464 Pages
From Goodreads: When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul. A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once. While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.
I must say that I am thrilled to see another butt-kicking heroine, YA authors please keep them coming! Ellie has technically been around for a very long time. She has trouble remembering her past lives and her memories seem to be coming back slower than they "usually" do according to Will, her guardian. He is the one who awakens her when she comes of age. I liked learning more about Ellie's past lives, especially when the memories included Will. It seemed that as their current relationship developed Ellie remembered more important memories of Will that totally correlated with whatever was going on at the moment between them two. It added a lot of depth to their story, kind of like a rekindling of sorts. Will is a sweet and totally devoted guy and I was a fan of his right from the start. He didn't act like a creepy stalker or anything, I liked his approach. When Ellie said she didn't remember him I understood that yes she should so I felt bummed for him. I also liked that he didn't coddle her or was an obsessive guardian, he let her fight for herself, only coming to her rescue when necessary. Besides it is her job and he knows it, there is a lot of reaper butt-kicking by the way. The story of how he came to be her guardian is one of the more interesting aspects of this book and it proves to play an important role in their story. I was a bit impatient at times, I sometimes wished Ellie would just remember everything so we can move on, I felt just as frustrated as them when it came down to it. When the ending does come it picks up on both action and drama. It didn't have a major cliffhanger (thank goodness) but it did leave me with a what's going to happen now? thought. I really like the way this trilogy started and have the feeling the next two are going to be great. While this book had some drama and conflict, it can only escalate for them two. I'm excited to see where the story will go, especially now that we don't have to wait for Ellie to learn about who she is and whatnot. I would really like to learn more about Will and his story and I would also like to know what in the world is Ellie's dad's problem, he is seriously a jerk to her throughout the novel. Needless to say, I am looking forward to book #2.
I give this book 4 stars!
The idea of past lives makes me think of Melissa de la Cruz's Blue Bloods series - I will definitely be checking this book out ASAP!! :)
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