18-year-old Alexandra Adornetto’s novel Halo follows three angels as they descend from heaven to a small coastal town to combat the Dark Forces that are rapidly spreading across Earth. There’s the archangel Gabriel, the healer Ivy, and Bethany, the youngest and most human. But when Bethany falls in love with a human boy…well, that is just the beginning of these angels’ escapades.
This novel delivers everything you would expect a teenage supernatural romance story to have — there is the kind-hearted supernatural being who falls in love with the honorable human (even though she knows it is forbidden), the inevitable reveal of the supernatural being’s true nature to the human, followed by their loving acceptance of each other. Then some minor struggles while telling the friends/family that rules have been broken and adjusting to life with a supernatural being. Then, of course, the real villain comes to town, and throws the burgeoning relationship into a tailspin. Will our plucky supernatural heroine and her good-souled human triumph over evil? You’ll have to read it to find out.
The book is meant as the first part in a planned trilogy, and I sincerely hope that there is more character and plot development in further installations. Much of this book is filled with descriptive scenery (and while semi-justifiable as part of putting you into the mindset of a newborn angel, to me was overkill.) When you aren’t reading page after page of scenery, the characters and the plot line is a little thin — for instance, while the angels were sent to combat Dark Forces (and they do encounter one) it seems to me that “Our Father” might have put his archangel Gabriel to better use than as a music teacher so good-looking every high-school girl in a ten mile radius swoons…Gabriel (and Ivy) really only use their angel-ness once in the entire story. It seems ill-planned–wouldn’t one of God’s greatest warriors be of more use than acting essentially as a babysitter for a newbie in a small town?
On a side note, I did find it interesting that Adornetto chose to keep her angel as a full angel –not a fallen one–since in most angel-falls-for-human-lore, the angel must fall from grace to be with his/her beloved.
This novel will appeal to teenage girls (or grown-up ones) who are fans of Twilight–there are many parallels between the stories. If you enjoy the teenage supernatural romance genre, you will probably enjoy this book.
- Posted by Erin