Unearthly [Hardcover]

Cynthia Hand (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 4, 2011 | Series: Unearthly

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7–10—Clara Gardner is a quarter-angel. She lives with her mom and brother in California, until she starts to receive visions of her divine purpose involving a handsome young man, a forest fire, and sadness. The teen and her mom slowly piece together her visions and realize that the fire is near Jackson, WY. Clara's family packs up and moves there so that she can fulfill her destiny. She meets the boy from her vision, Christian, but he already has a girlfriend and a popular set of friends. She tries to get closer to him, but is distracted by friends, trying to learn to fly, and a cute, but annoying cowboy. Despite her brief visions, Clara doesn't know much about her angelic nature. She meets Angela, who is also an angel, and guesses that Clara is too. Clara learns that fallen angels have dark wings and will try to take her powers. The day of her purpose comes and she must make an impossible choice—do what she is supposed to do or save the boy she loves. Although the book is lengthy, the plot moves quickly and should appeal to reluctant readers. Hand does an excellent job of creating and sustaining the mood of teenage angst mixed with first love. A gentle, paranormal romance that is sure to appeal to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005) fans. First book in a projected trilogy.—Samantha Larsen Hastings, Riverton Library, UT
(c) Copyright 2011.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

As if adolescence isn’t enough, California girl Clara has recently begun to come into her powers as a Quartarius, a quarter-angel. Her half-angel single mother lends support, helping to puzzle through visions that reveal tantalizing portions of Clara’s “purpose.” The visions’ clues—a forest fire, license plate, and boy in a black fleece jacket—lead the family to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. There, on Clara’s first day of school, she meets her destiny: A-list football player Christian, the boy of the vision. She also makes friends with two very different girls: easygoing, horse-crazy Wendy, and intense loner Angela. It’s Wendy’s twin brother, Tucker, though, who begins to drive the plot, unwittingly seeming to change Clara’s purpose. If some of this series starter seems overly familiar—the rural setting, the two love interests, the dark powers at work—the details about angels make up for it. The dynamics of flying, the intense shining of “glory,” and an unplanned trip to hell are all creatively addressed. Grades 7-10. --Karen Cruze

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; First Edition edition (January 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061996165
• ISBN-13: 978-0061996160
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (410 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cynthia Hand grew up in southeast Idaho, just outside the town of Idaho Falls. From as far back as she can remember, she loved books and reading, and wrote her first short story (about a fairy being born in a tulip) when she was around six years old--pretty much as soon as she could write. Her second grade teacher, Mrs. Widdison, told Cynthia that she'd be an author some day, and Cynthia believed her. She kept writing stories all through grade school, most of them wildly fantastical musings on supernatural beings or creatures, none of which ever won the annual short story competition where the writer got to meet Kenneth Thomasma,the author of one of Cynthia's favorite books, Naya Nuki. Cynthia learned early on that if you wanted to win the writing contest, you should write stories about that time your parents got their car stuck in the snow on the side of a mountain just before dark. You should not write about a group of unicorns fighting to take over an island from an alien invasion. Cynthia kept writing about unicorns anyway.

In middle school and high school, she and her friends formed a writing group that wrote fan fiction about their favorite novels and movies. Each person in the group invented a new character in the decided-upon world (they wrote about Elfquest, Vampire Hunter D, X-Men, Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series, Anne McCafferty's Pern series, Star Wars, and SeaQuest (anyone remember SeaQuest?) and wrote exclusively from that character's point of view, sharing their writing as they went, collectively shaping what happened to these characters. Early on Cynthia was appointed the "editor" of their work, meaning that she collected it all, typed it, and edited it. She loved and possibly abused her power with the red pen.

In middle school and high school Cynthia also, on top of all the fan-fic writing, took piano lessons, danced tap and ballet, raced on the Kelly Canyon ski team, acted or teched in every school play and several plays for the community theater, sang in the school choir, took AP classes, and somehow managed to find time to eat and sleep enough to stay alive. There was a period during her junior year when she arrived at school at 5:30 a.m. and didn't get home until around 10 p.m., five days a week. She took the words insanely busy to a whole new level.

Cynthia went to college at the College of Idaho, where she majored in English (because she still loved to read, dangit) with a pre-law emphasis. She kept writing, as a hobby, she told everybody (especially her dad, who wanted her to have a solid, well-paying job) but focused on classes in constitutional law and international politics. She kept this up until the beginning of her senior year, when one day, neck deep in the law section of the library, she had this thought: I don't want to be a lawyer. I want to be a writer. So she broke the news to her parents and her advisers, who were all dismayed but tried to be understanding (especially her dad), and started to work on applying to M.F.A. programs in creative writing. Cynthia was lucky enough to get on the wait list of Boise State University.

At Boise State, Cynthia was determined to become a "serious writer," to the point where she cut up pictures of her favorite literary authors (Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, Jane Smiley, Harper Lee, Tobias Wolff, Andre Dubus, Rick Bass, Joyce Carol Oates and many others) and taped them to the edges of her computer screen, so that she'd be reminded of greatness every time she sat down to write. No pressure or anything. It was in Boise that Cynthia fell head over heels in love with literary fiction, which she wrote exclusively for the next nine years, and with teaching. Just when she thought she was finally figuring out how to be a writer, she got kicked out (okay, not kicked out, she graduated with an M.F.A. in fiction writing). She wanted to keep studying, so she applied for Ph.D.s around the country, settling eventually on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In Nebraska, three hugely important things happened: Cynthia met her future husband, the writer and poet John Struloeff, she published her first short story, which she submitted to try to impress John Struloeff, and she connected with her agent.

