Breath of Angel: A Novel (The Angelaeon Circle) [Paperback]

Karyn Henley (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 21, 2011 | Series: The Angelaeon Circle (Book 1)

The stranger’s cloak had fallen back, and with it, a long, white, blood-stained wing.
 
When Melaia, a young priestess, witnesses the gruesome murder of a stranger in the temple courtyard, age-old legends recited in song suddenly come to life. She discovers wings on the stranger, and the murderer takes the shape of both a hawk and a man.
 
Angels. Shape-shifters. Myths and stories—until now.
 
Melaia finds herself in the middle of a blood feud between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven, stranding angels in the earthly realm. When Melaia becomes a target, she finds refuge with a band of angels attempting to restore the stairway. But the restoration is impossible without settling an ancient debt—the “breath of angel, blood of man,” a payment that involves Melaia’s heart, soul, and destiny.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Breath of Angel

“Karyn Henley spins a lyrical young-adult tale of mythical and legendary beings, of reimagined angels and terrifying malevolents, in a small kingdom where the world’s fate rests on a young priestess’s shoulders.”
—Kathy Tyers, author of Shivering World and the Firebird series

“Karyn Henley’s novel starts with a jolt, grabs the reader by the collar, and doesn’t slow down one minute. This author infuses her text with imagery, suspense, and a cast that will appeal to all ages. In addition, it has a feeling that I can only describe as “folklorish,” with all the best elements that come with that—music, magic, and mystery. I think it’s destined to become a classic.”
—Kathi Appelt, author of The Underneath, National Book Award finalist, Newbery Honor Book, PEN USA Award

“This lusciously written fantasy has it all: epic battles, earthbound angels, immortal humans, and a bright, engaging heroine. Henley’s young priestessturned-warrior is forced to put her past together like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces so sharp they cut. Her story is nearly impossible to forget, so readers will be eager for more!”
—Louise Hawes, author of Black Pearls: a Faerie Strand, AAUW Juvenile Literature Award nominee; Gold Award, Hall of Fame, teensreadtoo.com

About the Author

Award-winning author Karyn Henley has written over one hundred titles. An accomplished songwriter, Karyn has been a Dove Award nominee and received a regional Emmy Award as music composer for a television special. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, a jazz drummer.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (June 21, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307730123
• ISBN-13: 978-0307730121
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,403,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Award-winning author Karyn Henley has written over 100 titles, which include a mix of children's books and articles, parent-teacher books, articles, and curricula, and preschool musicals and CD's/DVD's of original music for children. An accomplished songwriter, Karyn has been a Dove Award nominee, and received a regional Emmy Award as Music Composer for a Christmas television special. She has traveled worldwide speaking to parents and teachers and entertaining children and their families in storytelling/active movement sessions and concerts. Most of her work has been in the area of spiritual development. She is best known as the author of the original version of The Beginner's Bible, which during the fifteen years it was in print (1989-2004), sold over 5 million copies and was translated into 17 languages.

A graduate of Abilene Christian University (BSEd), Karyn received a Master's of Fine Arts degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2004. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining Read June 21, 2011

By T. M. W. Hickman

Format:Paperback

This book, Breath of Angel by Karyn Henley, sounded interesting to me. A story that involves angels? Murder? Mayhem? Sign me up! This is not a first time author, but this novel does appear to be the first serial novel she has written. Previously it appears that Ms. Henley confined her writing to children's books and nonfiction religious books.

The main character, Melaia, is a temple chantress who witnesses a horrible murder. When Melaia tries to offer aid to the dying man, she finds out that he is an angel. This completely discombobulates the protagonist. Before she can even wrap her brain around the concept that angels exist, she is sent on a mission with a special harp to sing for the king, who is very ill. The kingdom is in danger! Evil is afoot!

