Review: World After (Penryn and the End of Days #2) by Susan Ee (TBR Challenge #6)

I won a copy of this book a year or so ago, and just finally got around to it because I accidentally signed up for an egalley on Netgalley when I forgot I had it on my shelf.  As so often happens when I wait so long to read a book that is a sequel to a book that I loved (in this case, the first one was Angelfall, and I got it the first year I went to BEA, 2012), I was mad at myself for waiting to pick up the story and find out what happened next. Because I loved it.  I loved the originality of the angels in this story.  When we finally get back to Raffe, I loved the dynamic between him and Penryn.  If you haven't read the first book in the series, I can't promise no spoilers in this review unfortunately.

We start back and Penryn is back with her mom and her younger sister.  Her younger sister who has been changed thanks to whatever experiments the angels were doing that created the horrible scorpion creatures.  And now her sister Paige has scars on her face where they changed her.  And she doesn't seem to want to eat anything but meat.  And even that doesn't quite work for her.  But she still knows her mother and sister, and will do anything to protect them.  And not only does she have the scary physical improvements, she has great strength now.  But when the other humans turn on Paige and try to destroy her, Penryn tries to help her escape.  It is only with the help of the scorpion creatures that show up that she does get away.  All the people who are stung seem to be dead, just as Penryn had seemed until she came out of the venom.  But the other humans don't trust that and so throw all the paralyzed, dead seeming humans into a pile and get ready to bury them.  Penryn and her mother run off to find Paige.  In their escape they wind up getting caught by the angels. And soon learn that Paige might be with some of the angels, the one that had actually created her.  Penry still has Raffe's sword and tries to learn how to use it.  But to find Paige she ends up having to give it up and even try to infiltrate the angels as the biggest enemies escort.  It is here that she spots Raffe again, and the true use of the scorpion creatures comes to light, and you might say that all hell begins to break loose.

I know that's a very confusing summary, but I don't know how else to explain it without giving things away.  Just know that it was a good one, didn't suffer from the 2nd book slump in my opinion either.  Now, I'm so eager to read the final book in the series!

Angelfall (Penryn and the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the ARCs I got at BEA this past June. I took it because it sounded interesting, and it was a good read. I debated between a 4 and 5 when I first rated it, but since then I've decided to stick with the 4, and I'll explain why in a bit.
Our main character is 17-year-old Penryn, yeah, kind of a strange name, and a little weird to say in my head as I was reading. But unique! We begin in the future, after the angels have come to Earth and attacked humans. We don't know why they did this, or why some people are still alive, like Penryn and her mother and sister. They have decided to leave their home in search of a better, maybe even safer place to live. Her sister Paige is in a wheelchair. So that is one obstacle to travel. Another obstacle, is that they must travel during the night. The daytime is now when the human gangs are in charge. At night of course people are more scared because of the dark, and angels, etc. So as they start out, they get just a little ways when all of a sudden they see an angel come crashing down, being chased by other angels. The ones ganging up on this angel cut his wings off. Penryn feels that she must try to help, and so jumps out for a distraction, also hoping her mom and sister can get away while she distracts them. Unfortunately, Penryn's mom is a bit out of it, and doesn't think to grab Paige's wheelchair. So as Paige tries to get away on her own, one of the angels grabs her out of her wheelchair and flies away with her. Penryn now must find her sister, and obviously her mother won't be any help. So she decides that she must keep track of this angel and use him to get her sister back. She takes his wings as something to try to hold over him. Which does work.
The angel is Raffe. He doesn't want her help, but ends up finally giving in to a point. They travel to where he says her sister will be. Getting kidnapped at one point by a human resistance group. Luckily they have the sense to hide Raffe's wings, and when he's dressed, you can't tell he is an angel, other than just how drop dead gorgeous he is. Eventually they are able to get away from the resistance group, but they have gotten some info and made some friends here who will be helpful when they reach their final destination.
I won't give anymore away. Just to say that I like that Penryn's character is a strong girl. She's had to be, her home life wasn't great. You get to find that out through the story. The attraction/bond between her and Raffe unfolds at a reasonable pace. It's obvious she would be attracted to Mr. Perfection in looks. He has a bit of a sarcastic sense of humor that I liked as well. But he doesn't seem to care for her quite to the same degree, but enough to save her several times. I'm glad to hear that this is a sequel, as the ending leaves you really hanging.
I don't quite understand what the angels are doing in their lab at the final destination, I really am interested in the reasoning behind that. Also, Raffe thinks he'll get other angels to put his wings back on, and I want to see what happens with what they do to him at that point.
A good story, but once again, reading it before it is published only makes it that much more torture to now have to wait for the next book in the series to be released.

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