Unearthlyby Cynthia HandPages: 435
Grade: 7+ (this one is very clean)
Description: (from Goodreads) In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . .
Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Thoughts: I borrowed this book from the library and started it three separate times. I never got very far into it. It wasn't that it was bad, the first few chapters just did not captivate me at all. It actually wasn't until prom (about 1/2 way through) that I really started getting into the book. The angel stuff was kind of interesting, but not enough to hold my attention and the first part of the book is nothing but angel stuff. Clara's relationships with her friends, Christian, and finally with Tucker is what made this book good, but that stuff didn't really show up until fairly far into the book.
There's a lot of mystery and unanswered questions in Unearthly. This book felt very much like a launch to a series. There really isn't any resolution at all. It's not a total cliffhanger, but it may as well have been. I felt very unsatisfied by the ending. It was like, "that's it?".
I did really enjoy all the characters though and the over all concept of the book is great - way better than one brooding fallen angel looking for love in the wrong place. It's been one of the best "fallen angel" books I've read, despite the lack of plot. I wish I had waited to read it until the next book(s) was out, I think if I could read them back to back I'd probably have rave reviews about this book/series.
I think this series is going to be excellent, but nothing really happened in this book, it was a whole lot of setup for a really weak climax and a lot of unanswered questions.Unearthly is part of the 2011 Debut Author Challenge.
