Breath of Angel
Karyn Henley
WaterBrook, Jun 21 2011, $9.99
ISBN: 9780307730121
Melaia the chantress welcomes the exhausted young man who enters the temple’s courtyard. Suddenly he looks up into the sky just as a gigantic hawk flies directly towards him with large unsheathed claws pointing directly at him. The bird of prey sinks its talon into his chest. A stunned Melaia pleads with the man to fight back as he carries a knife, but he does not. She hits the predator with a stick knocking it away from the victim. The bird soars into sky while the man with a bloody wing appears dead.
Melaia learns that the fight was the latest incarnation of a war between two immortal siblings who destroyed the stairway to heaven. Their fight has marooned angels who are forced to take refuge amidst the mortals while trying to repair the path home, but they know their work is futile as only remittance of an ancient debt can mend the broken highway to heaven. Melaia is now caught in the crosshairs due to her intervention and the belief that she is part of the payment past due.
The key to the exhilarating first Angeleon Circle teen fantasy is the heroine who seems like a sheltered courageous young adult who behaves as expected from a person with her background and experiences especially when she learns the truisms behind the myths. Although there are too many twists with most easy to anticipate, Breath of Angel is a wonderful fast-paced story from the first “deadly” encounter and never slows down as readers accompany Melaia when she journeys outside the temple’s walls in this entertaining parable.
Harriet Klausner
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