Read this review on my blog! --> Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly

Angel Fire kept me biting my nails throughout the whole thing!

One: the damn evil angels again!

Two: SEB!

To say Seb put some tension in this book would be an understatement. That boy knows what he wants and he wasn’t going to back down. I totally fell in love with him. He was beyond charming and good looking….but I’m Team Alex, now and forever. Sorry, Seb!!

Now, this isn’t to say Alex is perfect in this book. In fact, he goes a little overboard at some points and I was really worried he wouldn’t be able to fix things. Mind you, he’s under unbelievable pressure. Not only does he have to train the newfound group of AKs and figure out a way to take down a bunch of angels, he now has to worry about Seb and Seb’s feelings for Willow. So I forgave all of his wrong turns. I love you, Alex!!

I loved that Willow is less scared in this book. She’s learning to fight back as best as she can. And I was really proud of the way she handled the Alex/Seb situation. She was confused, but not because she wasn’t sure of who she truly loved. She mainly just needed to understand her feelings and their place for each boy. It certainly wasn’t what we normally see in love triangles and I really appreciated it.

Another interesting part of this book is the setting: Mexico. I don’t read many books set in my native country so I was completely excited about it! L.A. Weatherly brings it to life with her descriptive imagery. I felt like I was there.

Some new characters are introduced and while I liked some of them, I hated how they all treated Willow and Seb. I especially disliked Kara. Even if she just wanted what was best for the group and Alex, I found her way to abrasive for me to like.

L.A. Weatherly delivered a very worthy follow-up to Angel Burn in Angel Fire. It had tons of action and even more emotional rollercoasters! I am now eagerly anticipating the last installment in this series, Angel Fever.

Review Pending!

3.5 stars. This one could have been editing in half. Continue to really like the world, but thought it would never end. Very mushy middle!

Enters the love triangle...! I guess that was to be expected.
Actually, Seb is the most interesting thing that happened in this series (so far). Willows is so self-deprecating it grates on one's nerves. And Alex is a girl living in a boy's body. I like sensitive men, but the writer's gone way overboard with him. These two are mooshy. Too mooshy. Just marry, have half-quarter angel babies and get it over with!!!
Yeah, yeah. I didn't have to finish the book, did I? One day I'll drop this YA fantasy frenzy that's taken over me. But today is not that day.

Full review to come!

When the powerful allure and the strong gliding wings of angels take over not only your city but all of the world, there’s nowhere you can outrun them. Especially if you occupy the top spot in their Most Wanted list and they’ve got your photo plastered on every possible surface around cities. It’s not long before Willow and Alex realize this. Nevertheless they find reprieve in deception, changing Willow’s look and taking to the mountainous, desolate regions to build a strategy. It’s there that they realize how much they mean to each other. As they grow closer and closer, far from the maddening fever of angel burn that is spreading amongst the masses, they learn of a new danger. Something far more terrible than the Second Wave of angels that have descended on Earth. This trouble in paradise drags them out of their safe haven and right into the core of angel business.

Meanwhile Seb, another half angel, has been looking for Willow all his life. A vague inkling about her personality is all he has to go on. But that has never fazed him into giving up. It’s like he’s fallen for a girl who might not even exist outside of his imagination. And yet, he moves from town to town, just by the sliver of energy or instinct that pulls him there. Lucky for him, his efforts pay off. Together with Seb, Alex and some other anti-Angel fellas, Willow plots a very risky mission that is more bound to fail rather than not.

Angel Fire is the second book in the series Angel by L.A Weatherly. It picks up a little after where the first one left off so there aren’t any time lapses or flashback scenes. I don’t like when that happens in series books because rather than short flashbacks, I’d like to read through the instance in detail. This book gradually moves to the core of the concern that is being speculated in the first book – will Alex and Willow be able to save humanity and banish all Angels? And like I hoped, it does add a lot and make the series more fun. So much so that I wanted to finish all of the 700 pages in two days. But alas! Duty calls :P

Unlike many people, I’m totally on Team Seb! I don’t know why. Maybe something about how quick Willow and Alex got together didn’t sit well with me. And Seb is a half angel too, so they have a lot more in common and understand each other on another level altogether. Introducing another character is simply stating the oncoming drama of a love triangle, which is obvious here. That too was rather enjoyable to read. I still stick to my notion of Willow being a little insane (and not in a good way). She doesn’t have a clear mind often and messes up. It was a irritating but the ever calm presence of Seb urged me to read further. I find the author’s writing really comfortable to read because of how simplistically descriptive it is. Its not that she doesn’t describe sceneries or use elaborate language but she does it in such a way that it is grounded at the same time. After this gigantic volume of awesomeness, I have greater expectations from the last book in the trilogy. Do check out this series if you like fantasy!

