Unearthly (Unearthly, #1) by Cynthia Hand

Description from Goodreads:

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 honesty 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.

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I don't know what it is about angels, but I really like them as supernatural beings. And I don't mean this in a religious sense, but I like the myths that revolve around angels: the wings, the possibility of being a fallen, the hierarchies. I hadn't really read that many angel books before, so I started reading without any expectations. I have to admit though, that I almost stopped reading Unearthly at one point, because the beginning was so cliché: an insecure girl moves to a new town, she is immediately smitten with this really handsome guy, etc. But I'm really glad I'm so headstrong with always having to finish a book that I've started, because the more I read the more I liked the book! 

I loved the fact that the first book isn't all about Clara discovering herself as a part-angel. Sure, she is a noobie when it comes being an angel and she learns quite a lot of stuff as the book progresses, but there wasn't a huge revelation about her angelical background (thank the lord, I think we have seen quite a lot of those really predictable unveilings). There was no such fuss in the beginning, even though Clara is still learning. Another thing I liked about Clara was that even though she is an angelical creature, it didn't define her: she still was a normal teenager with everyday life problems. 

It was really nice to notice that all the characters in this book had different, distinguishable, and likeable personalities (except for one, but I'll come back to that). Jeffrey, Wendy, Tucker (♥) and Clara's mom all were characters that I had a connection with, and for that I give the author extra credit. Sometimes it's pretty easy to neglect the minor characters when there is quite a lot going on with the protagonist, but I was happy to see that this wasn't the case in Unearthly. I wish that Wendy would have gotten more time in the first book, but I guess sometimes we can't get it all.

I have to admit that I wasn't very happy as Clara seemed to like Christian quite a bit. Probably the main reason for this is the fact that I'm so in love with Tucker! I don't usually like the small town, all-American gorgeous guys, but I just loved how he and Clara went bickering and throwing insults each other (and of course, they secretly liked each other). Clara and Tucker are just so perfect to each other and super cute, that at one point I sort of wished Unearthly was a contemporary book (if that makes any sense?). So obviously I didn't care for Christian very much, in addition to that he ignored Clara a lot and he only came to Clara when he wanted something. Tucker on the other hand is this attentive and sweet guy, so of course Christian didn't appear as very appealing to me next to Tucker.

I'm super glad I decided to buy this book even though I didn't really like the beginning. There were some threats introduced in this first instalment of the trilogy, so I think there's going to be lots happening in the future.. I need to know what!

☆☆☆☆