Thursday, September 10, 2015

Review: Embers by Karen Ann Hopkins

Embers (The Wings of War, #1)
Cover Source: GoodReads.com
Title: Embers
Author: Karen Ann Hopkins
Series: The Wings of War #1
Version Reviewed: Finished, eBook.
*I received this book for free from the author for review*


GoodReads Summary:
There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them.
Embers is an epic paranormal adventure/romance about a seventeen year old girl who discovers that she's immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt's boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember's exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she learns that she's a Watcher, a descendant of angels. While Ember is instructed about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two teenagers who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the young men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it's cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war that's been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil, and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She may be one of the few champions willing to make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.
Review:
I'm gonna start off by saying that I love this cover.  It's so super pretty and it fits so well with the story! It's not just some random cover.  Like, it actually has something to do with the story line and makes sense.

Starting this book off, I thought the idea for it was simply awesome.  It was something that I hadn't read before.  I've read books similar to it but not quite the same.  This one had some little twists to some overly done character types that you see in a lot of YA paranormal/supernatural right now.  The whole angel and demon thing has been done so many times that it's pretty much right up there with vampires for me. But Karen Ann Hopkins gave them just the right amount of creativity and uniqueness to make them all her own. And I loved the book for that.

The characters were likeable and were really easy to read. There were a few cliches here and there, a few things that seemed a little similar to a certain popular YA book that was made into a movie and takes place in a town opposite of Spoons. But, in all honesty, this was easy for me to ignore because I think a lot of people write those similarities and don't even realize that they're doing it.  It's just become that much a part of young adult literature now. And, honestly, even though it had some similarities, the rest of the book definitely outweighs those parts. Aside from what I just said, Embers is it's own book, it's own story.  It is not a replica of any other story and it really is great.

It was neat to discover Embers powers with her and see, really, what she was capable of. It was exciting to figure out Sawyer's role in the book and how, exactly, he was going to be a part of her life.  He could have so easily been the bad guy but it was interesting to see how he grew as a character.

Let me also say that I think that the setting of this book is absolutely amazing. Ember is from Ohio (where my husband is from) and Sawyer is from Kentucky (where I'm from) and the story itself takes place in the mountains of Tennessee, which is where I lived when I was younger.  Though it wasn't one of the best times of my life, I will never, ever forget how beautiful it was there and I would honestly love to live there again.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed the book and I can't wait to continue the story with Gaia, the second in the series.

Favorite Character: Sawyer
Rating: 4 Stars.

1 comment:

  1. Ohh! I've been hearing great things about the series. I can't wait until I reach this book on my TBR list!

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