"Angelfall" by Susan Ee

From Goodreads: "It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again."

As seems to have become the norm, I bought this book solely based upon reviews I had read about it (reviews from fellow bloggers and reviews from Goodreads). Many of those reviews that I read RAVED about this book, stating that this book was THE BEST YA angel book that they had ever read or that it as their MOST FAVOURITE book of 2011- while I did enjoy the book, I must admit that I didn't enjoy it quite as much as others seem to have (which I find unfortunate because I personally LOVE angels books- can't get enough of 'em in fact).

My main complaint about this book is the ending. I must admit that in the large majority of cases when I am really, REALLY enjoying a book I start to get really nervous as I come closer and closer to the end because I fear that everything that I have loved in the first 3/4 or so will be destroyed- sometimes my fears turn out to be silly (ie. in the case of "Dearly, Beloved, a book where I was terrified to read the ending, but whose ending actually turned out to be darn near perfect IMO), sometimes my fears turn out to be legitimate (ie. in the case of "The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer", a book whose ending left me completely baffled- in a bad way), and unfortunately the latter turned out to be the case for this book.

It wasn't all of the gore contained in the ending that turned me off (I mean, not much gets to me in that respect- after all, I *do* study dead things, specifically dead humans)- it was the lack of explanation about why all of these horrific and grotesque things were occurring. I personally felt them to be too "out there"- that they didn't fit with the first 3/4 of the book.

That being said, as it becomes evident I did VASTLY enjoy the first 3/4 of the book. In fact, I can't even come up with a single complaint about that portion of the book- it possessed everything that I love, a kickass heroine, a swoon-worthy male character, snark, wit AND banter like you wouldn't believe, a fast paced and unique plot, and the likes of.

All in all, while the ending of this book didn't quite live up to my expectations, overall I did quite enjoy this book. I think that Susan has a great career ahead of her and I am looking forward to the next book in this series (hopefully the answers to all of my burning questions will be revealed in it!). 

Rating: 7.5/10

Memorable lines from the book:

"We now play a permanent game of I-am-crazier-and-scarier-than-you. And in that game, my mother is our secret weapon" (9%).

"The logistics of breaking you are so easy. The only question is when" (12%). 

"In the second before everyone absorbs what just happened, I see the angel rolling his eyes heavenward, like a teenager in the presence of overwhelming lameness. Some people just have no sense of gratitude" (16%).

"I'm not moping," I whisper back. 
"Of course you're not. A girl like you, spending time with a warrior demigod like me. What's to mope about?" (26%)

"I don't know if he noticed when  I took my sweatshirt off, but I'm guessing he was busy at the time because he looks at me in surprise. His pupils dilate when he sees me. His lips part, momentarily forgetting to marshal his expression, and I could swear he stops breathing for several heartbeats" (59%).