A Shimmer of Angels - Review & Giveaway

	Title A Shimmer of Angels    Author Lisa M. Basso    Genre YA Fantasy    Publisher Month9books    Publication Date January 29th, 2013    How I Got This Book Netgalley    Hardback 321    Stand alone or series Angel Sight #1      My Average 15 pg/day      Reading Difficulty 2 (on a scale of 1-5 5 = dictionary vernacular)
A winged fight for the Schizophrenic

Sixteen-year-old Rayna sees angels, and has the medication and weekly therapy sessions to prove it. Now, in remission, Rayna starts fresh at a new school, lands a new job, and desperately tries for normalcy. She ignores signs that she may be slipping into the world she has tried so hard to climb out of. But these days, it’s more than just hallucinations that keep Rayna up at night. Students are dying, and she may be the only one who can stop it. Can she keep her job, her sanity, and her friends from dying at the hands of angels she can't admit to seeing?


Woohoo!:
Holy catchphrase Batman, that cover! As I have said in the past, I am a cover snob. If it's pretty, sparkle, wow's me, I will pick it up and read the blurb. This book was no exception.

I love sarcastic humor, and there is certainly an abundance of it in this novel. I found myself highlighting and sharing several quotes.

My heartstrings were constantly tugged while reading this novel. It's a fresh breath of air to actually feel something for a character, and the secondary characters.My heart broke several times while reading this novel though I didn't cry (I rarely do) I wanted to punch Ray's family in the face. I also wanted to pluck Cam's feathers... because I imagine punching him in the face wouldn't do anything.

Lastly, the villain was superior in this novel. It's always exciting when the villain is someone/something you can't see. It's lurking in the shadows or scratching on the inside of your skull. An unstoppable force that this ordinary, or at least schizophrenic, girl is supposed to help stop.


Meeh:
I will agree with some of the reviews out there saying that there are some unrealistic scenes. It's fantasy, so we expect to see strange things. What people are talking about is the written design of the SS Crazy. We don't treat mental patients the way Basso portrays it. Maybe if we stepped back a few decades or if the main character was in the looney been because of attempted suicide, or the possibility of it anyway. For me, that screwy tidbit didn't falter the flow of the book. I really didn't stop to think about it until after I read the book.

I'm also not sure about the ending. First off, it was just a little too long. It could have ended five pages earlier. There was a little too much close-up for my taste. I like for my novels to end with a surprise. Something to drag me back into the next novel (ie freaking Robert Jordon's Wheel of Time series. Just when I think I'm going to give up on the series, he ends a book with a twist and I'm sucked back in.) Also, the plausibility of Ray's new home is a little sketchy to me. I won't go into details, for fear of spoiling the novel.

Though I haven't read an enormous amount of angel novels, the few I have remind me of this novel. It's not an uncommon idea, and maybe that's why Basso is agent-less at this time. Not because of her writing skills, but because all the agents already have a novel they're pushing that's like this one.

I guess everyone is into the idea of falling in love with an angel, though I don't see the point if they're supposed to be hard and cold. That's why I'm team Kade, screw Cam. Kade can choose to love. It was actually hinted that he did, and that's why he fell. A little strange that he loved Ray's mother, but I can get past that.



All in all, I loved reading this novel. The blossoming romance made my heart skitter. I can't wait to see what happens next now that Ray has pissed off some pretty high up there people, or down low people... and her new sparkly edition also intrigues me. I have so many questions about them.

Rating: A

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About the Author

Lisa M. Basso

She was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She is a lover of books, video games, animals, and baking (not baking with animals though). As a child she would crawl into worlds of her own creation and get lost for hours. Her love for YA fiction started with a simple school reading assignment: S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. When not reading or writing she can usually be found at home with The Best Boyfriend that Ever Lived ™ and her two darling (and sometimes evil) cats, Kitties A and B. A SHIMMER OF ANGELS is her first novel.She is currently agent-less, for all of you agents out there.

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