Books4Tomorrow: REVIEW: THE GIRL (Guardians, #1) by Lola St. Vil

Title: The Girl

Series: Guardians, #1

Author: Lola St. Vil

Publisher: Self-published

Publication Date: September 30, 2012

Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance

Reviewed by: Ellen Fritz

Source: Free download

Ellen’s smiley rating: 4/5

SUMMARY

After his death, Marcus found the love of his life...

Unfortunately it's not his sexy, telekinetic angel girlfriend --- it's Emmy Baxter... a human.

Between torture, demon attacks, and midterms, Marcus and Emily must fight their feelings for a devastating prophecy has predicted:

"Should Angel and Human unite, humanity will perish."

REVIEW

As books about angels and demons are just my favorite in the fantasy genre, I truly enjoyed reading The Girl, first in the Guardians series. While attempting to save a wounded man at her school, Emerson is attacked. Two fellow students, Miku and Rio, come to her rescue. Soon Emmy learns that not only are they angels and a part of a group called Guardians, but also that the survival of the world as we know it depends on her, Emerson Baxter.

This comfortably paced novel combine what is generally known about angels and demons with the author's own unique and highly imaginative inventions. Although these Guardians are angels, they can and do make mistakes, they have normal desires and needs and they can be tempted into using their powers for things that are off limits. This made me like them so much more than the perfect angel image so often created by writers.

The bad guys or Akons on the other hand - aptly named Chaos, Mayhem, Agony, Rage, War and Frenzy, are thoroughly and completely evil. They cheat, torture, destroy and don't care who gets hurt in the cross-fire, whereas the Guardians are never allowed to take human lives. Then there are the Sellers, the proverbial grey area, who are mainly evil but could do good when they choose to.

Emmy, the main character, put me off at first. She seemed to have a very dull, weak personality and once she starts crushing on the first Guardian, Marcus, she seems to be so obsessed that the world could go "boom" and she wouldn't notice. Add to that the fact that she cried for any and everything and I thought we had a weak female lead in the book. That is until Ameana, the second Guardian, tells her:

“Your courage is in your tears. Every time you cry, you lose a little bit more of it. That’s why you’re so breakable. Not because you’re human, because you’re always shedding courage from your eyes.”

Fortunately Emmy toughens up early in the book and displays remarkable strength of character and determination to do whatever it takes to save the world from hell and damnation.

The story takes the reader from highly exciting scenes of fighting to a very sad angel funeral; from tender romantic moments to descriptions of extreme torture. Woven into this are the angel politics and intrigue as well as an angel gossip paper which adds a humorous side to the book.

I, for one, am looking forward to reading more about the Guardians, Emerson Baxter, their effort to save the world and the open ended romantic possibilities between Emmy and Marcus.