Angel Arias by Marianne de Pierres

Release Date: 3rd October, 2011

Publisher: Random House

Pages: 270pgs

The Story

Retra - now called Naif - has escaped from Ixion, the island of ever-night. She doesn't know if her friends on the island survived the battle between the Ripers and the rebels. But she does know that she must return home, behind the sealed walls of Grave, to find out why the Ripers have been seen there talking to the councillors. What links the two worlds?

First she must convince Ruzalia to help her. The fierce pirate captain saves those who face terrible fates on Ixion, but that doesn't guarantee their gratitude. Instead, she faces a revolt - and Naif is caught in the middle.

Naif will need all her courage to survive. For Lenoir, who wants to keep her safe, for her friends Suki and Rollo, if they live, for Markes, who has secrets of his own, and for the new friends she will make on this journey.

The fate of worlds depends on it.

The Review

Being a huge fan of the first book Burn Bright, I was super excited to get my hands on Marianne de Pierres's sequel ANGEL ARIAS. With yet another beautiful cover to match its predecessor book Burn Bright. It was a very interesting continuation of the storyline, and it sure didn't disappoint and I think a lot of readers will enjoy this book much, much more. And what was even cooler was that my blog Tales of the Inner Book Fanatic and part of my Burn Bright review was quoted in the praise pages at the start of the book. So thank you very much to the author and the publisher for doing that. It's great to see my blog being recognized. So, so cool.

The last time we saw Naif - a girl who was renamed and originally known as Retra - we saw her need to return to her homeland of Grave, a place we only got a glimpse of in the first book and the place where Naif was running away from. In Burn Bright, she was exploring a whole new and dangerous world that was so different from her own, on an island called Ixion, where freedom, pleasure and never-ending parties brought this island and their people to life. However in ANGEL ARIAS, Naif needs to revisit her past and return to the home she left behind in order to save her friends - and her brother who still remains on Ixion - and even her own entire future depends on this next adventure.

I loved Naif even more in ANGEL ARIAS. From the first book's events to the sequel's ones, her character had evolved so much and she's no longer the girl who holds back. Turning into a very strong young woman, I have to say that I admired her strength all through the fast-paced action that was going on and she had to face a lot of difficult decisions within the book. As for the supporting cast, while we see a few familiar characters but we are also introduced to some new and unfamiliar ones, too. There was one character that I loved - that being Jarrold, a young boy who helps out Naif. Like Naif, I admired his character a lot because even while Grave is his home, he's still willing to risk his life for mere strangers and he was far more intelligent that I wouldn't have been at his age. As well as the new characters, there was also some new kind of species of Night Creatures that we learn more about, so that was a very interesting aspect of the book also.

As tempting as it is, I won't be giving away too much of the storyline, but much like Burn Bright, ANGEL ARIAS offers another unpredictable, engaging and interesting plot, and the dark Gothic-like world that will still make readers want to devour more. While I was a little disappointed by the lack of my beloved-sexy-guy Lenoir, but Marianne de Pierres continues to surprise me with each and every book, and I wished everyone could join in and love it as much as I did. Unfortunately for international readers, this series is only available in Australia as far as I know . . . so be sure to join the Burn Bright Worldwide Campaign to ensure this book can be appreciated by everyone around the world because it's such a great book series.

The Rating

5/5 stars