Published: 25th January 2014
Publisher: Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing
Pages: 277
Format: ebook
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal
★ ★ – 2 Stars
Dawn Huntington wants what every girl wants, a sweet sixteen birthday party with her friends, family, and some hot boys, but fate has other plans. On the night of Dawn’s sixteenth birthday, she witnesses a crime she can’t turn her back on, and the decisions she makes that night will change her life forever.
Never having been confronted with such violence, Dawn turns to a mysterious and beautiful boy named Angelo, only she can’t remember what happens that night. To make things more complicated, Dawn is in a relationship with Angelo’s complete opposite, Nate. Dawn doesn’t want to hurt Nate, yet she can’t shake her feelings for Angelo, even when she can’t help but feel he’s hiding something from her, and it could be something dark. Why is Angelo acting so weird around Bonita? Are they together? Are they really only friends?
Angelo may be trouble, but Dawn can’t ignore her feelings for him. Dawn is at a crossroads. Should she choose love? Or friendship? Once Dawn finally finds the courage to choose, she thinks the drama is over. But Dawn wasn’t expecting her choices to have such dire consequences.
Do you believe in love at first sight? But can one trust someone blindly? Can love overcome all the obstacles?
Is friendship just the beginning of love?
Note: I was provided with a copy of this book for review.
Reviewing a book that a lot of people really like but you don’t is always hard. I didn’t dislike it, it just didn’t come across as amazing as everyone is saying it was, not for me anyway. The story was not the problem exactly, there is a story to follow but it felt choppy, something was definitely missing. At the risk of spoilers, I thought there really needed to be more information provided about Angelo; about his situation, what were the rules were, why he was there. It was a completely new part of the story that gets minimal attention. And other aspects get attention that makes it feel like they are going to become bigger parts of the story but they end up being minor.
For most of the book I felt the story seemed a bit flat, characters were one dimensional and even though da Silva has tried to give them some depth and back story it didn’t feel like enough. Dawn’s family come across as the most ideal and perfect family, and other characters were nice but I didn’t have any real connection to them. In addition, the romance and affection I think da Silva was trying to build between Angelo and Dawn didn’t come across as such. Angelo’s doting affections and romanticisms are cringe worthy and feel more obsessive and stalkerish than love, and Dawn’s insta-love and literal three day romance is a lot to deal with.
Even bearing in mind that Dawn’s sixteen and a lot can be excused in her actions, there are a few things you have to find unbelievable; the fact she is stalked and doesn’t tell her parents, harassed for weeks on the phone and doesn’t tell anyone, or even simple things like when her dog goes missing and she doesn’t tell anyone.
I could feel there was a story under the surface but it just wasn’t coming through as strongly as it could have. I had no interest in the love triangle and with no connection to the characters I wasn’t fussed who was chosen. It took the majority of the story before it felt interesting, and even then it was more mild curiosity than any real pull to see what was going to happen. We weren’t given enough detail to understand what was happening and without that it was hard to become too invested. I’m wary to say it was predictable because I’m not sure whether my own knowledge of paranormal tropes made it seem that way, though this didn’t take anything away from the story.
The blurb certainly makes the story seem darker than what it actually is, not that some events in the novel aren’t awful, but there are a few things that just leave it lacking, extra detail that could have built up the story to make it less flat and with less holes that need filling. Too much was left unanswered and never readdressed that I felt was a problem. I know a few things will be answered in the sequel, but there were other things that needed answering in the first book.
You can purchase Angels Dawn via the following
All Your Bits and Pieces Needs
About Komali:
Komali da Silva was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She started writing as a teenager but never took it seriously because her love for basketball and track and field sports was much stronger. At the age of seventeen she moved to Switzerland. Komali has a degree in Insurance but is dreaming of one day owning her own book cafe.
She adores reading and some of her favorite authors include Lauren Kate, Cassandra Clare, Becca Fitzpatrick, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Cecelia Ahern, J.K. Rowling and Richelle Mead. She started immortalizing her own words on paper in June 2012. Komali, her husband and their daughter Amalia now live in Switzerland, where they eat a lot of chocolate and freeze during the winter.
Komali could live on love and happiness if life lets her do so. She laughs a lot and has different smiles for all her moods.
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Do you believe in Fate? Would you recognize it if it was happening to you? Then you’ll want to meet Toronto PR guru Claire Chandler. She grew up convinced greatness awaited her. Why else had she survived a series of bizarre childhood tragedies? Yet she doesn’t see what’s coming when she journeys north on a long weekend in August to Bay Harbour, a post-card pretty tourist town on the edge of Canada’s popular Georgian Bay vacationlands. She thinks she’s there to reconnect with a former mentor. But Chandler’s chilling affinity for the “unnatural and unexplained”, a macabre “gift” that once made her a freak of nature to classmates, will make her a force of Nature. Shadowed by a ghostly white wolf and haunted by the victims of a long-dead killer, she’ll discover a startling new ending to a fifty year-old mystery. She’ll also discover romance with Tom Katz, an affable, treasure-hunting bush pilot with a reputation for living up to his name. They’re an unlikely pair and Chandler thinks it’s just a summer fling. Instead, a series of white-knuckle adventures will bring them to a time, a place and a choice that will forever link their lives. 
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