Customer Reviews

Strange Angels

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4 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dru grew up half the time with her grandmother, teaching her spiritual powers and half the time on the road hunting dark things with her dad. Fans of the Supernatural TV show will be pleased with this novel 'cause it brings you in the same dark and dangerous atmosphere. Only Dru came from being the predator and turns out to be the prey when her dad never come back home alive after a hunting day. Dru's mom is long dead, her grandmother passed out to and now her father's dead: She is on her own. Dru has some knowledge of the Real World and she has firearms skills but she's definitely not ready for what's coming next.
Along the way Dru meets a goth guy named Graves, he helps her when she hits the bottom and decide to tag along for the long road even thought Dru doesn't want him to: she doesn't want to involve him in her world. Graves becomes the best ally she can get in those unfortunate circumstances.

The two of them fight there way to survive everything that's coming to them and meet Christophe, a mysterious guy with fangs. We don't really know if he is friend or foe but he makes things very interesting, and I found myself enjoying this character very much. I wished he came in the story earlier.

I would give that book a 7/10, Story is good, characters are believable, the action is great but the story develops a bit slowly for my taste, but the last 30% of the book is awesome. I'll sure pick up the following book "Betrayals", I want to see what's gonna happen next between Dru and the mysterious Christophe.

In anticipation for Reckoning, I decided to read this series again. I'm glad to say that Strange Angels pulled me in the second time just as it did the first. This is a favorite series for me, there really aren't much books that I can say I've read more than once and would enjoy it again and again, but this is one of them.

Dru is all alone. Her mother died when she was young, her grandmother when she was 12 and her father came back as a zombie and he's gone now too. Dru has no one and she's all alone. She knows that whatever turned her father into a zombie is after her, why and who she doesn't know. She uncovers things about herself she never knew and finds out that perhaps the "touch" isn't all that doesn't make her ordinary.

The only problem I have with this book is how slow paced it is, and I mean really slow paced, there are parts that we have no need for and things we could have skipped. But despite that I found myself brimming with excitement as I flipped through the pages. What I loved about this series is that Dru knew from the beginning about the supernatural creatures - she and her father had hunted them together (really reminds of the TV series Supernatural), she calls it the real word where things go bump in the night.

There are few characters in the book. We meet Graves from the beginning and I can't spoil but one thing leads to another and he ends up sticking close to Dru. Graves was realistic. For someone thrown into a world he never knew existed he took it calmly but he was still shocked and scared as hell. Relating to him was easy. Christophe appears later on, he's a dhampir - a half human half vampire. We don't know much about him, he's real a mystery. He was a stark contrast against Graves and I enjoyed all the scenes he was in.

Dru was a kick butt heroine - she was a tough girl. Even when we saw all her sadness and fear from her point of view it still didn't ruin her personality. She reminds me a lot of Rose from Vampire Academy. There are hints of romance between Dru and Graves and even Dru and Christophe. And that's all they are, hints - I mean come on, she's really only known them for as little as a week. Well the romance develops more later in the series, the plot thickens and the series keeps getting better and better. Take it from me - I already read this series. So do I recommend the Strange Angels series? Well, that's a definite YES!

YA St. Crow, Lili: Strange Angels, (2009), 293 p., Dru is constantly on the move as her father searches out vampires, zombies, and other strange creatures to kill but must keep changing locations to remain safe. She knows a lot about the Real World as she calls it but when her dad disappears she finds she doesn't know enough to protect herself from the beings ' and her father after he is changed. A new Goth friend and various members of her dead mother's group, the Order, must try to save her. 4Q4P
Fantasy, Horror, Occult, Adventure

CONTAINS MULTIPLE STORYLINE SPOILERS...

"Strange Angels" is one of the better books I have read in awhile, however (isn't there always a "however?")... I found this storyline to have been played out so many times before.

For example, comparing "Strange Angels" with the "Supernatural" TV series. Dean and Sam Winchester's father is a hunter, he hunts all of those nasty magical beings inhabiting the world, as does Dru's father. Sam, Dean and Dru all grow up surrounded by the hunting practices, that they just become entirely entrenched in it. Also, Sam, Dean and Dru's mothers are both killed by a magical being, as are both fathers.

This book then compares to "The Mortal Instruments" Series by Cassandra Clare. In this series, Clary, the main character has a best friend Simon who has feelings for her. When Clary finds out that she is a shadowhunter, she unknowingly drags Simon into the magical world, in which he finds himself transformed into a vampire. In "Strange Angels", Dru unknowlingly drags her friend Graves (who we can assume has feelings for her as the story progresses), into her world, in which he is tranformed into a partial werewolf. Like Clary, Dru finds her powers manifesting themselves. Furthermore in "The Mortal Instrument" series, Simon has feelings for Clary and Clary does begin to start to exhibit her feelings for Simon, until along comes Jace, a better looking, mysterious boy who catches her eye, much like in "Strange Angels", where Graves appears to have feelings for Dru, and when she begins to mention her heart speeding up in seeing him, along comes Chris, a more attractive boy in whom Dru is mysteriously attracted to, both new comer boys having information that will forever change the girl's lives.

Futhermore, this story compares to "The Summoning" by Kelley Armstrong, as both Chloe (from "The Summoning") and Dru discover that their mothers are not the person that they think they are, as well as both being dead. Chole's mother fails to mention to she has the ability to raise the dead, whereas Dru's mother fails to let her know that she is part vampire, therefore leaving both girls with powers that they do not fully comprehend. Also, both Chloe and Dru find out that someone has betrayed them, putting them both in extreme danger.

All in all, I really did love this book (I had to run out and order it the day after reading it for my own copy- while ordering the sequel "The Betrayals") and though I did find it repetitive with many of the books out there, I didn't really mind (mainly because if it is magicky, I am all over it), whereas others may find the over told plot line a bit exhausted.

I also do recommend to anyone who likes this book to read the other books that I mentioned in this review and to check out "The Betrayals".

As if being dragged from town to town and high school to high school weren't bad enough, sixteen-year-old Dru has to deal with ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and zombies.

When her father comes home from his latest hunt, things will never be the same for Dru. With her father no longer able to help her, she is left to fend for herself. And someone is out to get her.

With the help of her new friend, Graves, she manages to stay alive long enough for the mysterious Cristophe to find her.

But is he there to help or does he have other, darker motives?

STRANGE ANGELS is a fast-paced and exciting paranormal jaunt into Dru's life. Ms. St. Crow has developed wonderful characters and a plot that keeps the reader dodging wulfen and suckers right along with Dru and the others.

I look forward to the next STRANGE ANGELS novel.

Reviewed by: Joan Stradling