A.J. Flowers

This is a spoiler-free review of Unearthly.

My summary of this book would be a YA fantasy set in the real world based on a typical teenage girl, except that she’s not so typical. She also happens to be 1/4 Angel and God has called her to perform her Purpose. The story is sweet and the characters memorable. I highly recommend it if you like these kinds of books.

I was really surprised by how much I loved this book. And mind you, this review is based off the audiobook version, so my review includes my enjoyment of the voice actor which plays a huge role in the quality of an audiobook.

If you want to try out Amazon’s free trial for Audible, click here! You get two free books through this exclusive link, so you can give Unearthly a try if you’d like!

What made me read this book was that I have been desperately looking for great angel novels which I can use as some sort of comparison to my own angel novel currently sitting at a publisher for consideration. What is the market like when it comes to angelic fantasy? Do I really need a publisher, or is it something I could sell on my own? Hard to say. The market for angel fantasy is nearly nonexistent! At least for a high fantasy YA angel novel like mine. Most I’ve found are nearly always set in the real world, even if part-time like Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Maybe that’s a good thing that there aren’t books out there like mine, maybe not. I’ll find out when it’s time to market!

Even though this novel is set in the real world, I decided to give it a try. Unearthly isn’t similar at all to mine, even down to the biology of the angel wings, but it didn’t keep me from enjoying it. There actually was a refreshing direction of angel lore this book took that was fun to experience.

Concerning the voice actor, Samantha Quan, she did a great job. I’m weird when it comes to voice. I prefer male singers over female, and male narrators as well. I knew there was a female narrator when I used my monthly audible credit to try out this book, and figured I’d just have to get past it. Once I did, however, I thoroughly enjoyed how Samantha really got me into the character. She perfectly captures this young girl during one of the strangest coming of age stories you could hear. Excellent.

The story itself goes along at a comfortable pace and has an intriguing plot line, but didn’t really surprise me and I was going to rate this book around a 4… Until I got to the end. Wow! The ending just completely shocked me and blew me away. I expected the ending to be very predictable, because it’s laid out plain as day in the first chapter what her mission is and what the book’s about. Timeline wise, the book did end when I expected it would. But Cynthia Hand did a great job surprising me and making sure I wasn’t bored, not even a little bit. She even managed to get me to wonder what would happen next without leaving this book’s plot line open. Great job!

I’ve already used my audible credit from this month to purchase the sequel and am happily listening to the next adventures in this angelic world. I’ll be back to tell you how it goes!