Book Review - AngelBound

AngelBound
Author: Christina Bauer
Series: Angelbound #1
Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 17th December 2013
Publishers: Ink Monster LLC
No. Pages: 532
Source: ARC - Ink Monster LLC
Rating: 
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Eighteen year old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She's not your everyday quasi-demon, half-demon and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory's arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter heaven or hell, they go up against her, and she hasn't lost a battle yet.

But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights aren't enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla's school, she knows that things are changing and it’s not looking good for the quasi-demons. Myla starts to question everything, and doesn't like the answers she finds. What happened seventeen years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won't anyone tell her who her father is? Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla’s not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla’s going to shake up Purgatory.

I did it once again guys; I fell for the cover and was let down by the contents. Like a box of posh Thorntans chocolate that I know I don't like: I've seen the box, it looks beautiful, and the chocolates inside, well, they look even better, and the price, oh boy they're on offer, and so I trot home with them, ready to eat myself a box of posh chocolates, only to remember that I don't like them; now I'm forced to eat them, slowly, and painfully, and hopefully learn from my lesson. I did exactly that with this book. I knew I was going off Angel themed books, they were just beginning to get repetitive and samey, and I knew that this was probably going to let me down before I even opened it, yet I still tried, and I was left slowly, painfully reading it, making my way through the foolish mistake that I can finally promise you, I will never, ever, ever do again.

Now when I say 'let me down', I don't mean it was a bad book, because in truth, it wasn't. It had a good sense of loyalty and character growth throughout, and even when our leading lady went from kicking demons bottoms in an arena where she could die every time she fights, to a soppy, gushy and plain cheesy teenage girl, it was still a good read, and to anyone else who really likes their heroines with a bit of romance, and a good angel vs demons story, then this really is for you, it just wasn't for me. As I said earlier, after about 50 pages in, I realised I was getting tired of demons always trying to ruin things, and angels always being the holy saint, but I couldn't exactly blame the book; it was my fault. I had chosen to read this book at this time because I received it off NetGalley, and as other NetGalley uses will know, once you download it for Adobe Digital, you only have the book for a specified period of time, for me, that's 50 days. I felt pressured into reading this book when I knew I didn't really want to because if I didn't, I'd lose the opportunity to read it full stop. I mention this because I don't know if I can fully make a judgement on a book I feel very torn about.

The characters were well development and some of them had a great depth to them, and I was interested to find out more about them, while some others were quite vanilla and boring. The plot itself, was good, but sadly predictable. I had called it about a third of the way in, and after that, it was like waiting for the book to end. There were some pretty fantastically written scenes, specifically those that took place in arena, and others that took a big turn, yes, this book has a little, pardon me, a lot of lustful and sexual scenes in it, and that I was not expected, so a little preparation for you there.

Angelbound is a very good book, it's written well and strongly, and has some good characters who grow and learn throughout. It has your typical teenage school esk to it, but it also has a good plot, so don't feel put out by my very mish-mash review. If I'd read this at a different time, or my mind was at a different place, I could have really enjoyed this book, and because of this, I may one day consider reading it again and seeing if I feel any differently, because I can really hope that I do, because I'd be interested to see where the story picks up in the sequel.