Review: A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

When her parents are murdered before her eyes, sixteen-year-old Helen Cartwright finds herself launched into an underground London where a mysterious organization called the Dictata controls the balance of good and evil. Helen learns that she is one of three remaining angelic descendants charged with protecting the world's past, present, and future. Unbeknownst to her, she has been trained her whole life to accept this responsibility. Now, as she finds herself torn between the angelic brothers protecting her and the devastatingly handsome childhood friend who wants to destroy her, she must prepare to be brave, to be hunted, and above all to be strong, because temptation will be hard to resist, even for an angel.





Title: A Temptation of Angels
Published: March 20th 2012 by Dial Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0803737262 (ISBN13: 9780803737266)
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This is another one of those books that is nearly impossible to rate. It was a good book, but it wasn't exactly great either. My expectations were already high from reading Michelle Zink's other series, The Prophecy of the Sisters, so I expected something as interesting.

The storyline was an original concept of angels versus demons. The writing flowed and the pacing was perfect. Putting the story into very simple words, there were twenty Keepers on earth to keep humanity safe, however, organizations have been murdering them off one by one to get what they want...the key to the records of the past, present, and future. It would give that person the power to change it to their own benefit, but the only problem is, they don't know who holds the key, and now only three Keepers remain.

This novel was the timeline of how much Helen had grown from a coddled little girl to a woman. From her change in attire to her new found confidence, we see how she has matured. It was definitely a suspenseful start when Helen's mother hides her in a secret passageway that she had never known about. Helen didn't know what was going on, but listened to her mother's instructions. As her house begins to go up in flames, she follows the address her mother had given her and finds Darius and Griffin Channing's home. Griffin immediately trusts her and begins to ease her into this new and strange world. He later becomes her love interest and become very protective of one another. Darius on the other hand is more wary of her arrival and keeps her at a distance, but they do have biting conversations that would leave the other fuming. There was another side to Darius when he went to visit Anna, the daughter of Galizur. Galizur was a father figure for most of them since their own parents were killed. He made amazing inventions that made their job so much easier. Raum shows up surprisingly, and is an old childhood friend caught in the middle of the Keeper's deaths. He comes from a family of traitors, so I wasn't so sure about him, but his actions in the end spoke volumes. He was another love interest of Helen's, so it was a sort of love triangle, but she makes her decision quite clearly instead of dragging it on. In my opinion, the characters did fall a bit flat. There wasn't exactly anything special about them, but it would be nice to read another book and see them develop more.

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.” - Gustave Flaubert
Book Nerd and Proud,
C.J.