Without Faith by Ashley Lauren Genre: YA Paranormal Romance Publication date: April 5, 2016 Format: I received the book from the author in exchange for an honest review. You can find the book on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Without-Faith-Soulless-Book-1-ebook/dp/B01DK0Q9JM?ie=UTF8&ref_=nav_custrec_signin Book Summary provided by the author: The Veil is growing thin, and War is coming. 17-year-old Michael Stone hunts demons that have crossed through the Veil to obtain a human host. His angelic heritage guarantees him a future spot on the Demon Hunter Council, but Michael has seen too much evil in his line of work and is tired of bearing the weight of his family name. Then, he meets Payton Matthews. Intelligent, strong and able to tell the future, Payton is going to shake up Michael's world. Becoming the first female Demon Hunter Operative has been Payton's life-long dream. The Council finally agrees to give her a shot at taking the Operative Assessment. Payton is shocked to find that her official observer for testing is none other than Pureblood Angel Michael Stone, her teen crush for the past two years! A vision hits Payton during her first in-the-field test. Demons are coming through the Veil at an unprecedented rate with a sinister purpose. They are hunting for a boy. Michael and Payton must rescue him from certain death. The only problem is they don't know who he is or how to find him. Can they find him before the demons do? My Thoughts:
Before I start the review, I just wanted to point out again that I don’t typically read books in the paranormal genre because I get creeped out real easily but since I was asked by the author, I decided to give the genre another try. This is a fresh take on the YA genre. There’s fighting and romance all thrown together in the mix, something that I don’t see very often. The two don’t usually mix well but I believe that the author did a fantastic job with that. The main male character Michael is a Pureblood who feels trapped within his own identity, as it prevents him from doing anything else he wants. As the oldest son in his family of half angels, he’s the one carrying on the bloodline. His namesake is more of a burden than anything else. The demon Hunters Organization was founded before the birth of Christ. One detail that may or may not annoy readers that fact check all the dates and places etc… in books is that the time period the book takes place in isn't very clear. They have all the modern technology of today, but yet continuously talks about events as if they were far in the past. This didn't really bother me but just a warning for those who are bothered. I instantly fell in love with the main female character, Payton. It’s a nice change to see a powerful, confident woman, er… actually girl, take charge and have the determination to go get what she wants, and not just a man. More and more books nowadays deal with the subject about girls being the equal to boys, and they can do everything a guy can do. This book is a spectacular example of that just because of the sexism from another character (I'm not going to say his name because I really don't want to spoil too much.) Payton had her fangirling moments over Michael but caught herself almost immediately. It shows that she has her girlish sides and I actually want to see her let herself slip more just to see what happens. The story switches points of views between Payton and Michael every few chapters so one thing I had to make sure of is looking at who’s narrating the chapter. It’s pretty clearly marked but I have the habit of skipping right to the words so that was something that I had to make sure I did. One notable fact of this book is that this entire book spans the time period of about a week, maybe even less. It's amazing how the story line keeps going, and even though some events are predictable, how they fold out captures the interest of the reader. Everything flows smoothly and continuously so that it doesn’t even feel like it’s such a short period of time. Without Faith basically centers around the moral of ‘right vs. wrong’ and ‘‘light vs. dark.’ Some of this is shown very literally as well as figuratively. The idea of demons are pretty popular within the darker genres but and combinations of angels and demons are also something that I haven’t seen put together this well in a long time. The book ended with a couple of new suspicions as both of the main characters, Payton and Michael being reassigned to different parts of the US. The end is basically a cliff hanger, written so that the reader may or may not go crazy wanting to read more. (I may know from experience haha. I finished the book during English class and was super upset that it ended. People kinda looked at me like I was crazy…). Michael’s father is the center of most of the suspicions although no one can tell what will happen. I give the book a 9/10. It is a different take on the paranormal genre, one that makes me want to read more of the paranormal genre and more specifically, the rest of this story. I believe that the second book is coming out soon, following Michael's story but the author has plans to expand on Payton’s story as well. I really can not wait to keep reading about their adventures. So what did you guys think? I hope you enjoyed the review and go check out the book too! Tell me what you think in the comments or on social media (I use twitter a lot: @BrookeEvans2001). I’ll see you guys in my next post! ~Brooke
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About me!Brooke's a high schooler who loves to read all sorts of books. She's happy to be able to share all the books she's reading with all of y'all. Archives
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