Krista Reviews: L.A. Weatherly’s – “Angel Burn”

Angels are all around us: beautiful, awe-inspiring, irresistible. Ordinary mortals yearn to catch a glimpse of one of these stunning beings and thousands flock to The Church of Angels to feel their healing touch.

But what if their potent magnetism isn’t what it seems?
Willow knows she’s different from other girls. And not just because she loves tinkering around with cars.
Willow has a gift. She can look into people’s futures, know their dreams, their hopes and their regrets, just by touching them. But she has no idea where she gets this power from.

Until she meets Alex…
Alex is one of the few who know the truth about angels. He knows Willow’s secret and is on a mission to stop her.
The dark forces within Willow make her dangerous – and irresistible.
In spite of himself, Alex finds he is falling in love with his sworn enemy.

Willow uses her powers to read people’s futures and earn a little money. She is doing a reading on a classmate when she sees the image of an angel feeding. It’s not long before the angel himself is knocking on Willow’s door to see what she is all about. When Alex also shows up in her life, things begin to change fast. She is stuck between two sides, and it’s only thanks to Alex that she lives long enough to find out about herself.

Willow is a strong, independent character. She is intelligent and has a ‘do what needs to be done’ persona, rather than the typical damsel in distress. This mostly comes from having to take care of herself and learning to do things on her own from a young age. The writing keeps a constant pace as Alex and Willow do a lot of travelling and road trips to hide and find answers. They are always cautious of each other as well; Alex was hired to kill Willow but he can sense there is something different about her.

What I loved about this story is the fact that the angels are the villains. They come to Earth to feed on the energy and life force of people; this is something that can be done all at once, or a little at a time, causing different side effects. When they feed off a human, that human believes they have seen an angel and that the church is the true church because they have seen it with their own eyes. So the church grows extremely fast and gains followers with every sighting (or feeding).

The strong lead character of Willow is admirable, and I loved her. The complete blind willingness of people who follow these angels, who are literally feeding off of them, is an intriguing storyline that kept me turning the pages. I really recommend this book. I still find myself thinking about it and I look forward to the rest of the series.