bookbriefs's profile picture

bookbriefs 's review for:

Ember by Carol Oates
5.0

Ok, so this review is going to be different than most of my other reviews. I am going to be reviewing both books 1 and 2 together. I will give my general thoughts on the series and then try and break down book 1 and book 2. It will be hard for me because I loved book 1 so much that I immediately had to start reading book two right after and as a result, I can't really separate the two books completely. But the good news is, that I totally loved both of them! Normally, after I am done reading a book, I take some time and jot some notes and impressions down for my review. But As soon as I finished Ember I just had to pick up Iridescent and keep reading. I think I paused for all of 1 minute.

Let's start with book 1. Ember throws you right into the action, and while I was a little confused for the first 5-10 pages, I quickly got my bearings and I became engrossed in the story. I loved seeing the sparring and the back and forth between Candra and Sebastian. They were so cute! I also really liked the depiction of the angels in this book. They are not really super religious angels, but more like spiritual angels. This means that the books are not preachy AT. ALL. These are actually angels like I have never encountered before- they are very human. But with wings of course.

Ember had a big task. There were tons of questions that needed to be answered and Candra certainly wasn't going to stop until she got them. And even though the characters are sometimes pretty dense as to their feelings, there is actually a really great romance in Ember.

Iridescent picks up relatively soon after Ember ended. This book focused more on Draven. And as much as I wanted to hate him, but I didn't really. I found myself more mad at Sebastian. I knew what he was doing but I just wanted to slap him for being an idiot! Agh! There is a ton of action in these books as well. I loved the way Ember ended but I was kind of nervous about what would happen in this book. But a ton of stuff happened!

Fans of angel books need to read Ember and Iridescent! Carol Oates is so great at creating tension between characters. Holy cow! I love her writing- it's so descriptive. Ember is one of the best angel books I have ever read!