Angelfire (Angelfire Trilogy) [Hardcover]

Courtney Allison Moulton (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 15, 2011 | Series: Angelfire Trilogy (Book 1)

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 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One heroine who's happy to take matters (and angelic swords) into her own hands." Publishers Weekly 
"A dark and compelling world of action and intrigue." VOYA 
"The action scenes have enough intensity and adrenaline to send Buffy home hanging her head in shame... Ellie is a high-octane heroine and a regular girl." BCCB 

About the Author

Courtney Allison Moulton lives in Michigan, where she is a photographer and spends all her free time riding and showing horses. She is the author of the Angelfire trilogy, including the first two books about Ellie and Will, angelfire and wings of the wicked.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (February 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062002325
• ISBN-13: 978-0062002327
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 1.5 x 5.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Courtney Allison Moulton lives in Michigan, where she is a photographer and spends all her free time riding and showing horses. Angelfire is her first novel. For more information about Courtney, visit her online at courtneyallisonmoulton.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting debut novel February 15, 2011

By Fiktshun

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Elisabeth Monroe lives in a world where girls receive luxury cars for their birthdays, shop at high-end department stores, throw extravagant parties, and whose biggest concern is whether or not to straighten their hair before going out - basically the life of a normal privileged teenage girl. Yet Ellie is anything but. Only she doesn't know it. Not until her seventeenth birthday.

The nightmares she's been having are real. She is the Preliator, a being who has a mortal body but an immortal soul, the only one capable of wielding angelfire, who is reborn time and time again in order to serve her sole purpose - to destroy reapers and keep humanity safe.

But this time is different. Her rebirth took longer than ever before with only limited recollection of her past - a past that even her protector and guardian, Will, doesn't know completely. And this time the reapers aren't the only thing to fear. There is another out there who can threaten Ellie's very existence and alter her future in ways nothing before ever could.

As Ellie grapples with recovering her memories about who she is and not yet fully able to control her powers, will she be able to unlock the secrets in her mind in time to defeat Lucifer's growing armies and prevent the Apocalypse? Will the answers she finds be too much to handle? And will her humanity be enough to overcome the darkness within her?

***

Debut author, Courtney Allison Moulton is a new author to the young adult scene. Her writing has a maturity and a depth of story that is not always seen in a first time author. In Angelfire, she has created a novel with an intricate and detailed history that is woven into the plot through Will's recounting and Ellie's dreams. The author's inclusion of these nightmares and daydreams throughout the story is a captivating way to gain insight into Ellie's past and allows the reader to learn, along with Ellie, just who she is.

This story is one of the few in which the heroine does not have to slowly come into her own, relying solely on the protection of the male character to usher her through the process. While Ellie doesn't have all her memories or her full strength at the start, she is a fighter and has at her beck and call a power that will rival anyone, including her guardian and the reapers who wish to end her mortal (and immortal) existence.

While the story doesn't immediately hook you with a riveting preface, such as one of Ellie's nightmare-memories, it will. After the initial chapters that introduce the characters, the pace and action pick up quickly and plunge the reader into a story that will leave them on edge until the very end.

Ms. Moulton gives us a character in Ellie who, while immortal, has embraced her humanity, who is strong, but isn't always aware of that strength, and whose determination and feisty spirit have captured the heart of the guardian who has sworn to protect her above all else.

While the story reveals much about Ellie and Will, there are many questions left to be answered and many lifetimes still to be revealed.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting February 15, 2011

By Angela VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Angelfire was a unique story that was gripping and suspenseful, yet sweet and romantic as well. It was well rounded and kept my attention throughout. I really liked the storyline of a young girl being brought into her powers to fight these creatures, finding out she is someone who is helping in the ultimate battle of good verses evil.

Ellie was an interesting character. She was very vulnerable and flawed, yet she could turn into this amazing fighting machine with a single minded purpose that kicks major butt. There were times that she was slightly annoying, but those moments were definitely outweighed by the moments she was amazing me. Will was swoon-worthy and definitely made my heart skip a few beats. He was so loyal and strong and hot! YUM! I need a Will that is all my own!

The only thing I didn't love about the book was that I would have liked a little closure before the end of the book. I love series, and don't mind cliffhangers, but I still like at least part of a story, or some threads of the story, to be brought to a close each book. This one didn't really have an ending to any of the threads, it's just all kind of left in the open for future books in the series. That being said, I simply can't wait to find out where this series will go with book 2 and how the characters, relationships, and battle will develop.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The revelation at the end was a bit groan worthy, but there's enough Buffy-like moments that I still enjoyed the story. February 15, 2011

By Abigail TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The best parts of ANGELFIRE are like an early season of Buffy where Angel and Giles have been combined into one beautiful, brooding guardian/teacher. There's a supernatural heroine who finds out she must battle the forces of evil while trying to remain a normal high school girl, she has a mix of friends who help, and some serious Daddy issues.

ANGELFIRE relies on one of my least favorite plot contrivances to make the story work: the heroine has a supernatural past that she has forgotten about and it's up to her love interest to gradually restore her memory at key points throughout the book. The problem with this set up is that the hero, Will in this case, is already in love with Ellie, so magic of the couple falling in love is substantially minimized.

I also had some difficulty relating to Ellie. She's a rich, spoiled, shallow teenager. Her group of friends all spend money like fiends and on her birthday, Ellie's parents buy her an Audi. She gets drunk a lot, goes shopping for slutty Halloween costumes and her grades are likely to keep her out of college. Yet were supposed to buy that she's a millennial old supernatural warrior know as the Preliator, the only one capable of wielding Angelfire and defeating the soul sucking Reapers. It's a hard sell.

I did like the character of Will and especially enjoyed the training scenes he shared with Ellie, not just when he was teaching her to master her strength and abilities, but also because those scenes were when Will opened up to her and showed a vulnerable side that YA heroes rarely display. Ellie likewise lost her superficiality and became a much more likeable character.

Overall, angels are getting a lot of play in the YA market of late, and ANGELFIRE is a good though not great addition. The revelation at the end was a bit groan worthy, but there's enough Buffy-like moments that I still enjoyed the story. The second book in the Angelfire trilogy is called WINGS OF THE WICKED and will be released in 2012.

Sexual Content:
Kissing. References to sex.