Review: ANGEL EYES by Shannon Dittemore

TITLE: Angel Eyes
AUTHOR: Shannon Dittemore
GENRE: Christian, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
PARANORMAL ELEMENT: Angels and Demons
PUBLISHED:  Thomas Nelson (2012)
RATING: 3

FIND ON: Amazon


SYNOPSIS:

(Courtesy of Goodreads) Brielle’s a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She’s come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can’t seem to shake.

Jake’s the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.

Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what’s going to happen. And a beauty brighter than Jake or Brielle has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

A realm that only angels and demons—and Brielle—can perceive.


REVIEW:


I love reading books about supernatural creatures and worlds. I am looking for Christian books about the spirit realm, angels, demons and how it all REALLY works. This story is all fiction and every aspect of Shannon Dittemore’s angels, demons and their interaction in this world is not real.

That being said, after my disappointment fizzled and I continued reading, the story is quite interesting, intense and held my attention as a fictional story with fictional creatures. I loved the beginning where Brielle embarrasses herself and continues to embarrass herself in front of Jake, the hunky love interest, throughout the book.

His gift (no spoilers here) and her gift is fantastic and a great element to the story. BUT… I wish everyone believed that we can have spiritual gifts through the power of God and not some “object.”

RATING:

I am going to rate this book rather well for several reasons… This Christian book shocked me. It has given me some hope for Christian novels because it didn’t hit a few of my pet peeves about Christian books.

Pet Peeve #1: “Christianese” - The language in this book did not sound like a Christian person trying to sound all important and with the “in-Christian-crowd.” She wrote it like a normal person. Thank you.

Pet Peeve #2: Cheese-Ball Sanctification – The story wasn’t cheezily set up so that the main character would “get saved” in the end. There was no sinner’s prayer. YAY!!! The main character “found God” and turned to Him all along the way. There was no character shoving God down her throat or making her feel like a doggone sinner. Double YAY!!

Pet Peeve #3: Unrealistic Spiritual Gifts, Rules, or Beings – She scored pretty low on this one. But I’m finding out that my expectations are misguided, because I work in deliverance ministry I assume everyone knows how demons work and how angels work… which is not the same at all. So I will forgive that and remind myself that this is a fiction novel too.

With all of that said, with way too many words, I give this a rating of 3. It was a pretty good story, decent characters, interesting (fictional) supernatural characters, the plot kept me reading and I was not disappointed with the outcome. And lastly… teenagers kiss in Christian novels???? Awesome!

RECOMMENDATIONS:


I would totally let my teen or preteen read this book. There is teenage kissing and attraction, but nothing inappropriate. The only thing that is disturbing is what the bad guys are doing. They are human trafficking and that is a little appalling (but they are bad guys and demons doing bad things.) Not that it is forgivable, just understandable.