Unearthly (Unearthly #1) by Cynthia Hand Summary: 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?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.
Source: I purchased a Kindle copy
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Review:
I really enjoyed Unearthly and I’m glad I finally picked it up. I’m not the biggest fan of angel paranormal fiction for whatever reason, but I liked the way the plot unfolded in Unearthly. It was unique because the main character already knew she was an angel blood. While fulfilling her purpose as an angel blood was a major focus, there was more mystery to it than what I expected. From beginning to end, Unearthly ended up being completely different than what I initially thought it would be. In the sea of predictable YA paranormal romance, the book definitely stands out and was incredibly refreshing.
Clara and her family were unique because they were angel bloods. Her mother revealed everything years before. Each angel blood had a specific purpose to fulfill at some point in their lives. Clara’s visions, which aided in figuring out her purpose, ended up sending the family to a remote area of Wyoming from their California home. But once she got there, she had no idea where to start. She met the boy she was seeing in her visions, but everything she thought she felt didn’t seem to go the way she thought it would.
On the surface, it looked like Clara was supposed to save this boy named Christian at some point in the forest in the middle of a fire. But as time went by, the plot took another direction and her purpose seemed less clear. And what did the purpose really mean anyway? Why didn’t she know anything besides cryptic half truths? I loved how the story shifted and suddenly the predictable story where girl meets boy and somehow saves him turned into something totally different.
I enjoyed Clara's character. She was funny, brave, and kind of spunky. I liked that she had a relationship with her mom, which is something that I don't see enough of in YA fiction. I liked that her mom was fully involved in the whole angel thing because absent parents and parents not knowing about whatever supernatural issues is at hand is entirely too common in YA fiction as well. In fact, I thought Clara's mom knew a heck of a lot more than she was telling Clara or her brother, so that added to the mystery, too.
I feel like I can’t give any other details away even though I’d love to gush about certain characters and why I loved them. I think it’s better that readers find out what is so special about some of the people Clara meets as they read the book. After finishing, I was left with more questions than answers about everything from Clara’s future and identity to her love life and where she’d end up on that front. I immediately picked up Hallowed.
