Review by Booklist Review
Ellie has been plagued by nightmares of hunting and being hunted by unearthly creatures, and these nightmares come true on her seventeenth birthday. Approached by handsome but dour Will, Ellie learns she is the oft-reincarnated Preliator, destined to destroy reapers, who plunder human souls in preparation for a second war against heaven, and Will is her immortal Guardian. While balancing fighting duties with her normal life, Ellie uncovers a plan to destroy her soul for good, spearheaded by the mysterious Bastian. Clumsy, redundant prose marks Moulton as an inexperienced writer who nevertheless shows promise with an intriguing mythology and realistic teen interactions. Ellie's narrative wavers between sassy and bland, but she is appealing as a normal girl struggling with frightening powers. Frequent fight scenes provide a nice contrast from the overwrought romance, though they are not always well integrated. Overall, the plot is imitative of other paranormal romances, and the narrative arc too closely parallels Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the book will no doubt appeal to fans of those works.--Hutley, Krista Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Although the angel subgenre isn't languishing, reworking traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs to suit one's plot still takes chutzpah, and first-time author Moulton has no qualms about amping up her fight scenes with the risk of damnation. Not for her 17-year-old kick-butt heroine, Ellie Monroe, who is eternally reincarnated, but for those she fails to protect, who are dragged to Hell. Ellie doesn't know she's the powerful "Preliator" at first, and is more concerned with her lousy grades, her parents' fighting, and the car she's getting for her birthday. When Will, a handsome stranger, approaches her, she thinks it's flirtation until a monster attacks. Will awakens Ellie's latent power, most importantly her ability to wield angelfire to destroy demonic "reapers." Moulton attempts to work in and revise so much angelic lore that the nature of the reality Ellie has awakened to is a bit garbled. The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon clarity of the fight scenes, however, is unimpeachable. Ellie can be maddeningly slow on the uptake, but this is one heroine who's happy to take matters (and angelic swords) into her own hands. Ages 14-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-How can a normal 17-year-old suddenly deal with an awakened power, learn to wield magical blades properly, save the world, and fall in love with her 500-year-old Guardian? These questions are answered as angels, horrible beasts, and superpowers meet in the Detroit suburbs where Ellie attends high school. Her nightmares start to make sense when she is introduced to the dark world in which reapers are intent on destroying her as well as the rest of humanity. Handsome and mysterious Will helps awaken her powers and guides her as she discovers who she really is. Fans of the supernatural genre will recognize echoes of recycled plot devices such as the returned savior who needs training, dark and swirly tattoo markings, and an ancient book that gives details on fighting demons (to name a few). Though the writing is rushed and loose, offering plenty of cliches, the story does have a fair dose of action, clothes, shopping, drama, and romance. First in a planned trilogy, with a media blitz and flashy author website to bolster sales, this is likely to be requested where supernatural romance adventures are a hot item.-Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Seventeen-year-old Ellie learns she is an angelic being called the Preliator whose duty is to protect humans from demonic reapers. Her cute Guardian, Will, helps her recover memories of past incarnations; together they take on the Enshi, a reaper capable of catalyzing the apocalypse. Ellie's skeptical, sarcastic attitude is by turns amusing and annoying, while stoic Will is two-dimensional. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Buffy the Vampire Slayer despite obvious parallels and a final line that sounds like it could've come straight from the show. Yes, the teen appetite for the formulaic appears bottomless and angels are the new vampire, but this one never rises above mediocre. (Paranormal romance. YA)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
