"Griffin Rising" by Darby Karchut

From Goodreads: "For Griffin, it’s time to angel up.

Armed with the power to control the ancient elements of Earth and Fire, sixteen year old Griffin is determined to complete his apprenticeship and rise to the rank of Terra Angeli.

But first, he must overcome a brutal past if he is to survive in this world. Will the perseverance of his mentor and the love of a mortal girl give Griffin the strength he needs to triumph?"

I have said it time and time again, I love books about angels, and this book is no exception. I really loved the "I Am Number Four"/ "The Demon Trapper's Daughter" mentor/ apprentice mentality going on this book with the main characters Basil and Griffin, I always think that it is really interesting to see how the master and apprentice start out on shaky grounds but over time evolve into an unstoppable team.

Typically I don't like when a book is written in the form of a journal mainly because I find them to be too choppy or their entries jump from one event to another with little to no explanation making it difficult for the reader to comprehend exactly what is happening, however, I completely forgot that this book was written in such a manner because everything flowed together perfectly and all of the loose ends were tied up.

Griffin and Basil were such multi-faceted and dynamic characters, on the one hand Griffin was all sweet and innocent, but on the other hand he was totally swoon-worthy and bad-ass, whereas at first glance Basil seemed all imposing and strict, but was actually a really caring and selfless guy. As for the Nicopolis? Well, he was exactly what needed for this story, a hell-bent-on-getting-his-own-way baddie (think Malone in Rachel Vincent's "Shifters" series or Harper from Jana Oliver's "The Demon Trapper's Daughter").

The only complaint I had about the book was the girlfriend of the story, Katie. I felt somewhat similar to how I did with Four's (from "I Am Number Four's") girlfriend Sarah, I thought that the female characters were somewhat unnecessary and in both stories I would have preferred to see how the male leads developed on their own, coming to terms with their powers and all of that jazz, before a girl was introduced to the storyline,. I hate to say it, but I found Katie to be a bit too superficial for my taste (she was always going on about how Griffin was or she was concerned about her popularity), though fortunately that superficiality did start to lessen as time went on in the book.

All in all, I think that Darby is an author that we will all have to keep an eye on because I am sure that whatever she writes will please a plethora of readers!

Rating: 8/10

I received this book from the author to review. I was not compensated in any way for my review.