Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul. 

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once. 

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.


-Goodreads


Angelfire is a bit of a tricky book to write a review for because there were things that I liked a lot and then there were things that I wish had been edited out.

For instance: empowered female who can literally kick ass but then dresses up as a 'sexy' nurse for Hallowe'en.
For instance: cool fight sequences but with villains who monologue cheesily through them.
For instance: cool, funny, smart BFF who all but disappears by the end of the book.
For instance: hunky Guardian (think Watcher a la Giles, only younger & hotter) but... no wait, there is no bad there. Will was all good. *grin*

Overall it was a bit hit and miss with me. I do think it will have enormous teen appeal and I almost wish it didn't have so much underage drinking/swearing so I could recommend it to younger kids but as it is, it's true to the highschool experience (well, as true as Ellie's experience can be).

With all the fight scenes and that, it would make a good videogame or film, I thought. With the way Hollywood is picking up rights to YA books lately, that may be a reality soon.

Angelfire is the first book in a trilogy.

(reviewed from ARC provided by publisher - Thanks, HarperTeen!)