Unearthly (Unearthly #1)

i liked this book but i think it is a little bit cliche

Reader reviewed by Nicole Block



     I really loved this book; pretty much everything about it I loved. I
loved Clara and her family, and I loved both of the boys and her
friends and the setting and the angel part. First, I had always thought
that Wyoming was miles and miles of corn and sheep and grass. Well, was I
wrong. In the book Clara's family moves there, and I could just see the
mist in the mountains and the clear river in the summer that they jump
into. I actually want to visit Wyoming sometime.

    And the love triangle. Oh Tucker, oh Christian I love you both. It's
impossible for me to choose one. Actually it isn't, I would go with
Christian. But you don't know what I'm talking about because you
probably haven't read it! Anyway, and I also love both of Clara's new
friends Wendy and Angela. I love that they're total opposites yet
they're both so awesome. Angela's so sassy! Haha.

    I've read a lot of paranormal romances where the creature is an
angel, (Hush, Hush, Fallen, Crescendo, etc.) but this book portrayed
them so differently than the other books, which is amazing because
that's like trying to create a unique type of vampire for a book. It's
just so hard because everything's already been done! I really liked how
the background of the angels didn't get all bible-y, because I'm just
not really into that.

    Another thing that I really liked was that I never saw anything
coming. Usually I'm really good at predicting what will happen, and I
did a little in this book, but only like a paragraph before it happened,
so I liked that I could be so surprised. The ending especially. Didn't
see that comin'!

    I really think you should read this, even if you're to really into
the whole angel scene. I'm on one of those book rolls right now where
I've been reading so many good books and I have so many awesome ones
with me to look forward to reading in the next couple of weeks. When
this stops, I'm going to be really bummed.

P.S. You know me, I can't help myself if the cover is pretty. The cover
is even better in real life because it's got like a shimmer or shine to
it. It's really cool.

-

I’ve been on a bit of a fallen angel kick lately with the Hush, Hush saga and now this. I just heard about this book not to long ago and I thought it sounded good, I added it to my TBR but there was no rush. Then I got a kindle. YAY! And this book was only 99 cents so of course I had to by it. Once I started reading it was love at first page. This book was absolutely perfect! There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t like about it.

Lets talk about the amazing characters that make up this book:

-Clara was a great main character! Usually the main character will grate on my nerves at one point or another throughout a story but not Clara. She didn’t make a single decision I didn’t agree with and love her for. There were a few instances where she had to make some huge and I mean HUGE decisions and this is normally where the character does something that makes you want to scream or slap them but Clara surprised me every time by making the decisions I was hoping she would.

-Christian is perfect. He’s sweet, funny, extremely handsome, the guy every girl at Jackson Hole High is in love with. Usually the good-looking popular guy turns out to be a jerk in the end, but not Christian he truly is a great guy.

-But then there’s Tucker… Tucker stole the show and my heart the minute he walked into the school cafeteria and called Clara “Carrots.” Tucker is a true Wyoming cowboy and outdoorsman. Skiing, hiking, fishing, white water rafting, horseback riding. There’s nothing he can’t do.

- Angela is one of Clara’s best friends. At first I was skeptical of Angela. I wasn’t sure if I trusted her or not but she’s always there when Clara needs her and proves herself to be a really great friend.

I knew there was a second book when I went into this and was expecting a cliffhanger ending but don’t worry there are none of those here. The ending is satisfying in itself but also leaves enough open that I’m itching to start the next book, Hallowed.

When I was researching the book, sequel, and author after I had finished, I stumbled across a blog post where the author announced that the CW is working on writing a script in hopes of making Unearthly into a TV series. Ahhhh! I got so excited when I read this. I can’t wait to see who they cast! =)

I really enjoyed this story, from the beautiful writing to the amazing love triangle (a hard sell for me!), to the gorgeous scenery. UNEARTHLY was a solid win for me. I loved all the characters and wanted to know more about their lives. I can't wait for the sequel!