Fast forward five years. Cynthia and John have married, graduated with their Ph.D.s, and had a son named Will. John landed a fantastic job as the director of the Creative Writing department at Pepperdine University, where Cynthia also had the pleasure of teaching one or two classes a semester. She has settled into "real life," but something is missing: writing. She's just not feeling it. This goes on for a couple years until one fateful night, the night that Unearthly first started stirring in her mind.

It's been a wild ride since then. . .

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A clever and charming debut February 26, 2011

By Autumn

Format:Hardcover

When I first saw this book pop up on "similar interesting titles you may like" I was mildly intrigued - at least enough to put it on my 2011 "Books to keep an eye out for" but I wasn't necessarily anxiously chomping at the bit.

I sort of hate having expectations about a book before I've read it, but, in some genres it's hard_not_to be a little jaded these days. When I saw the title I automatically thought of Fallen, Hush Hush, and Halo (all recent YA paranormal/fantasy/angel books...as you're probably well aware of). All of those (in my opinion) are well written and vary from plot enough to keep the reader excited and enthralled in the different takes on the angels, fallen or otherwise.

My blabbering aside, "Unearthly" is a charmingly clever new take in the YA fantasy genre about angels. Don't pick it up and automatically compare it to recent angel-based books.

Clara is only part angel, but it's enough to make her a blip on the screen for dark, fallen angels to target and take out. She has a task to complete, as all angels do at some point in their lives. It's this task that moves them to a new town. Her mother is a higher percentage angel-blood and completed her task years ago in her long (but not quite "immortal") life. Clara knows little about her mom's task, as she won't talk about it much, and is struggling to decipher dreams and visions that leave her half-guessing at her choices.

Throw in an angel her age that she makes friends with, some nearly-fluorescent orange hair, smoldering guys, dangerous fallen angels, learning how to fly, and a task that_has_to be completed ("or else") and you've got Unearthly.

It's plenty witty and humorous in parts and I think it relates to teens spectacularly, angelic or not. (Adults will enjoy this, too.)

It's definitely worth the buy. Stick it on the shelf after you're done and leave a slot next to it for book number two to occupy (hopefully sooner than later)!

41 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book for Angel fans December 4, 2010

By S. Power TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

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

Unearthly follows Clara, a teenage angel, as she moves to Wyoming to find her Angelic purpose, rescuing a popular boy named Christian. Clara's friends consist of another teenage angel named Angela whose research has given her more knowledge on their kind than Clara's mother has and Wendy whose brother Tucker becomes very important in Clara's life.

I greatly enjoyed this newcomer in the YA paranormal romance Genre. The mystery and mythology was well thought out and interesting. Clara's mother is half blood angel making her only a quarter blood. The romance was surprising and healthy (as opposed to the obsessive relationships that are commonplace in YA) and the mountain setting made for a beautiful backdrop. The ending was final enough to be satisfying but the mythology and mystery leaves the reader excited for the next book in the trilogy.

Appropriateness: The heroine is the type of girl that you would like your daughters to be strong, smart and confident. There is one short scene involving teenage drinking at a party (Clara accepts a mixed drink at a party but does not get drunk) and there is no sexual content outside kissing or any mentions of drug use and the relationships are normal and healthy. The book is appropriate for the entire YA audience.

This book will be enjoyed by readers who enjoyed Halo, Hush, Hush and Fallen

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful February 12, 2012

By brandileigh2003

Format:Paperback

Unearthly is a delightful read, focusing on Nephilim, or as they prefer in this book angel-blood. The writing is paced wonderfully and the story gripped me right away. Cynthia has created likable and easy to relate with characters, that I was emotionally invested in.

Clara, the main character, is a great narrator- I could easily understand where she was coming from with her actions and emotions. I liked that she wasn't fully informed on the whole angel world, and that I got to learn with her, and that I was questioning everything just like her. I was able to relate with her- her insecurities, fears and doubts. She isn't a perfect character and I love her for that- I can see growth in her, and I feel more connected to her through her weaknesses. Not that she is a doormat- she has some fiest in her, which is commendable. She has to face some hard situations- choosing between love and destiny.

Her friends, Angela and Wendy are fantastic- I would take them as my besties in an instant. They are funny, supportive, and they both have their own personalities. They both help Clara to grow in different but important ways. Wendy also pushes her brother, and Clara's love interest to her, and helps it to develop.

There is a love triangle, which is very well written. One is her love, and one she has a crush on to begin with but it seems that he is her destiny. I am firmly on team Tucker, but I can see the appeal of Christian as well. I like that Tucker and Clara's relationship grows through friendship first, unlike with Christian, even though she sees him in visions, it seems to be an automatic thing, built more from physical attraction. It is hard to judge there though, because Clara does have a bigger purpose- and she doesn't know all the details, even at the end.

The end is a cliff-hanger but it is not the worst I have encountered. We get some closure and the main theme of the book has happened, even though not fully resolved.

Overall- I really liked this book and would recommend to pick it up when it releases or as you have a chance.
Review from Blkosiner's Book Blog