A Review of the Angel Eyes Trilogy by Shannon Dittemore

Hi guys! Can you believe we're halfway through January already?? I hope your New Year has been going well. I'm pretty proud of myself because I've been keeping up with my bullet journal and my daily goals. I've also written a little and I've been reading a lot, which has been SO great because this past year or two, it has been so rare for me to actually sit down and just read for a while.

And that's a great transition into this post, because today I'm reviewing the first books I read this year: the Angel Eyes trilogy by Shannon Dittemore.

I had heard good things about this trilogy from other bloggers. I had first gotten to know Mrs. Dittemore from her posts on the Go Teen Writers website, and so I knew that I would have to read her books eventually. And now that I have, I definitely loved them.

I'll be doing a mini-review of each book and then sharing my thoughts on the trilogy as a whole. This post is mostly spoiler-free, but of course the parts about each book will give a little bit away if you haven't read the previous books. Also, for those of you who have read them, I'll include some spoilers in white text so you have to highlight them to see anything. Like this: spoilers spoilers hi guys

ANGEL EYES

There are just certain books that hook me right from the beginning (I guess every book should be that way), and this was one of them. The book starts with Brielle returning to her tiny little hometown of Stratus, Oregon, after some kind of tragedy has happened in her life. The mystery, the cold weather, the woods by her house-- it gives it an intriguing, almost eerie feel.

Then we meet Jake, who is so endearing and has such chemistry with Brielle from the moment they meet. Brielle realizes from the beginning that there's something strange about Jake and his "guardian", Canaan. Jake gives her an odd object that gives her comfort-- and also makes her see things. Like the angels and demons around her. She soon realizes that the object is a halo, which belongs to Canaan, who is actually an angel.

This book was a great lead-in to the rest of the trilogy. You get a taste of the setting, grow to love Brielle and Jake, and slowly watch Brielle's eyes start to open (no pun intended).

The only thing I was unsure about with this book at first was that I expected it to be a bit more realistic. The story starts and the angels/demons thing is kind of lowkey; in the celestial POV, you see them having conflicts, but they mostly stay out of the terrestrial (what the normal people without celestial vision see). But then as the story went on, they began to have more of a role in the terrestrial, and it just started to feel like a fantasy. The human trafficking thing just felt weird, being run by a legit demon and all. These celestial beings living on Earth and having so much to do with humans just felt kind of weird. (although if I'm honest I can't say with absolute certainty that this doesn't happen! who knows, "entertaining angels unawares" could go a lot deeper than we think.) (more on my opinion about that later, because those are not my final thoughts on it.)

BROKEN WINGS

This book is a little more difficult because I feel like a lot happened in it and it's all hard to classify.
So, just a quick overview of a bunch of things that happened: we meet Satan, which is super chilling (how ironic). We meet the Sabres, the angels who fight with worship. We meet Brielle's dad's new friend, Olivia Holt.

We find out what really happened to Brielle's mom.

Also in this book, Brielle's and Jake's private little world with angels and demons begins to come to light with others, such as Brielle's dad and best friend. They face the demon that has been plaguing Brielle's and Jake's life for the past seven months.

Brielle goes through a lot in this book. From her dad starting to drink again, and the way-too-young Olivia (who gives off a bad vibe to Brielle) hanging out with him, to disturbing, unexplained dreams, to a lot of drama involving her mother's death... it's not a walk in the park for our poor girl in this book. The title "Broken Wings" is really fitting for everything that happens, because Brielle learns to be broken and still go on. This is said in a lovely way in the last line of the book: "I'm broken, but here in the red orchard, surrounded by the sweet smell of worship, I raise my hands above my head,
and I believe."

I overall liked this book as much as the first one. But I felt like the overall plot was kind of everywhere? I don't know, it could definitely just be me. I just remember as I was reading it, trying to decide what the main plot was and I was having trouble coming up with one. But it still carried the story nicely and led well into the finale.

DARK HALO

The last book picks up right where the previous one left off. (Brielle's still dancing her little heart out in the orchard.) Jake's gone, and there's a heavenly battle raging above Stratus.

Then circumstances land her right in the middle of the Danakil Depression, all alone-- save for the company of the Prince of Darkness. You know, Satan.