Let me just start by saying that I got so much more from this book than I expected. I've been starting to lose faith in angel books lately (pun unintended). It's always about how they're fallen but they want to be good and a war between good and evil and yadda yadda yadda. While there was a little of that in Unearthly, it didn't dominate the story line. And I love the bit about the wings, but I shan't spoil that for you.

And by golly, the descriptions! I, for one, hate the country and will proudly proclaim myself a city girl. The descriptions of Jackson Hole had me wanting to pack up and go enjoy the beauty of it all on the spot though. I have a feeling the next time I find myself in somewhere like Montana or the like I'll take a second look at my surroundings instead of moaning and groaning for a city.

To sum up, this book was fantastic. I was flipping pages like no other hungry for what was to come. It also kept me guessing a bit, surprising me with thing I didn't see coming. My one negative thing was synopsis made it seem as if Clara was somewhat of a bad-girl which I didn't get from her. That wasn't part of the actual book though, so it doesn't factor in much.

I picked up “Unearthly” for the simple fact that Angels seemed to be an ongoing theme and I wanted to see what all the hub-bub was about. What better book series could I choose than one that toes the line between fantasy and religion. To be perfectly honest, I am not into books with a highly religious air to them that so many angel books can have. When I got into “Unearthly” it was with a resonated sigh and a thought process that was more so to the theme of “Well… I better be prepared for a healthy dose of the bible, the devil, and especially God.” This book was not what I expected at all.

Yes, God is mentioned. Yes, there are mentions of heaven, hell, God’s divine purpose, and, of course, angels. There is not however an overdose of it. It was just enough to show it was a book about angels without religion being thrust upon the readers.

I did not fall in love with Clara from the first pages of the book as some fictional characters I have read before. She seemed a little too uptight in the beginning. That how she was meant to feel, I surmise. As I read on and started watching Clara deviate slightly from her all-mighty purpose and start following her heart more and more, she started to grow on me. I watched her awkwardness that I always find so endearing in characters grow into a certainty and strength I wouldn’t have thought she would have been capable of early into the story.

When the love triangle started I groaned. I was so sick of all the “I love you! No… wait… I love you! No, I’m sorry I love…” blah blah blah. Sometimes love triangles to me are just too forced and uncomfortable. This love triangle was not as well developed as I would have thought. It was blatantly clear that Clara cared for one more than the other so her struggle wasn’t as believable as it could have been. At least not to me. Others may have found it completely believable and the stuff of dreams. I am a tough critic.

With any love triangle I have to give my siding of course. My choice is a bit bias I must confess. I am a southern girl and have grown up knowing country boys rather well. So, without a doubt when presented with a pretty boy jock or a down-to-earth country boy, it’s no surprise my heart skipped a beat when Tucker came onto the scene. He is so different from Clara that it is an interesting match. Throughout the book I didn’t know if Clara and Tucker were a good match or if I just found Tucker completely swoon-worthy for myself.

“Unearthly” is a story of a girl with angel-blood coursing through her veins who was taught to always follow her God given purpose that presents itself in visions. While realizing her visions of her purpose in bits and pieces she struggles with doing what is expected of her and what her heart tells her to. It really speaks to reality. Who hasn’t had to struggle with something they are supposed to do or something they feel is right for them personally? It is that connection that makes Clara’s struggle between head and heart so touching. This book gripped me from the very beginning and stuck with me. I hadn’t even reached the middle of the book before I was searching for the next installment feverishly. If you never feel the need to read a book on angels, read this series at least.

Review Posted on: http://www.ladybugliterature.blogspot.com

Reader reviewed by EGZ

Praise: 
Unearthly is very well written, the charter, Clara is very
understandable for young girls. The plot is followable and a good summer
read.



Critique:
The book only really had one plot, there were no major barriers or
extra problems added for the character to overcome before the main goal.

