Angel Falls (Sand and Shadows, #1)

by Colleen Helme

[Berls]

So I met Ella when I read Ghostly Serenade in the Shelby Nichols series (which I love and highly recommend) and the minute we met her I was like, OMG she needs her own series! And guess what? Colleen had the same great idea! When I got the email that it was out on Audio I about squealed and I am not disappointed. I should note that while this is a spin off and will have some nice crossovers for fans of the Shelby Nichols series, you absolutely can read it on it's own.

In fact, this has very little in common with the Shelby Nichols series -- at one point, it felt so different, I wondered if we would actually get any crossovers. Ella does not live near to or function in the same world as Shelby and, unlike Shelby, she's young and single with no kids. So the tone is different for sure. And her paranormal gift is quite different from Shelby's too - instead of reading minds, Ella has "healing hands" - she's able to help people heal through her touch. That's how she and Shelby met initially actually. Ella was a trauma nurse in NY helping a victim that Shelby was working with the police to find out what happened to them. In the course of that investigation, the man who had assaulted the victim came into the hospital and Ella refused to use her gift to save him.

And that's where this book picks up - Ella has been punished for not using her gift to help and sent to the middle of nowhere (gorgeous, but challenging for someone use to the bustle of NYC) to run a small clinic. And when she's out exploring nature she runs into - literally - Creed. He's full of mystery and in need of her healing hands. He pulls her into his world and the consequences are life changing for both of them.

I enjoyed the characters a great deal - Ella is sweet and way too trusting IMO (I was a little disbelieving that a NYC girl would trust a stranger the way she does... but maybe that's the protected life growing up in the church showing through?), but she also has an edge to her that I think will potentially be interesting as the series progresses. And Creed is a good counter to her, he's lived on the edge and touched the dark side of the world. But they are both young and ready to take on the world, which could be exciting in future books - especially given how things wrapped up in this book. I don't want to spoil anything but Ella's healing hands and purpose really developed a lot over the course of the book and I'm really interested to see where things will go.

As for the narration, I really enjoyed it as well. Stevi Incremona did a great job with the characters, and while it was different hearing Shelby from her interpretation, I could easily see/hear the same Shelby I've come to love. So I look forward to continuing this series in audio. And I really hope for more Shelby/Ella crossovers (which we're definitely setup to have as a possibility)!