Book Review: Angel Fever by L.A. Weatherly.

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Product details:
Publisher: Usborne.
Paperback, 512 pages.
Release date: August 1st 2013.
Rating: 3½ out of 5.
Ages: 14+
Series: Angel #3.
Other Books in Series: Angel, Angel Fire.
Overall Series Rating: 4 out of 5.
Source: Purchased.

In the devastated remains of the world, millions of people live in "refugee" camps provided by the angels who have all but enslaved humanity. As this angelic stranglehold tightens, Willow and Alex are recruiting and training new Angel Killers while struggling to hold ground on the celestial battlefield. But Willow continues to have feelings for Seb, and her love and resolve are tested as a shattering revelation sends Alex on a separate journey. Now that the final battle versus the angels is about to begin-and the fate of the world hangs in the balance-each of them must face the consequences of their own choices. Will love endure? Will the human race survive?

 Please note: This is a review of a final-in-a-series book. This review may contain spoilers for  previous books in the series.

In a world ravaged to the point of ruin by angels, Alex, Willow and their ever-dwindling yet committed band of Angel Killers must fight for survival in Angel Fever, the third and final installment in L.A. Weatherly’s ever-popular Angel series, where the angels are rotten to the core and Alex Kylar is always the hottest guy on the block.

Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog probably knows by now that I have a whole lot of love for L.A. Weatherly’s Angel series. The first book, Angel, is an all time favourite of mine; imaginative and inventive, Angel contains characters to fall in love with and a romance to die for. Also, the romance, between Angel Killer Alex, and half-angel Willow, is all kinds of dangerous and forbidden, which makes it a whole lot of fun for readers. Add to that a very fun road trip infused with a sense of impending doom and you’ve got an all round great read. Same goes for the second book in the series, Angel Fire, which saw the introduction of half-angel Seb, who has been in love with Willow for most of his life, even though he’s never met her. Yes, the introduction of a pesky love triangle didn’t exactly fill me with joy, but I started my reading of Angel Fever knowing that at least the love triangle had been resolved* and that Willow was now free to have lots of fun times with Alex while also defeating the angels. Oh, yes, I was sure I’d be in for an exciting time with this book.

Um….Not quite.

Now, I’m not saying that Angel Fever is a bad book – it’s not, and my rating reflects that. But, honestly, I have to say that this book didn’t wow me like the first two books in the series. And here’s why:

The Pacing:

The Angel series has always been pretty fast-paced and filled with plot twists. At over seven-hundred pages, Angel Fire was pretty much a tome in YA terms, but I whizzed through that one in a day, so fascinated by the storyline was I. Here, though, well, I found that the story dragged. A lot. Part of the problem with this book is that the Angel Killers don’t really move from their base.  I mean, I know they have to train and prepare for angel attacks and all of that, but this also means that the first hundred or so pages of the book are really, really slow moving. Where once there was non-stop action, now there is, well, not a whole lot to talk about. The first third of Angel Fever was a bit of a slog for me, and boy, did it drag.

The Villain.  

That’s not to say that Angel Fever doesn’t pick up: it does. The final act is pretty awesome and I really enjoyed how everything was resolved. Alex and Willow’s main objective, of course, is saving mankind from the angels and taking down their arch-enemy and Willow’s dad, the angel Raziel. Now, for me, Raziel has always been an irksome character: in that I find him pretty one-dimensional and also because I just cannot take him seriously. He’s a cartoon villain, and always has been. However, in the previous books in the series this didn’t really bother me, as there was always so much other good stuff going on. Here, though, Raziel’s chapters really annoyed me. I also found the changes-in-narrative very disorienting here, and that’s never happened to me before in this series. I guess maybe because I wasn’t ever fully invested in the story here, I started noticing little annoyances that I glossed over in the other books.

The Love Triangle*

If there’s one thing I will always love about these books, it’s the romance between Alex and Willow – not that it’s all been plain sailing for these two. First of all there was that time when Alex was out to kill Willow, and then there’s Seb. Oh Seb. I know a lot of the fans of this series like Seb a lot – some even prefer him to Alex, but me, I’m not a fan of Seb. Right from the start, Seb has annoyed me. And he annoyed me in this book. Now you might be wondering why I still have such an issue with Seb when Willow chose Alex and the love triangle is done with, right? Only thing is that the love triangle is alive and well. The love triangle has been resurrected. Why, why, why? I don’t know. All I can say is that the love triangle feels very forced here, and honestly, everyone else has totally moved on from this: it’s time for Seb to get over it.

So, I guess you could say I had a couple issues with Angel Fever. Maybe I set my expectations too high for this one, I’m not sure: but I do know that I was hoping for more surprises, more swoon, and an overall a more dramatic conclusion to a series that I’ve loved right from the start.  That said, while Angel Fever takes a while to get going, it is all worth it in the end, and in the meantime there’s always Alex to drool over. Well, maybe…you’ll just have to read Angel Fever to find out who survives the final battle between good and evil. Maybe Seb was right to hang on in there, after all! 

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