Book Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Reading Level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (Feburary 15, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062002325
ISBN-13: 978-0062002327
Source: Bought from Amazon.com
Cover: I love, love, love this cover! The way Ellie is portrayed is strong and incredibly accurate. The colors really reflect the mood of this novel (and make Ellie's hair stand out) and this is going to could silly but the cliff like thing she is on is shaped like a "C" for Ms. Moulton's name!
First Sentence: "I stared out the classroom window and longed for freedom, wanting to be anywhere in the world other than gaping up at my economics teacher like the rest of our class."

Mini-Review: Fans of actions, angels and hot boys will be delighted with Angelfire's power punch!

Book Summary:

This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.  

When 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 archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul. 

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. 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. 

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. 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.

Book Review:
Angelfire packs an angelic sized punch with it's fast paced action scenes, kick ass main characters, and a plot that will keep you guessing until the last page. With realistic dialog and a whole bunch of angel lore, Angelfire is the full package-- one that I can't wait to unwrap again.


When Ellie finally believes in herself, I'm pretty sure there is nothing she can't do. Powerful, determined and fearless, she truly makes for a fierce fighter. But she was also really real. Her reactions to things and the way she speaks and acts outside of hunting reapers really helped me relate to her. Her banter with Will and Kate was truly some of the best parts in the novel. Speaking of Will, I thought it was interesting to meet a really good good guy in paranormal fiction. Will was stoic, level-headed and quick witted but wasn't the usual type of creature we see. Most try really hard to push the heroine away by being mean and aloof. Will is openly devoted to Ellie and that is why he was so attractive.


The angel lore and world Ms. Moulton set up was just as fascinating as her characters. Admittedly, it took me a little bit to understand what reapers and the Grim looked like but after I started to picture it, I was enchanted. Because of how well the action scene are written the plot goes by quickly and makes this bulky book seem shorter. As I mentioned before, I did have some problems in the beginning getting into this book. Something was keeping me from connecting with Ellie but this vanished after the first three chapters.


Angelfire really is a great debut by a promising new author. The ending kills and made me wish the second book was already in my hands. Like Ellie, I plan to keep coming back and I'll definitely be checking out Wings of the Wicked!

Rating: