Review Detail

A Shimmer of Angels was a good debut from Lisa M. Basso. I was a bit reluctant in reading this book since I don’t normally read books with angels but this one sounded interesting. I mean, having a plot about a sixteen years-old girl who is taken into a mental institution for seeing angels… well, yah, it does sound appealing.

Rayna “Ray” just comes out of a mental institution and is on remission. After her mother’s death, she begins seeing people with angels wings and it was soon called Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder. After three years of being away and taking pills, Ray leaves and starts a new life with her father and sister. And one of the first steps is getting a job. However, it all comes down to the moment she sees an angel in her school and some of her colleagues begin to mysteriously kill themselves. Some evidences make her believe the angels she suddenly started re-seeing are behind the deaths.

The plot is mainly Ray finding the truth about angels; they exist and those three years she was in were in vain. She’s special since she’s the only one who can see both the good angels and the Fallen – bad angels.

Ray meets Cam, a young angel with bright, white wings. He’s her colleague at school and soon becomes her love interest. On the other hand, when she starts working at the local restaurant, she meets Kade, another angel but this one a Fallen. His wings are black. Several things happen and Ray is lead to believe that Kade is responsible for her colleagues’ death. But she soon finds that Kade might be a Fallen but is not a killer. And, also, Kade fell, abandoning the good side, because of her mother.

There’s a love triangle in this book alright and I can honestly say I’m Team Kade. Though at first I thought he was too conceited, he soon made me realised that despite being a Fallen, he has such a great heart and spirit. As for Cam, I didn’t like him the first time we are introduced to him neither did I liked him when Ray needed him and he ran away.

Anyway, I’m not going to rant about the love interest of Ray – which is Cam, of course, despite the attraction she has for Kade (even if she barely pays attention to him) since there’s another book coming out in 2014 and I still have hope she’s eventually forget Cam. But, that’s me!

One thing I totally loved about this book were the several Doctor Who references Lee, Ray’s best friend, did during the story. I mean, as a Whovian reading something as “Holy Daleks” was freaking awesome!

A Shimmer of Angels was an enjoyable reading. Sometimes I would roll my eyes at how predictable is was, or how cliché is was, but still an entertaining book. If you like wars between God and Lucifer, good angels and bad angels, teenager angst and love triangles, this will be a delightful read.