Shadows in the Silence by Courtney Allison Moulton

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages: 469pgs

The Story

Your strength in heart and hand will fall . . .

Ellie knows that the darkest moments are still to come, and she has everything to fight for:

She must fight for Will.

The demonic have resorted to their cruelest weapons to put Will in mortal danger, and Ellie makes an unlikely alliance to save him and to stop Lilith and Sammael, who seek to drown the world in blood and tear a hole into Heaven.

She must fight for humanity.

As the armies of Hell rise and gather for the looming End of Days, Ellie and her band of allies travel to the world’s darkest and most ancient regions in her quest to come into her full glory as the archangel Gabriel.

And Ellie must save herself.

Her humanity withers beneath the weight of her cold archangel power, but Ellie must hold tight to who she is and who she loves as she prepares for the ultimate battle for Heaven and Earth.

The Review

I may not have been a hardcore fan of Courtney Allison Moulton's Angelfire book like the rest of its readers, but once I read the sequel Wings of the Wicked, I just knew this series had something special about it and great potential too. So in other words I was pretty excited to get my hands on a copy of the third and final installment of the YA trilogy, SHADOWS IN THE SILENCE, because, as it turns out, it was an awesome and an epic action-packed book. It's definitely not a disappointment here folks - not by any means - and it definitely ends on a high note for me!

SHADOWS IN THE SILENCE may not have been my absolute favourite book of the series by far (though it was a pretty close call), but, as always, Courtney Allison Moulton delivers everything I loved in this series: Plenty of action-packed scenes, beautifully written and well-thought out mythology, sweet romances and friendships, and of course a great flowing plot. So while I may love all of that, but the only 'slight' thing I didn't like about this book was the slow-pacing scenes that occurred between some really important and sometimes not really important scenes, and even the interactions between the love interests was a bit 'oh shucks you've said those cliche romantic lines a million times already stop it!', but in any case, I still loved this book! It really raised the bar and ended on a wonderful conclusion.

As for the large cast of characters, whether some are killed off far too easily or whether some survive by the slight margin of death, I still loved every single one of them regardless of the bigger and smaller roles they played in this series. I thought Ellie, for one, the main character, was someone I didn't love in the beginning of this series and yet as she slowly grows up and begins to learn about her past lives and of her out-of-this-world destiny that she is meant to partake in in the future, I really loved and enjoyed seeing her develop into a pretty amazing and kick-ass - and not to mention awesome - young character. She really impressed me, especially in this book. As for Will, Ellie's good-looking, strong and overly protective immortal guardian, he was definitely a sweetie in this book and I love him for being so darn cute, and how he continued to keep Ellie grounded as . . . well . .  as the human Ellie . . . you know so she doesn't lose her humanity as she slowly learns and transforms into her Gabriel-angel-self. Yeah all of that! Haha! I've just always loved Will. He's everything a love interest should be: Always having our main heroine's best interests at heart. And, as for Cadan, the bad boy reaper with a heart of gold, I absolutely loved his part in this book but I kind of wished more from him if you know what I mean but I'll take what I can get from him and it was enough!

In regards to the ending, I thought it was really well done. It was a little unexpected (I will admit this) though I secretly thought it would end in that particular way and honestly . . . I'm glad I was right for once. But in the end - while it was sad and while I wanted a little bit more from the ending especially when you consider what everyone has been through in this series - I'm also happy to report that it was a really, really lovely and a very romantic ending if I do say so myself. It definitely left a smile on my face and left me saying, 'Oh shucks. Just stop it you two lovebirds'.

Overall, SHADOWS IN THE SILENCE was the perfect conclusion to the Angelfire series and I think Courtney Allison Moulton should really be proud of her YA fantasy series. She is one out of many authors who writes her books splendidly and I can't wait to see what other projects she has up her sleeve. I, most certainly, will buy pretty much anything written by her! You can guarantee that!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars