
The demonic have resorted to their cruelest weapons to put Will in mortal danger, and Ellie makes an unlikely alliance to save him and to stop Lilith and Sammael, who seek to drown the world in blood and tear a hole into Heaven.

She must fight for humanity.
As the armies of Hell rise and gather for the looming End of Days, Ellie and her band of allies travel to the world’s darkest and most ancient regions in her quest to come into her full glory as the archangel Gabriel.

And Ellie must save herself.
Her humanity withers beneath the weight of her cold archangel power, but Ellie must hold tight to who she is and who she loves as she prepares for the ultimate battle for Heaven and Earth. Quoted from Goodreads

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And so we get come to the end of yet another trilogy. This is the fourth series that's ended this year for me, and while closure is great, it's also kind of sad.   Still, the Anglefire trilogy's been fun, and now that it's over, if you haven't started it, you can read it from straight from the beginning!

Honestly, I don't know how I feel about this ending.  I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong.  It had tons of great action, cute characters, and plenty of hardships to overcome.  I think my biggest problem was with the mythology itself, specifically Ellie as Gabriel.  Angel books are so much harder than books based on vampires or Greek gods because, as far as I know, no one goes around worshiping Zeus and Apollo. 
I think Courtney Allison Moulton did an excellent job of pulling familiar angelic/demonic characters and ideas and creating her own mythology.  But by casting Ellie as Gabriel, I expected the final battle to be more of an end of days type conflict, and it just didn't live up to my expectation.  It was a good battle, plenty of fighting, etc., but it lacked the epic, world-shattering feel I was expecting. 

The only other problem I had was with Ethan Stone.  In some ways he was a really fun character.  He was mysterious, quirky, turned up at odd times and eccentric--everything rich billionaires should be.  But he made things a little bit too easy, I thought.  He solved too many problems and gave too many answers to Ellie.  I kind of wanted him to betray them or something, because he seemed just a little bit too convenient.

Now you've been warned, don't be put off.  It's still a really fun book with a great ending. There are all sorts of obstacles Ellie has to overcome before she gets to the final battle and some surprising new characters, just to add a fun twist to the whole thing.  It starts with a bang and just keeps going from there. There is a good mix of silly and sad moments in between all the traveling, romance, and action. 

I really enjoyed what the characters became in this trilogy.  I love how much Ellie has grown, and of course, Will is adorable and rock steady throughout.  Caden, though, is the one who stole my heart in this third book.  He's been cute and mysterious from the beginning, and while I never believed Ellie would get with him (another half-love triangle that never really got off the ground) I sort of fell in love with his character myself, which really makes me wish we would have seen a bit more of him in the end.  Who knows, maybe there will be a spin-off series featuring Caden as love interest?  It worked in Vampire Academy.

I also thought C.A.M. did a good job pacing the story.  From saving Will to the final battle, things kept moving, threats kept coming, and monsters kept attacking.  Just as things start to calm down, something else happens that forces you to keep reading.  From the beginning this series has been full of action, fighting, chase scenes, and risk of exposure, and this third books ratchets it up another notch.

If you're looking for an action packed book with a fun take on the angle mythology and a heavy dollop of romance, this is it.  I thought it was a fun 3.5 stars, and I can't wait to see what Courtney Allison Moulton comes out with next.

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