Blog Tour: Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore

Publication Date: May 29, 2012Publisher: Thomas Nelson FictionSeries: Angel Eyes Trilogy#1Young AdultPages: 320Genre: Paranormal, RomanceOnce you’ve seen, you can’t unsee. Everything changes when you’ve looked at the world through . . .ANGEL EYESBrielle’s a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She’s come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can’t seem to shake.     Jake’s the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.     Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what’s going to happen. And a beauty brighter than Jake or Brielle has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.     A realm that only angels and demons—and Brielle—can perceive.*Copy was provided by publisher for blog tour and an honest review*Angel books happen to be hit or miss with me since most revolve around the same pretext. Weary about reading Angel Eyes, but completely captivated by the cover, my senses took over and brought me to reading the book. Ultimately, I was not disappointed with the novel.When you first start into the book, you noticed scenes that are commonplace in YA genre no matter it be contemporary, paranormal, urban fantsy--it's present in the many books published out there. The "new girl" effect. Though Brielle was from the town, she moved away and came back. Still covered in that "new girl" persona. Not to mention there's a new guy and the connection between the two instanly commence. It's the unlimate young adult cliche. Though it's not a beginning that wowed me or a unique one at that, the plot does expand upon that notion and gets much more intersting. Alternation POVs serves its purpose to expand upon the novel and speed up the flow, though some parts tended to drag for me, and you get a a first person v. thrid person with the alterations.I felt it would have been better if all the POVs were arranged as first, it would have cleaned it up and made the transitions much neater and easier to follow.As you can expect from an angel book, there is biblical refrence and scripture refrence and it tends to get pretty heavy during the later part of the novel. I do go to church (sometimes) though I don't find myself very religios, I do enjoy the religious portions in this novel though some parts did seem too heavy for me to enjoy. It's not a bad thing at all though, it's purpose does since Brielle is suffering from the death of her best friend, another common that popps up in YA, and starts to question her faith and whether God exists. Even so, the novel does not sway an opinion of belief onto you, which is a wonderful thing, it does not force any belief system down onto you, it is merely purposeful to the plot and I liked that a lot.When diving into an angel themes novel you tend to estimate what lore is going to be expanded upon. The use and explaniation of the spiritual realms, the angelic warfare, the gift the is casted down upon one sole character that sets her/him apart from the rest. It's all there but the underlying twist and immiganation that sets Angel Eyes apart happened to excite me and kept me facinated. It's hard to shake up common lore, espeically about angels, beings that have been talked about and read though so much history. Even so, Dittamore does a wonderful job with the description of the beliefs and does have you excited whith descritptions and  explaniation.Definitely one to give the benefit of the doubt to, Angel eyes deserves a nice placement in the genre. The divine angelic lore and characters that don't fall flat, defintiely a novel to check out.First Line: The boy trembles. Fear wraps him tight, rattling his callow frame.Story: ACover: SThis review was a part of: