Review: Angelbound by Christina Bauer

Angelbound

Author: Christina Bauer

Series: Angelbound Origins #1

Goodreads

Eighteen year old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your every day quasi-demon, half-demon and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory’s arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter heaven or hell, they go up against her, and she hasn’t lost a battle yet.

But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights aren’t enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, she knows that things are changing and it’s not looking good for the quasi-demons. Myla starts to question everything, and doesn’t like the answers she finds. What happened seventeen years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won’t anyone tell her who her father is? Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla’s not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla’s going to shake up Purgatory.

I received Angelbound by Christina Bauer from NetGalley for review quite a while ago and I'm ashamed that it took me this long to finally read it. The cover drew me in first, but the premise--a half-human, half-demon Arena fighter who lives in Purgatory--had me hooked, and I knew I needed to read it.

Myla Lewis isn't your average teenager. She's a quasi-demon, lives in Purgatory, fights in an Arena agains evil souls and sends them to Hell... oh, and did I mention she has a tail?? She's sassy, fiery, and up for anything. Especially if it's trouble. She's fierce and loyal and easily angered because of her wrath demon side. She kind of reminds me a bit of Rose from Vampire Academy mixed with Clary from The Mortal Instruments. She definitely knows how to kick some ass and prove that girls are just as strong as guys, if not stronger. My kind of protagonist.

Sometimes her love for the dangerous gets her into trouble.. and sometimes it leads her to self-discovery. She's never known her father. Her mother refuses to talk about him and her past or who Myla truly is and what that could mean for their family and their world. A world which is currently being ran by Armageddon--a greater demon and the King of Hell. She's never been in love, or had any kind of romantic feelings toward anyone and she's beginning to think that the lust side of her demon DNA doesn't exist in her. But all of this is about to change. And Myla? She's caught in the middle of it all.

The world that Christina Bauer created with the Angelbound Origins series is quite an interesting one. I've never really read anything set in Purgatory before and I found it rather intriguing. There are five realms within this world and each of them have different kinds of people: Heaven has the angels, Hell has demons, ghouls live in the Dark Lands and kind of control things in Purgatory for Armageddon, Purgatory has quasis, and Antrum has what are called thrax--which are half-human and half-angel. There's also this really awesome person call a Scala, which is a mix between demon, human, and angel and has the power to move souls into heaven or hell. And there's only one of them. Oh, and all quasis have some sort of tail and a different deadly sin attached to them because of their demon side, which I also thought was pretty cool.

One thing I didn't like though was how some scenes seemed to go a little too fast or as if they were just quickly edited or wrote too fast and then scimmed over. I felt like they had so much potential that was never fully reached. Another thing that kind of bothered me was the introduction of Lincoln.. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore him after reading the entire book, but first meeting him?? The way the scene was written, I thought he was a little boy at first. His voice was completely off from how it was later on in the story and it just didn't match up to me. There was a lot of filler scenes that I felt were completely unnecessary, like her boring days at school, her friendship dramas with her best friend Cissy and such. Those things I could've done without. I think some serious editing could have help in that department, however, it was never bad enough that I wanted to stop reading because the story itself was really great.

With that being said, I fully intend on finishing this series. Myla's fierce attitude and the world that Christina Bauer created has pulled me in and I'm just not ready to let it go.

I rate this book:

The Angelbound Origin Series

Author

About Christina Bauer

Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in Television, Radio and Film Production and English. An avowed girl geek, Christina loves creating immersive fantasy worlds with action, adventure, romance, and kick-ass female protagonists. As part of her work in Ink Monster, Christina has co-developed the ‘Heroine’s Journey,’ a blueprint for telling female myths inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son and golden retriever Ruby.

Author Links: Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

Quotes

"When you're miserable, there's nothing worse than someone else's happiness."

"You won't regret it."
"Can I get that in writing?"

"Let’s get started." Tank blasts his whistle again. "I want you all to practice running around the yard, flailing your arms, and screaming ‘Take me! Take me!’ On my mark. Set. Go!"