Strange Angels by Lili St Crow

Strange Angels by Lili St Crow
Buy Strange Angels by Lili St Crow at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Loralei Haylock
Summary: An excellent supernatural thriller. Fast paced, intense and scary, with a dash of romance. Hopefully the start of a great series.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 304	Date: September 2009
Publisher: Quercus Publishing plc
ISBN: 978-1849161251
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Most teenagers think their lives are over when their crush rejects them, they get an ugly zit on their foreheads, or their parents do something unspeakably embarrassing in public. But that's the normal world. Dru lives in The Real World – a world populated by ghosts, suckers, werwulfen and zombies, and when her Dad doesn't come home from a hunt she knows she's got things far worse to worry about than boys and zits.

But Dru hasn't been in town long, and her only ally is Goth Boy, Graves, fellow reject at school. She doesn't want to be on her own, facing the terrifying things that go bump in the night, but if she drags Graves into her mess it will get him killed, or worse.

Something is after Dru, something unimaginably evil, and it will take all her training to survive from night to night. She has the lessons her father taught her, and the 'Touch', inherited from her grandmother – a kind of instinct that lets her know when danger is at hand. The Touch is getting stronger every day, but will it be enough to see her through?

In Strange Angels Lilith Saintcrow turns her talent for creating badass heroines to the teenage market. According to the thank-yous, Dru's story almost didn't get written. I for one am very glad it did. I enjoyed Hunter's Prayer, one of Saintcrow's adult novels, but I think this one is very much better.

Unfortunately the blurb doesn't really do it justice. Keen to attract the insatiable teen supernatural romance market, it closes with Can she stay alive long enough to fall for one – or both – of the guys hungry for her affection? Girls reading this may be disappointed to find this isn't a love triangle parading as a supernatural thriller. It actually is a supernatural thriller. A very good one.

That's not to say that there isn't a bit of romance. Saintcrow perfectly captures that awkward teenage attraction, and Dru is never short on observations about how Graves is going to be a real looker in a couple of years. The second boy, Cristophe, doesn't turn up until the second half of the novel, which I imagine will again annoy those looking for love triangles, but he is a compelling (and attractive) character who will definitely fit well into the 'love rival' role later on.

I get the feeling the blurb refers to the series as a whole, as there is certainly potential for things to get romantically complicated, but like a good first book in a series, Strange Angels is more concerned with building the characters and establishing the basis on which romantic relationships can be built.

If you prefer supernatural thrillers with a side of romance, as opposed to romance with a side of supernatural thrillers, Strange Angels is the perfect book for you. Fast paced, intense, and genuinely quite scary, it's the exciting start to what will hopefully prove to be an excellent series.

My thanks to the publishers for sending a copy.

There are a million different teen supernatural series out at the moment. Bookbag recommends Rachel Caine (Morganville Vampires), Kelley Armstrong (Darkest Powers) and for a stand alone book, readers might enjoy You Are So Undead To Me by Stacey Jay.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Strange Angels by Lili St Crow at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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