My Cup of Tea

Rating: 3 ½ stars

“Angels are violent creatures.”
“So I noticed. I used to think they were all sweet and kind.”
“Why would you think that? Even in your Bible, we’re harbingers of doom, willing and able to destroy entire cities. Just because we sometimes warned one or two of you beforehand doesn’t make us altruistic.”

Angels being the bad guys, humankind's evil enemy. Not the most innovate idea ever, but it was surprisingly well done... at least the little part that we actually get to see.
Ever since the angel's attack, the world has sunk into chaos. We open up with 16 year old Penryn trying to take her family to a safe place, since their old apartment is sure to be attacked either by the many recent blooming street gangs or by night-time evil things.
Ee paints an extraordinary grim-ish picture (as grim as YA can be, of course) and, because that was not enough, gives Penryn the most depressing family she could have. Of course, this latter trait is obviously written to add to our heroin's personality.

Penryn is not the most charming character around, this cruel world where she lives in has made her selfish and uncaring for anyone but her little sister Paige (and, just sometimes, her mom). But who needs a charming lady when we have a total bad-ass! Seriously, those fighting scenes are SO well done!
Suddenly, something terrible happens and Paige and Penryn end up separated. Rescuing Paige becomes Penryn's only mission, and forcing a badly injured angel called Raffe to help seems to be the only way to succeed.
Aside from this two, the rest of the cast of character are really forgettable. Very unidimensional, appearing briefly just to fill a little into the plot. Some of them might be interesting, but I'll never know until book 2 or 3 where there might be some getting to know them.

The romance (yes, let's not be naive, of course there is romance) didn't seem quite believable. Our Penryn suffers from the very typical hormonal attack that good looking angels cause on leading ladies. Of course, as it's a first person narration, we don't really get to know what the angel is feeling for most of the time, which really works because it leads to a good heart wrenching scene at the end.

All in all, this books is a page turner. Good paced and a really light, fun read.