Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Title: Angelfire (Angelfire #1)

Author: Courtney Allison Moulton

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release Date: February 15, 2011

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

First there are nightmares.

Every night, Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

Then come the memories.

When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Elli's power, and she knows that she can fight creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the Key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream. 

Now she must hunt.

Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives an truths that may be too frightening to remember.

So far this year I have read some fantastic debut novels, and Angelfire has now joined that list. It was a great story packed with action, romance, twists and turns that left me wanting more. I absolutely loved it!

Ever since school started up again, Ellie has been having strange nightmares and can’t seem to focus on anything, especially in school. And as her seventeenth birthday gets closer, Ellie’s nightmares appear to be coming to life. And then there’s Will, the mysterious boy who just seems to appear both in her nightmares and in the real world. Ellie feels a connection to Will, like she’s always known him, but she doesn’t understand just how that could even be possible. But Will just might be the only person who can help Ellie understand what her nightmares mean and how to deal with them when they start coming to life. Ellie definitely needs to trust Will, especially if staying alive is something she wants to do.

Ellie is basically a superhero, but a very reluctant one. I loved that she didn’t immediately believe everything Will was telling her. It was so refreshing not to have a protagonist who believes everything she’s told, there is nothing more that annoys me more than that. Of course that is not the only thing I liked about Ellie, she was a pretty great character. Will was pretty dreamy if you ask me. I loved how loyal he was to Elli and didn’t ever doubt her. The best part though, was seeing the relationship between Ellie and Will develop and blossom. Both struggled with it, but for me that only made it that much better and feel more real.

Courtney Allison Moulton wrote a wonderful story. It kept me guessing the whole way through and never saw what was coming next. Until I read Angelfire, I had never encountered reapers, and I loved finding out about paranormal beings and how their world functions. Though my favorite part of the story was how she weaved in the nightmares and the flashbacks. I didn’t really think much of them at first but they turned out to be an integral part of the story. They really added more depth and I don’t think the story would have worked as well without them.

Angelfire was a great and highly enjoyable read. Courtney Allison Moulton is a fantastic new writer and I can’t wait to read what comes next from her.