Angel Eyes

Angel Eyes 

by Shannon Dittemore

   Angel Eyes is about a ballerina- Brielle- who moves back to her hometown after the death of a friend. It is here that she meets Jake- the new kid with mysterious powers. Tradegy is in the past, and destiny is in the future. Both of them are drawn to each other and brought into a struggle between demonic forces and celestial powers.
   Angel Eyes is kind of like a cross between Twilight- the woods, the cold, the small town high school and mis-placed characters who don't melt into the social scene- and the Immortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare- there are demons. Only this book is Christian fiction.
  Brielle is a pretty likable character, as well as a believable teenager. Some authors seem to have trouble getting the "lingo" (and that's the first sign that they aren't going to actually sound like a teenager....they use words like "Lingo") of a teen and there characters are annoying and either too young or too old for their age. But Shannon Dittemore made a very believable, eighteen year old girl.
   Jake is easy to like well, what with his witty comebacks and protective appeal. He manages to be mysterious without coming off as a total jerk, which is what most authors do to make you interested in their male characters. Jake was actually nice and attractive at the same time, which was refreshing.
   The different tenses between character was a little confusing.  Not only would the chapters switch from Brielle to Dominic( the demon) or Canaan(the angel), but suddenly it would be third person (as in: Dominic flew, Dominic saw) from first person( I saw, I cried). This made the chapters where Brielle wasn't "narrator" very confusing and slow-moving.
   The ending is just- wow. It is happy, but suddenly all these questions are raised and you can just see the second book's plot developing. Shannon Dittemore did a really good job of making you want to read the sequel- Broken Wings which comes out in early 2013.
   So altogether I really liked the book. It was different- not many books deal with angels and demons in a truly biblical way. It was funny and kept me reading.