Review: End of Days (Penryn and the End of Days #3) by Susan Ee (Series Ender Challenge #4)

This is a series that I really have loved, and the ending was to me, the perfect way to end the trilogy.  I was first introduced to the series when I attended my first BEA back in 2012 and I got a copy of the first book, Angelfall.  I won a copy of the 2nd book about 2 years ago, but silly me, I didn't get around to reading World After until this past year.  I've started keeping a book up in my bedroom to read in case I don't want to mess with bringing my Nook upstairs, or whatever book I'm reading at the time.  Plus paperbacks are good to read when I'm taking a bubble bath.  As with the other books in this series, I feel like once I picked this up, I was sucked right back into the story.  For the most part it kind of updated me on everything that had happened before, but without any info dumps or other going back in flashbacks, etc.  Now, if you haven't read the first two, you should go click on the link above of the one you are ready to read and read that review. Because I can't promise there won't be any spoilers for those books in my review of this final book.

This book picks up basically right where we left off in the 2nd book.  Penryn is with Raffe.  He has recovered his angel wings, and needs to find someone to reattach them and take off the demon wings he has because of Beliel.  Beliel has been captured and he tries to tell Penryn that Raffe isn't quite the good guy she seems to think he is.  And so Beliel shows Penryn a memory having her touch him, where he pulls her into the underworld.  She sees him without eyes, and sees him being tortured by the demons who are there.  But when she steps back, a hellion comes out of the memory with her.

Her sister Paige is kind of the leader of the locust creatures that Uriel had created to start a plague among the humans and begin the apocalypse.  But there is one of them out there, they call him white streak, who wants to take control. And so there will be a fight for Paige to gain control, and be able to try to use them to help the humans.  Penryn must convince the humans in the Resistance to give her sister, and her crazy mother, a chance to help.

Penryn and Raffe decide to go into Beliel's memory and pull out the other Watchers, the ones who will follow Raffe in his campaign against Uriel.  Through this Penryn finds out just what made Beliel as bitter as he is.  Bringing the angels back isn't as helpful though, as they'd hoped.  It turns out that the competition chosen to decide between Raffe and Uriel is a hunt, of humans.  So while Raffe wants Penryn to go and hide until it is over, she will refuse.  She will do what she can to try to save the other humans, convince them this is their last chance to stand against the angels that have destroyed their lives, and maybe, just maybe, win their freedom back.

But all of this will be a problem for the romance or feelings developing between Raffe and Penryn. The ones that he refuses to give in to, following the rules that landed all his Watchers in the underworld before with their love for "daughters of men."  Because if he succeeds and wins over Uriel, then he will be going back to Heaven, and there will be no more contact most likely between the two.  So not only is Penryn fighting for her life, she is doing it all while knowing that in the end she may lose this angel that she loves.

I love the characters, and I love the chemistry between Raffe and Penryn.  I love the Dee and Dum twins.  Really all the ways that things happen are so good, there is no lack of death or sacrifice on the part of both sides, and the end, the end I loved!  I'm so happy that it ended that way.  Another great angel story, with post-apocalyptic bits and also romance, and science fiction with the creatures that have been created.  Also a quick read, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

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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