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 Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the 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 the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember. (From Goodreads)
I actually picked up this book because of all the raving about it's sequel, Wings of the Wicked that is coming out at the end of January. Not to mention, Ellie and Will are nominated in a few categories for the Best of 2011 over at the Story Siren. So I knew there was going to be some great things going on in this book and it lived up to all its hype.
I intended to just spend the morning reading, but pretty soon I was ripping through this book and didn't put it down until I had finished. First of all, I freaking love Ellie. There is nothing weak about this girl - she has like ninja super powers, but she's still so human and relatable. She's vulnerable, but not so much that you worry about her falling prey to the wrong kind of people. And Will, I love that this boy literally exists to protect and serve Ellie, but he's not clingy or around all the time. Ellie calls him Batman all the time, so, of course, I totally pictured a blonde Christian Bale.
There aren't any nice-playing, change of heart demons here. There are monsters and evil plots that Ellie has to face and she does the job wonderfully. She definitely struggles, but she always steps up to the challenge. There was more than one time where I made connections to Buffy - seeing as in both cases we're talking about the one person who has the power to vanquish evil. Any connection to Buffy is automatic awesome.
I can already see why people would be raving about Wings of the Wicked and I can't wait to see where Ellie and Will are taken next.