I have been wary of the angel genre of YA fiction for a variety of reasons. For one, I find many interpretations of angels to be rather lame. Weak, pretty, feathery... not much else. It's sort of noxious. UNEARTHLY was an excellent antidote to my hesitations. The first in an unfinished trilogy, it stands enough alone as a story to have you leaning in for more in book two. There are so many characters with so much potential, I feel like the series could be written by multiple points of view.

Clara tells this story, though. A quarter angel, her mother uproots her and her brother from their home in California to move to the mountains of Wyoming all because Clara's visions have indicated that that's where her purpose lies. Each angel is born into a purpose, and they must do everything in their power to complete it to the best of their abilities.

What follows is a familiar new-girl-in-a-small-high-school story with the addition of some angel wings, visions of a fast approaching if slightly vague destiny, and a perfectly perfect love triangle. Not an annoying love triangle, which is how many of them seem, but perfectly perfect. In every way.

Paranormal romance has never been my genre. I don’t care for vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, ghosts, demons or mythological figures. However, I’ve decided that 2012 is the year I step out of my comfort zone, so I decided to give an angel book a try. Plus, Unearthly was a 99 cent ebook.

Surprisingly, Unearthly was actually a very good book.The first thing that stood out to me was Hand’s writing; it was crisp and clean and effective. I was honestly expecting something less mature, less precise.

The main characters were excellent. Hand obviously worked hard to make the people in this book realistic, even though Clara isn’t a “normal” girl. Clara’s family was interesting and supportive, her friends Wendy and Angela were neither perfect nor terrible. One of the love interests was a likeable, down-to-earth guy, while the other I’m still a bit iffy on.
I also thought the actual “angel” aspect was handled well. It’s a tough topic, because angels, by necessity, bring a Christian element into a story intended for secular audiences. In order to “secularize” the Biblical concept of angels and angel-bloods, Hand somewhat had to tone things down. Granted, my views of Christianity and religion are different than most of Unearthly’s intended audience, so I imagine that Hand wished to avoid offending her readers. As it was, I was impressed by the way this author approached the subject.

From what I’ve read, some readers didn’t like the way this book wasn’t very action-intesive. Mostly, it was a build-up to the major conflict that’s going to take center stage in the second book. I didn’t actually mind that this book was mostly exposition, as it gave Hand a lot of time to develop characters, setting, and motivation, something that is greatly under-done in YA fiction.

From what I’ve read on the back of book covers, paranormal romance generally takes place in a high school setting. Now, I haven’t read many high school books, but if the high schools in those books are represented in the same way that Hand represented Jackson Hole High, we’re going to have an issue.To begin with, I did some research on Jackson Hole High—that’s the nice thing about picking a real school; I can fact-check you. While there is a class in aerodynamics, there is no British History class (which was a center-point of the story). Pictures of the exterior and interior show the school to be like a “typical” high school, not at all the ski resort/art museum Hand describes. Obviously, more research would have been good.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again: high school is not like Mean Girls. I’m not saying it’s rainbows and unicorns—everyone’s experience is different. But there’s not one “head popular girl” who rules the roost, and there’s not a “popular clique,” at least, not to the extent that media would have us believe. Popular people do talk to the “Invisibles,” and they do get along on occasion (revolutionary thought, right?)

That was my big complaint with this book. Sometimes when I read these books, I wonder if these authors actually remember what high school was like. Maybe they’ve been watching too much Glee?

I’m not saying high school isn’t a bad, unfair world. I’m just saying that you don’t need to blow things way out of proportion in order to portray that.

(Also: this has turned into quite a rant, and I’m sorry. But it’s aggravating when an otherwise good book fails where only a simple fix is needed.)

For my first foray into the world of “angel romance,” I was pleasantly surprised by Unearthly. The story is captivating and the characters well-rounded. Will I go out and actively seek more angel romance? No, not necessarily. But I’m glad I tried it.