Seb ruins everything, part 1

this was a pretty good second book in the series. Alex and Willow goe to Mexico City after having a dream. Alex meets a team of AK, like him and agrees to train them for the big show down. only things get complicated when a new half-angel appears and make Willows's love life complicated.

Second in the Angel young adult urban fantasy about two half-angel/half-humans and the lengths to which they and their friends will go to rescue the Earth.

My Take
Well, it was boring to start, then it got interesting, and then it got intense---it made me cry. I suspect it might have been better if I'd read the first one first.

There are two separate storylines that eventually merge: Seb is looking for his counterpart while Willow wants to save the world.

It's an exaggerated dive into religious fanaticism, and Weatherly is so cynical...what's scarier is I agree with her! How all these people can ignore the truth around them...I just don't know. I do wish Weatherly had made this part of it more believable. Maybe it's simply part of my own indoctrination about angels that I can't understand how the angels can continue to devour. Or maybe that's part of the exaggeration. If it is, it could use some finessing.

It's an interesting twist on angels and makes me think of Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series. Only, Singh's writing is more adult, more polished. Still, Weatherly definitely turns the accepted concept of angels on its head with their maneuvering, plotting, and gameplaying, which makes it more interesting as I have no idea what will happen next. Raziel's thoughts about his daughter certainly aren't angelic.

Nice bit of tension when Willow and Seb meet, although it could have been handled more smoothly. Weatherly does make up for it with even more tension as Seb works with the AKs. More tension with the issues Weatherly creates for half-angels and how they may affect the humans with whom they spend time, the conflicting information about how the Council's deaths may affect the world, Willow's worries about her other half, and the love triangle, perhaps quadrangle?, developing within the group.

Rebellion, bigotry (from several sides), jealousy (I don't understand how someone as intelligent as Alex doesn't get why Willow likes having Seb around!), although Willow should have some consideration as well!

Oh, gross, Raziel is thinking of Angel Camp as a veal farm---full of humans!

The Story
Different from everyone else. Everyone. Seb is desperately searching for the other like him. A girl. A woman who wracks his dreams.

A search that may pay off, as the angels who are worshipped around the world are hunting the woman who dared while Alex and Willow are running.

Too many on Earth have succumbed to the lure of angels, but there's a small group in rebellion.

The Characters
Willow Fields is nephilim: half angel, half human. Aunt Jo took in Willow and Miranda when her mom's mental health worsened.

Alex Kylar is/was CIA and an Angel Killer; he and Willow are in love. Martin was his father; he died of too much exposure, angel burn. Cully, his brother, was also affected by exposure to angels.

Sebastían Carrera is from El DF, the Distrito Federal, Mexico City, and he's so full of it, LOL. A new story for every situation. He's quite clever in surviving and honorable in his way.

Raziel is the angel who leads the Church of Angels in the U.S., and he has his own plans. He's also Willow's father, a fact of which he was unaware until she confronted him. Jenny is one of Raziel's human assistants. Charmeine is another of the lower tier angels, but of the First Family, and she is determined to move up.

Kara is one of the Angel Killers, an AK. Sam, a.k.a., Tex; Liz, who loves to cook; Brendan; Trish; and, Wesley, the loner computer geek, were angel spotters. Until they graduated to AKs. Now if only they had some decent training. Luis is a guard at the Catedral Metropolitana. Sophie Kinney is CIA, part of the covert Project Angel. Juan Escobido is dead.

Nate and Elijah were renegade angels who broke from the rest to help humanity.

Lucy, Amanda, Céline, and Mike, are part of a group of American students fascinated by the angels whom Seb meets at the hostel.

The Seraphic Council, the Twelve, are the top tier of angels, the most powerful, the ones with the original angel energy. Isda is often their spokeswoman. Next level down are the First Family, angels formed soon after the Twelve. The angel Paschar foresees that Willow will destroy the angels.

The Crusaders are an anti-angel group.

The Cover
The cover has a softness to it, ethereal with the woman leaning so far forward in her white gown with its wrapped bodice crisscrossing over one breast that she appears to be running, even though it feels more like she's floating. The stylized outline of flames surround the title, Angel Fire, for she seems an angel and it burns.