Afterlife

Afterlife

by Courtney Allison Moulton

Ellie's dreams have recently begun taking on a frightening edge.  Previously, they had been normal (well, as normal as a teenage girl's dreams can be), but now they are becoming violent and real.  When Ellie wakes from them, she has the distinct feeling that these are more like memories because she always feels like she's really there.

And maybe she was.

One day, a gorgeous stranger shows up and tells her that she's much more than an average teen.  She's the Preliator.  For thousands of years she has been reincarnated, killed the descendants of the Fallen, and stopped Lucifer from building an army of souls to fight against the angels of God and Heaven.

It's a little more than a girl like Ellie can take, especially when she can't remember most of it.

It seems she skipped a generation in her reincarnations and no one knows quite why, but they do know that something big is coming and Ellie is the only one who can stop it from destroying everything she knows and loves.

Final thoughts:  I'm conflicted on this one.  On the one hand, it's a pretty decent read.  There's action and romance enough to hold my interest while reading it.  But it didn't grab me and make me want to never put it down; in fact, I didn't read it at all for the entire weekend.  However, I never really felt like giving up on it either.  The first hundred pages or so actually made me angry because it felt like a Buffy rip-off.  A kind of "Chosen One" who is watched, guarded, and taught to slay demons of varying strengths with different kinds of powers.  She has dreams of her past lives.  There's also a love that can't be shared for various reasons, some of which made no sense.  Ellie also has to make up excuses to people to explain how things keep getting destroyed around her, which Buffy got to be a real pro at doing.  There's more, but I don't think I want to go into all of them.

Essentially, this was just ok.  No great shakes.  I'll read the sequel (in yet another trilogy... really!?!?), but I don't think I'll get all bouncy in my chair when it comes out.

Rating: 3/5