Book Review: World After; Susan Ee.

The second book I managed to read on my travels, and part of a series that my work colleague begged me to continue! Funnily enough, I recommended that she read 'Angelfall' which she did, before completely overtaking me and finishing the series! As this falls under Dystopian and is definitely a story of survival, I'll enter it into the 'Monthly Motif' challenge too.

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: World After
AUTHOR: Susan Ee
SERIES: Penryn & The End OF Days (#2)
PUBLISHER: Skyscape
PAGES: 314
GENRE: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Dystopian

RATING: 3/5 Stars

Blurb:
When a group of people capture Penryn's sister, Paige, thinking she's a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mum is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels' secret plans where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

What I Liked:

• Susan Ee's writing was as action-packed and explosive as I remember it! My favourite thing about book one was it's fast pace, and Ee didn't disappoint here either. Every chapter ends on it's own, mini-cliffhanger which makes for a gripping reading experience. In fact, I read a vast majority of this book in one sitting! Despite the long time-gap between books, Ee's characters were obviously deeply embedded in my memory and I never felt lost or confused at any point.
• I liked that Ee took some time to develop Penryn's family dynamic a bit more in this book. While Penryn's mother was nothing more than a nuisance in book one, I started to get a clearer picture of how her head works and the complicated relationship she has with her children. It was also interesting to watch Paige become more independent and Penryn struggle with the way her sister is now. It added an extra dynamic to the story and made those scenes with Beliel and Paige slightly heart-warming to read.

What I Disliked:

• Despite the fact that I liked this installment in the series, it still did very much feel like a filler book. The constant jumping from mission to mission with very little direction, the final showdown with a minor villain, etc. The biggest disappointment for me had to be the real lack of Raffe. It's not that I don't like Penryn, but her witty banter with Raffe was sorely missed and it was frustrating that she spent so much of the book without him. I hope that they'll stay together from now on.

Overall Conclusion:

This book had some really great moments, choosing to give the characters and world some much needed development rather than lead the plot anywhere too significant. In some ways I really liked this, but in others it just filled time rather than progressing the story all that much further. Raffe was sorely missed too, appearing about 80% of the way through when I'd really hoped to see some more moments between him and Penryn. Not a bad sequel, but it definitely didn't hold a candle to book one. That being said, I'm still heavily invested in this series. I need to read book three!

Book Review: Angelfall; Susan Ee.

Yet another book that I took a long time to get round to and absolutely adored! 'Angelfall' really impressed me in so many ways, and it's certainly my favourite book including Angels right now! Also, I'm entering into the 'Key Word' challenge for including 'Fall' in the title, and the 'Monthly Motif' challenge too.

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Angelfall
AUTHOR: Susan Ee
SERIES: Peryn & The End Of Days (#1)
PUBLISHER: Skyscape
PAGES: 284
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Dystopian

RATING: 4/5 Stars

Blurb:
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.

What I Liked:

• The great strength of this book has to be the two main characters, Peryn and Raffe. Peryn is a fantastic heroine. She was smart, able to stand up for herself and quick to think on her feet. Most of all, she's not 'special'. I have long since tired of Dystopian fiction where there is something different about the MC. Here she is just another human trying to survive with nothing more than some self defense classes to help her. Her relationship with Raffe was great too, and their interaction was fun to read.The relationship between the two of them built at a good pace and had a lot of spark to it that I thoroughly enjoyed. Raffe himself was a great character too. I loved his cynical nature and his secretive side actually appealed to me in this one. 
• The plot-line, though a little basic, was easy to read and flowed so well that I was totally hooked.From beginning to end I loved everything about the story and Ee did a great job of introducing a couple of new elements to the way that post-acopalyptic stories are written. There were enough twists and turns that I was on the edge of my seat, without having a pace that ran too fast for me to cope with.
• The world-building in this one was pretty good too! It's not made clear whether the entire world has ended or just a few cities in America, nor do we know exactly what happened. Yet that felt entirely realistic. No human on Earth would know all the details about an international catastrophe. They would just know the situation in their own little tiny portion of the world. Some of the things that Pen heard and saw were truly chilling too, and reflected what humanity could become should it face such a disaster.

What I Disliked:

• While I enjoyed watching Penryn interact with a lot of the characters, some of them felt a little weak and even unnecessary at times. My biggest issue was with Penryn's Mother. Despite the fact that she clearly has an interesting back-story that will make itself clear in the next two books, I only found her frustrating to read and felt like at times she was nothing more than a plot device to mess the situation up for Penryn. Again. I hope that Ee has something planned for her that will make her involvement in this book unavoidable.

Overall Conclusion:

This is a really great start to what looks to be a promising series! I sure hope I can get onto Book 2 soon, because this one has really pulled me into this story and that ending really makes me want to see that everything turns out okay (please?). The main characters at least were very strong with a believable romance building, and the plot and world-building impressed me massively. Ee's writing is pretty good too. I wish that the surrounding cast had been a little more complex, but I'd be intrigued to see how Ee handles them in 'World After'.