I just want to talk about this part of the book for a minute. I think it was so well done. Brielle is literally facing off with Satan, and he is seducing her to all his evil lies. Brielle is listening to him, telling herself that he's a liar, that he's just trying to trick her, but she can't help but be drawn in and believe him. He's so appealing and obnoxiously charming. When he offers her the dark halo that will
take away her celestial vision, she doesn't just say "nope, under absoutely no circumstances am I taking that thing" like we think she should be able to. She gives in to temptation a little and has to fight it.

I think that's a great example of what happens in real life sometimes-- temptation happens, and we know that we should fight it. And maybe we try. But sometimes we're pulled in anyway, because it's just like it's portrayed in this book-- sin and temptation are appealing sometimes. And I feel like it's important for us to see the characters we love struggling with that-- nobody wants a perfect hero. If they don't struggle with something, it's not really that rewarding to root for them. (More on that later, too.)

I was a little worried after Danakil that the book had slown down and would have a subpar finale. Danakil was actually pretty early in the book-- less than halfway in. And it really felt like climax material-- after fighting demons all this time, Brielle meets Satan and has to deal with his temptation face-to-face. After that, I just felt like the closer I got to the end it still felt too slow to be leading up to a great climax.

But it did. I can't say too much, but I was satisfied by the ending and  I think it measured up.

There was one thing in this book that perplexed me. Brielle suddenly, without any clues that it could lead to this, discovers that her friend Ali, who was murdered just before the first book started, was Jake's twin sister. I was totally thrown off by this. If I'm not mistaken, there was only one tiny indication in the whole trilogy about this-- Brielle looking at a picture of her and Ali and thinking for a fleeting moment that Ali was Jake, because of the way she was smiling and her hair was slicked back. I just felt like that whole twist was really pointless. It was revealed very close to the end of the third book, and with everything that was going on, there really was hardly any time to process it and the characters didn't say a lot about it after the reveal. I don't know, I just didn't see the point. 

And just look at those covers! Aren't they gorgeous?

So, my thoughts on the whole trilogy. I'll start with what I said I'd come back to.

Although they took a different turn than I was expecting, the nature of the books didn't bother me anymore by the end. I was expecting a more realistic story when I started, but the thing is, everything that happened in these books could actually happen. I mean, the prologue is an actual scene from the Bible where people were actually seeing the angels that were fighting for them. Eve met and was tempted by Satan face to face, like Brielle was. The New Testament says that Jesus gave His disciples power and authority to heal, like Jake does. So while everything in these books was carried out in a more fantastical manner than we read about in the Bible, yeah, I think it could totally happen.

Okay, now back to the subject of perfect characters. I really struggled with whether or not Jake fit this description. I loved Jake, don't get me wrong, but honestly, I felt like he should have dealt a little more with temptation, like Brielle did. Maybe I shouldn't have thought that, because he's not the main character, so that kind of thing was mostly focused on Brielle. It just felt like he was the only human character who never really did or said anything wrong. (Tell me your thoughts on this in the comments!) I don't know, maybe that's what literally being raised by an angel does to you. That aside, though, I really did love Jake, and his and Brielle's relationship was so cute.

I also adore Kaylee. I mean, yeah, she's the typical spunky, quirky sidekick. But she is so supportive of Brielle and continues to stick with her even after she starts seeing the DEMONS that are attacking them. There's a scene in Dark Halo where Kaylee and Brielle are having a heartfelt conversation about different things, braiding each other's hair. It's just such a sweet scene.

I loved how worship and prayer were used in these books as weapons. I already mentioned the Sabres, who literally fight wars with worship. And throughout the whole trilogy, we see Jake and Brielle doing the same thing-- praying in the face of danger, worshipping to resist the enemy.

So! There were a couple things about this trilogy that I didn't care for or understand. But overall, I loved it and it's now definitely one of my favorite trilogies. I will for sure be rereading it in the future-- for enjoyment and also because there were a lot of things that kind of went over my head the first time (I don't pay attention) that I think I'll be able to put together a lot better after a second time.

All right, guys, thank you for bearing with me through this very long, kind of all-over-the-place post. Have you read the Angel Eyes trilogy? Who's your favorite character? Any other trilogies I should check out?