The story started off pretty strong, but the chapters following the murder seemed kind of muddled, and I started to lose interest in the character. It felt like the author was trying to stuff too much into a small space. Things became more interesting while Melaia's journey with Trevin was unfolding, especially when I realized that Trevin was supposed to be Melaia's love interest. Initially, there appeared to be some chemistry between them, but it kind of petered out before they got to the castle. I ended up not being sure what Trevin was actually supposed to be--a love interest or just some random guy. The conversations between them seemed stilted, and when the other characters would mention something about Melaia and Trevin being attracted to each other, it rang false as a result. A reader might get the feeling that Ms. Henley has had minimal experience with writing about love of a nonreligious nature, particularly the intensity of feeling that accompanies the first time a young woman falls in love.

There are probably some attempts at allegory in the novel, but I wasn't sure about what was being symbolized, because that part was again a bit muddled around angels and sylvans and dwarves and immortals. I think having some sort of glossary or cast of characters at the back of the book for reference would have been a good idea, to help people keep track of the characters. However, I enjoyed the book and would like to read the next book in the series. And isn't that the mark of a good story?

EDIT: I forgot to say that I got this book for free from a publisher for the purpose of writing a review. They sent me the book, and I am giving my honest opinion about it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Curious-er and Curious-er August 15, 2011

By StoryGirl

Format:Paperback

My thoughts on reading the back cover of this book: this sounds weird.
My thoughts halfway through the book: this is really weird.
My thoughts after finishing the book: okay, that was the strangest book I have ever read in my life.

I'm still a little confused about this book, actually, and why it's classified as Christian fiction. Despite some influences I could see from the Bible, there didn't seem to be an allegory in this fantasy. Plus, the title "priestess" just has a negative connotation for me- after all, the only priestesses in the Bible were of the pagan variety. I'm not quite sure what the priestess in Breath of Angel actually did, to tell the truth. They seemed kind of like some sort of healer or something. All the words I can think of to describe this book are weird and strange and odd. It was well-written, but I can't say that this book was really...beneficial... in any way. From a Christian perspective it seemed too mystical and even a little creepy, and the only mention of God was references to "The Most High", and quite honestly, there weren't many. It seemed to mainly be about the angels, but not about the God they served. I'm not a fantasy expert, so maybe my problem is with the genre rather than the actual book. I mean, as I said before, it was well-written, and I liked the characters. But the plot was simply too odd and mystical for me to be comfortable with.

I received this book for free from Waterbrook publishers in exchange for my honest review.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Basic Fantasy August 8, 2011

By The book lady VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Melaia, a 16 year old chantress and priestess, has her world fall apart when a visitor comes to her temple, a visitor with wings. When the stranger is killed by a hawk she keeps his body company by telling stories about the wisdom tree, which was the stairway to heaven and how two brothers destroyed the tree. Not long after Melaia is summoned by the lord to play the harp for his guest and quickly she and her harp are shipped off to Redcliff, to play for the king.

I have to start off by saying that I don't read all that many fantasy books but this one was fairly disappointing. I really enjoyed the beginning of the story as Melaia and Trevin, an envoy from Redcliff, begin their journey. But once they got to Redcliff is where the book really lost me. Some things weren't properly described so I wasn't sure what was going on and worse than that, suddenly brand new characters just pop out of nowhere and because Melaia drops the name of someone she met for five minutes this new person is willing to risk his life to help her. Then suddenly she needs to find three harps that will bring the wisdom tree back to life (what the harps have to do with the tree is never explained), and despite the fact she has the fate of the world in her hands she does some pretty stupid stuff, getting her self in a lot of danger for no reason than I can think of. Not only that but she has a book that shows her the locations of the harps but she never shows it to anyone else, maybe she is the only one who can see them, but couldn't she at least describe what she sees to her friends to try to find the harps? But what really bugged me was there was never any talk about strategy. They snuck into two castles but never once did they tell each other what the other one knew to make a plan.

The angels here are just plain stupid. Most of them have no wings and none of them seem to have any powers at all or at least no cool powers, other than being immortal. But above and beyond all that there is just not much heart in this book. You don't care about these characters because they don't seem to care too much about their own lives. There was only one real scene of emotion in this book and it was about 40 pages before the ending. I really did like the beginning but I just got really turned off by Melaia and what I can only describe as her teen aged antics.

Not my cup of tea. I was expecting something similar to Sharon Shinn and I got this.
2 1/2 stars.