Karyn Henley

At sixteen, Melaia is living a happy life, though she has no family except for the other priestesses living in the temple. Then suddenly her world is turned upside down. She is thrown into a world of angels and magic and must try to learn who is an ally and who is an enemy before it’s too late. Throw in a little teen love angst (not enough to take over the book) and you have a decent story.

There are only a few negatives to this book, and they’re minor.

The story is only told from Melaia’s point of view, so we’re kept in the dark about the other character’s motives and feelings. This is pretty typical, and I’m reading several paranormal series right now and they all use the first person narration, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m just impatient and want to know what’s going on elsewhere.

There are almost too many characters introduced in this first book. I have to wonder if the author was trying to get everyone in at the beginning or if there will be even more people and creatures coming as the series progresses. I’ll keep reading the series, because I did enjoy it, but even right after finishing the book, I couldn’t tell you who half the characters were or which group they belonged to.

I did enjoy the plot, though, and the dialogue and story flowed smoothly. This book has a lot of twists that will keep you guessing until the end. I’m looking forward to the second book.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All opinions are my own.
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Initially I wasn't certain how to feel about BREATH OF ANGEL. I originally became interested because I thought it was straight up fantasy. When I began reading it I realized it was far more rooted in Christian religiosity then I first thought. Which is fine, I read Christian centered fiction often enough, but it threw me for a loop.

However the story engages you with the world itself. Melaia is a little hard to feel riveted by, she's very mindful of her actions and what is and is not proper and is sometimes a little too worried about how others think of her. In a book landscape littered with teenagers who aren't at all very responsible or who act recklessly with little thought of the consequences Melaia stands out. She's careful, even when she acts rashly. Though naive and rather sheltered initially, she's curious and a quick learner. She wants to know, wants to find out and despite the dangers is eager to embark on a different path in her life to fill that yearning.

What I found most enjoyable was the interplay between the 'myths' and 'truth' Melaia grew up with, sang songs about and told stories about. I wouldn't say she's the most open minded person in the world, but she at least doesn't close off from the possibility. She accepts that what she may have learned isn't necessarily the whole truth and eventually accepts her role in the War.

The thing is the book lags on more often than not. Not so much that it gets boring, but becomes mired down in the facts and trying to incorporate a more acceptable version of Angels. Admittedly a lot of stories take a liberal view when it comes to Angels and aren't necessarily any where near what you'd learn about in Sunday School, but I find it irksome at times I felt as if Henley was preaching about them to the reader. As for being mired down, this is a world building saturated novel. For the amount of information we learn you'd think this was twice the length it was. It gets to be overwhelming at times and some of the secondary characters suffer for it as they don't become individuals, but devices for the plot to trot out at times.

This is a different novel however and should appeal to fans of fantasy or paranormal. Henley's ideas are intriguing and thought-provoking, hopefully with the second novel she's able to tighten things a bit more.… (more)