In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees...Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honest and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.
What a page turner! I've got to hand it to Cynthia Hand on this one...it was unique and interesting, compelling and very moving and had me staying up late into the night reading so I could find out what would happen to Clara and the rest of Hand's fantastic characters. I love a good story about Angels, but this time around I'll admit the spin that Hand put on why there are Angels on earth and the "purpose" each of them has really piqued my interest. I was so excited as I read on to see what new clues Clara would be given and how everything would pan out for her and her purpose on Earth.
I will say Tucker took me by surprise. I was all ready to be planted firmly in the Team Christian side of things, and that went right out the window about half way through the book. While I think both characters are great and the way they interact with Clara made for some very interesting and entertaining reading, I'm still going to say that Tucker won me over in the end.
To make matters worse, Hand threw me for a loop with the last quarter of her book. Wow, can you say intense action? I was on the edge of my seat so anxious to see what choices Clara would make, how they would turn out for her and what the consequences of everything would turn out to be. Now of course Hand left her readers with a cliffhanger, and one that has me ready to get to the store so I can pick up where this opener left off, with her second installment, Hallowed. I can't recommend this series opener enough!
I gave Unearthly (Unearthly, #1) 4 shamrocks!!!!
Haha-I thought I would be Team Christian too. By the end, I wasn't really enthusiastic about either boy. I don't know, Tucker just wasn't as interesting to me as he was to most readers. Your post reminds me that I still need to read the sequel-I had a lot of questions upon finishing Unearthly.
ReplyDelete