Angelfire (Book 1)by Courtney Allison Moulton

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. (goodreads.com)

You have likely been seeing Angelfire all over the book blogs lately. You may or may not be over seeing the posts in your reader or on your trips to blogs. I'm asking you to stick around a little while longer and not just skip my post because you're tired of seeing the same book hyped all to heck.Angelfire is a debut YA novel for 2011. I had been interested in it since I saw the cover. I am not normally a person who lusts after angel-type paranormal stories so it wasn't the angel part that really caught my eye. (If I were to be honest, what caught my eye was the wickedass sword on the cover. I want one like that, yo!) If you ignore the "mysterious boy named Will" aspect of the summary the story itself sounded pretty neat. Something different than what's out there in the paranormal literary world. I liked that.Though this book was on my Must Read Soon list, I wasn't rushing out to buy it just yet (for many reasons) so imagine my delight when I received a surprise copy from Harper Collins for review. Again, I was wary of starting the book because I HAVE seen so much HYPE for the story that I was suddenly nervous that it was going to be one of those situations where everyone raves about the book but I hate it.Luckily, I didn't hate it. I did quite enjoy this book a whole bunch. Upon finishing the book today I realized I should have noted a couple of pages where the dialogue/one-liners really made me laugh out loud. "You have to be smarter than the pancakes, Ellie" was one of my favourite lines uttered in this entire story. I know it doesn't have anything to do with the plot, but boy did that make me laugh. (And I even told my husband I was totally using that line in the future, though I may substitute "pancakes" for whatever other food/item might be in play. I don't think leaving "pancakes" in there would be as effective if say a person walked into a door.)Yes, I had some issues with the story at times. The fact that Will wouldn't tell Ellie anything about her past when she was having trouble remembering bothered me immensely. Although I could see the reasoning behind why I am just very tired of that being a plot device in paranormal novels. I could look past the "I turned 17 and now I am magical" aspect because well, who doesn't want to suddenly discover on a random birthday that they are supernaturally awesome? (I'm still hoping for mine...) The instant-love wasn't as bad in this story as in others, I liked that Ellie and Will spent some time together before she suddenly went all OMGIHEARTHIMSOOOOOMUCH!!! over him. I just feel like that part of the story could have been left out (my own preference, nothing to do with the story itself) and I would have been happier. I am not a sucker for romance in books so I am perfectly happy to just do without. ;)I liked the interaction between Ellie and her mother and Ellie and her BFF Kate. I felt those conversations were normal and realistic. Ellie's dad on the other hand... wow... need therapy much?The action was nicely paced and the story progressed in a fairly even manner and I was happy that I had to stay home today so I could finish the book (even with my migraine) because I was very curious about the plot and where it was going. Knowing full well this is the first in a series I was happy with the way Angelfire ended. It wasn't too cliffhanger-y nor was it very rushed at the end. All 400+ pages were a fun and delightful read.I cannot wait for the sequel to come out NEXT YEAR (ugh!). And I am super extra thrilled and thankful that Harper Collins sent me this book.Angelfire

1. Angelfire
2. Wings of the Wicked - 2012
3. Hymn to the Fallen - 2013