Shadows in the Silence by Courtney Allison Moulton

*****

From HarperCollins:

Your strength in heart and hand will fall. . . .

Ellie knows that the darkest moments are still to come, and she has everything to fight for:

She must fight for Will.

The demonic have resorted to their cruelest weapons to put Will in mortal danger, and Ellie makes an unlikely alliance to save him and to stop Lilith and Sammael, who seek to drown the world in blood and tear a hole into Heaven.

She must fight for humanity.

As the armies of Hell rise and gather for the looming End of Days, Ellie and her band of allies travel to the world's darkest and most ancient regions in her quest to come into her full glory as the archangel Gabriel.

And Ellie must save herself.

Her humanity withers beneath the weight of her cold archangel power, but Ellie must hold tight to who she is and who she loves as she prepares for the ultimate battle for Heaven and Earth.

In this final installment in the Angelfire trilogy, Courtney Allison Moulton brings her dark world of epic battles and blistering romance to a blazing bright conclusion.

Look at those eyes!  Is it any wonder Ellie fell for Will?!  He's totally my book boyfriend!

You know when you love a series and the last book comes out and you are terrified, excited and devastated all at the same time?  Yeah, that's how I felt when we received the ARC of Shadows of the Silence from PageTurner's Blog.  I LOVE the Angelfire series.  There are endless ways a series can end and so many of those ways can be disappointing.  Will your favorite characters die?  Will the ending leave you cold?  Disappointing?  Heartbreaking?  

I despise spoilers, so all I will say about Shadows is that is was perfect.  Courtney Allison Moulton wrote an absolutely beautiful, touching and devastating conclusion to the Angelfire series.  As I tweeted to her after I finished the book, I love her so much for Shadows that I even forgive her for making me cry.  If you have yet to start the Angelfire series, do it now.  If you read Angelfire and Wings of the Wicked, run out now and get Shadows.  I only hope you love it as much as I did.  

Thank you Courtney Allison Moulton, HarperCollins and PageTurners Blog for choosing us to participate in the ARC tour.  Thank you Courtney Allison Moulton for writing a series that I have loved so much and characters to whom I want to give big hugs and root beer floats!  

~Shel

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

**** 1/2

From HarperCollins:

First there are nightmares.

Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

Then come the memories.

When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

Now she must hunt.

Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember.

I know I previously mentioned that Angelfire is one of my surprise favorites of 2011; however, I recently re-read Angelfire when we received the Wings of the Wicked ARC for the ARC Tour hosted by The PageTurners Blog.  I was a little nervous that Angelfire may not live up to the hype in my head on a second read, but that was just silly.  Angelfire is the first in the trilogy telling the story of Ellie, the Preliator.  An ancient warrior who is reborn over and over to fight the demonic reapers and prevent the Apocalypse, ie the Second War between Heaven and Hell.

The Bad:

Keeping the different types of reapers separate and organized in my head was a little troublesome on my first read, but I definitely have them down now.  That was the only issue I had with Angelfire. 

The Good:

I love the characters that Courtney has created in this series, even the demonic reapers.  Plus, Will is my literary crush for 2011.  Angelfire is a riveting, compelling story with touching romance and mysteries that will keep you hanging on.  And seriously, Will.  Love. Him.  Check out Courtney's website for her graphic art of the characters, phenomenal - I seriously want some of the bookmarks she has created! http://www.courtneyallisonmoulton.com/

I could not put Angelifre down (really, ask my family, they were annoyed that I would not put the book down to spend time with them).  I had the pleasure to read an ARC of Wings of the Wicked and I have to tell you, I was not disappointed, not in the least.  Bel got to read it first and the moment I was done my phone rang for the post-game wrap up!  We will have a full review in the next few days.  Check out this beautiful cover:

~Shel