Angelbound by Christina Bauer

Angelbound (Angelbound Origins, #1)

by Christina Bauer

Eighteen year old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your every day quasi-demon, part-demon and part-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory’s arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter Heaven or Hell, they go up against her, and she hasn’t lost a battle yet.

But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights aren’t enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, she knows that things are changing and it’s not looking good for the quasi-demons.

Myla starts to question everything, and doesn’t like the answers she finds.

What happened seventeen years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won’t anyone tell her who her father is? Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy part-human and part-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla’s not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla’s going to shake up Purgatory.

Reviewed by Angie on

2 of 5 stars

Share
I received an ARC through NetGalley.

I was excited and nervous about reading Angelbound. Angels aren't my thing, but I do tend to adore demons, and it's set in Purgatory! Myla is a quasi-demon, meaning she's mostly human but with a hint of demon blood. She also has a tail, which is like a character on its own! And she's an Arena fighter, so she battles evil souls who want to get into Heaven. But, her mom has been acting kind of strange and asking her weird questions, but won't answer any of Myla's questions about her father. Then she meets Lincoln, and everything changes.

Angelbound has a really interesting premise, but I found the world-building questionable. I loved the idea of Purgatory and that it's primarily occupied by quasi-demons and ghouls. Unfortunately, a lot of it doesn't make any sense to me, and some of it was just down right silly. For example, ghouls eat worms, and quasi-demons who are basically second class citizens must learn how to properly cook these worms! The undead eating bugs? Totally cliche. In fact, the whole way quasi-demons are treated is over-the-top, and a lot of the school scenes are cringe worthy. I can tell it was suppose to be humorous, but it's not my type of humor at all.

As for what didn't make sense: the entire Arena fighting thing. The Scala transfers human souls to either Heaven or Hell, which is perfectly understandable. But then there comes the souls who are given the choice to battle for their fate. They fight Myla (or another fighter) and if they win, they get to go to Heaven. This would be interesting if all souls had this choice, or if it was souls who were middling in their goodness or evilness. Instead it's only purely evil souls. Why would you give the evilist of evil a chance to get into Heaven?! I mean, I know one character in particular wants to see this happen, but they could easily just let the soul in to wreak havoc. And why does everyone go along with this plan?

The plot of Angelbound was pretty good though. There's a war brewing between the demons and the quasi-demons and ghouls. Ghouls think demons are their allies, but obviously not. Then the Thrax, who are demon hunters, show up and aren't killing anybody. Very suspicious. Of course, Myla ends up being the most super important person in the upcoming battle and the only one who can save Purgatory. And there's an enemies to lovers romance! It's kind of insta-lovey, but I didn't mind, because of reasons.

Angelbound was an okay read. I would have liked it better if it had been dark, rather than funny, because the humor wasn't one that I found funny. It was really long though. This first installment is almost longer than the following two books combined!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 26 July, 2015: Finished reading
  • 26 July, 2015: Reviewed