Rating: 4 Stars
Age Recommendation: Upper Young Adult, New Adult +
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Warnings: Mention of and Attempted Rape, Character Death, Violence, Slight Language
Genres: Fantasy (Supernatural), Romance, Action and Adventure
Pages: 344 (EPUB version, provided in exchange for an honest review)
“I had been unsure about the future, tossed into the rapids by things beyond my control, but I had never been so befuddled about what I was going to do to get myself where I wanted to go. Home was New York, I tried to remind myself. Or was it?”
Evelynn is not an average student. She used to be a swimmer at a school in New York before she had to move up to live with her Aunt and Uncle in Montana after the death of her parents. She isn’t thrilled about getting involved in things like the cheer team or dating a boy on the football team, but those aren’t exactly the biggest of her problems. Referencing the fall of Satan in a novel that is something of a mix between Paradise Lost and the “Hush, Hush” series by Becca Fitzpatrick, Fallen Angel, by David Lamour, tells Evelynn’s story of love, fear, and angels versus demons.
I wasn’t sure what to expect upon starting my read of this story, though I knew that Fallen Angel had received high ratings on Goodreads and similar sites. Once I hit chapter three or so, I was stuck. I stayed up past three in the morning to continue, despite having work that would need to be done the next afternoon. In truth, the story was pretty addicting.
The descriptions in Fallen Angel are beautiful. I noted that from the very beginning, and any author who can make a world feel real and who can allow me to visualize what is happening automatically gets points in my book. Equally, it took me a little while to realize that this is being partly written in Evelynn’s diary, which actually makes it more interesting, in my opinion. Typically, diary-style writing is overly detailed. Things that people shouldn’t be able to recall later on. But that isn’t the case here, and I appreciate that greatly. I do wish that there had been some sort of italics or indication of what had been written by Evelynn and what hadn’t been, though. There were a few typos, grammar issues and spelling changes in the Epub I was sent in exchange for a review, but they didn’t really distract me very much from the story itself.
One thing that threw me off, though, was the way Evelynn’s thoughts sometimes seemed a little too self-aware. Sometimes the comments seemed to come from Lamour and not from the character herself – for example, several comments are made early on about authors and writing style and even “instant-love.” I found it a little funny at first, but it did pull me out of the story a bit, as it didn’t seem to match the rest of the text.
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Evelynn as a character is mischievous, rather funny, and although she is hung up on her past, she of all people has a right to be. She is a reader with a good heart, making her easy to like. There are a few things in the first couple of chapters that seem to be included specifically to set her apart from “normal” girls or the “popular” group, which I feel is a bit of a YA habit at this point. It didn’t really bother me too much, but I did notice and feel that it was a little forced.
The romantic interests in this story were portrayed in a different way than most love triangle-style characters and relationships are. In this case, it was clear who the “winner” of sorts would be, but neither really struck me as the ‘bad boy’ trope that so many are tired of.
Overall, I found the text to be very funny, and the epilogue was a brilliant set-up for the next book. I am very glad I’ve had the chance to start the Fallen Angel series and I can’t wait for the sequel!
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