Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Strange Angels #1-2

Strange Angels and Betrayals

Rate this book
The first two books in Lili St. Crow’s New York Times bestselling Strange Angels series are published together in one volume for the first time!

Sixteen-year-old Dru Anderson exploded onto the paranormal scene in Strange Angels—and fought for her life at a secret Schola for djamphir and wulfen teens in Betrayals. Perfectly timed to lead up to the publication of series finale Reckoning, this omnibus edition is a must-have for all Dru’s fans as well as readers of Vampire Academy, House of Night, and The Darkest Powers.

596 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

34 people are currently reading
848 people want to read

About the author

Lili St. Crow

14 books2,138 followers
Lili St. Crow was born in New Mexico, bounced around the world as an Air Force brat, and fell in love with writing when she was ten years old. She lives in Vancouver, Washington, in a house full of stray cats and children.

Lili St. Crow also writes as Lilith Saintcrow.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
367 (53%)
4 stars
173 (25%)
3 stars
102 (14%)
2 stars
31 (4%)
1 star
13 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
Profile Image for Kathleen.
74 reviews4 followers
May 23, 2012
"The dishes from last night were still crouched in the sink."

Sorry that line ruined any hope of liking this book.

I hope those dishes don't spring up and attack.
Profile Image for Prabhjot Kaur.
1,136 reviews216 followers
August 31, 2020
Strange Angels - 4 stars

The first book in the series was really good. I liked this world introduced by Lili St. Crow. Although Dru wasn't my favorite character, I still liked her.

Betrayals - 3.5 stars

Betrayals reveals some secrets and it had a very eerie feel to it. Plot-wise we don't get much farther than the first book but all the dark twists and turns kept me hooked.
Profile Image for Danielle Folker.
156 reviews5 followers
September 26, 2016
Well technically, I'm only finished with the first book. I really enjoyed it! Way more than I was expecting. This was sort of different from your normal vampire/werewolf stories. Dru is a interesting character. Graves is kind of annoying at times even though I know he means well. I really like Christophe. I don't like the way Dru treated him at the end after all he had done for her. Sort of disappointed that it seems like Christophe isn't going to be in book 2 as much. I just got another book in the mail that I have been looking forward to so I'll read Betrayals soon after.
Profile Image for Beth.
53 reviews4 followers
September 9, 2012
Hmm, what to say. I will say that I plowed through this two-books-in-one combination in less than 24 hours, and it obviously held my attention enough to get me through it quickly.

*SPOLIERS*

I did roll my eyes a little bit at the whole "werewolf vs vampire fight over a pretty girl" storyline, like it hasn't been done to death by the "Twilight" series. It was a little different, Graves seems to have an upper hand in the relationship triangle, and he is not strictly a werewolf; nor does Christophe send out that creepy stalker-vibe that certain other vampires have been known to throw. In fact, Christophe is absent for easily half the book (or rather, half of both books).

I was happy to see that Dru was special because she could kick ass and had a brain in her head, not simply because she was pretty or smelled good, or whatever. I did feel genuinely bad for her, having been thrown in a situation where she loses the adults in her family one at a time.

I would say that what frustrated me most about these books is the same thing that seemed to frustrate Dru IN them: it's the endless loop of unanswered questions, shifting allegiances, and no clear directive. It's a slow reveal to get ANY information that helps solidify the story: what happened to Dru's mother? We still don't know WHY (or at least, we know partly why, we know that all the svetocha are hunted, but we still don't know why her mother left in the first place). Who is the mole in the Schola? Etcetera, etcetera. At least these questions are more important that the love story, at least Dru doesn't spend all her time blushing and stammering over the boys in the book.

While the love story is definitely there, triangular and somewhat annoying, it's not the focus, nor is it explicit. A few chaste kisses, a few bear hugs and sniffling cuddles... that's about it. Dru was even pretty much naked in the arms of Graves at one point, and it stayed well away from R-rated. However, the same can't be said for the language. While parents might not agree, this book is obviously written for older teenagers (versus the younger end of the YA spectrum) and I would guarantee the cursing is common on either the tongue or the ears of today's high school students (and younger).

My personal objections (other than the slow, somewhat meandering storyline) are superficial.
1)I hate how Dru seems to constantly refer to Graves as "the half-Asian kid" in book one. It's not just once or twice, to reinforce his ethnicity, it happens quite a few times. As does her reference to him as "ethnic" or "not white". She also repeats over and over and over that his hair is dyed black. And that he has a unibrow. Thank you Ms. St. Crow, we get it.
2) We aren't introduced to the term "aspect" until book two, and we're left with no clear definition of the term. We're simply expected to figure out that it has something to do with the djamphir when their fangs come out. And it's a term that's used loosely and unclearly. For example, most of the djamphir seem to have blonde streaks running through their hair. Dru gets hers when her aspect "takes over" and her teeth come out. However it's never clear if the same can be said about Christophe. Do his highlights come out when his aspect does, or does HIS aspect cause his hair to become dark and slick? Who knows, I sure don't. And St. Crow does nothing consistently enough to be sure.

Honestly, I would say that the most intriguing character isn't Dru, or Graves, or Christophe. It's Ash, the Broken Silverhead wulf. I want to know what will happen to him, with Dru coming in second, and Graves and Christophe bringing up the rear.
Profile Image for Miranda.
508 reviews95 followers
March 9, 2020
I’m so glad this was a 2-in-1 book because I couldn’t get enough. A lot of the books with both Vampires and Werewolves tend to get real cheesy real quick- not this. If I wasn’t so busy trying to renovate my house I would have finished this a lot sooner because I didn’t want to put it down. Dru is an awesome character with all the typical fantasy-related elements and none of the helpless insta loving female traits a lot of mc’s have in YA fantasy. Graves is a wonderful companion character and I can’t wait to see how his character grows and develops through this world.
Profile Image for Kati Williams.
5 reviews
April 29, 2012
I loved the books and they themselves deserved at least a four. They need to get a need editor for this series because there were errors all the way through and I could hardly focus on the characters when I was reading and re reading to try and understand what they were trying say. It is exceedingly difficult to read a sentence with no spaces and horrible spelling errors.
Profile Image for J R.
213 reviews22 followers
September 6, 2016
It's been quite a while since I rated a book without finishing it. I really tried to keep going, but I had to stop because I realized I was trying too hard. Nothing major was happening, and I felt like if this were made into a TV series, it would be the kind of series that would waste so many episodes just to get to a decent cliffhanger.
35 reviews
January 23, 2018
Strange Angels and Betrayals put together the first two books in Lili St. Crow's Strange Angles series.
In Strange Angles, Dru Anderson has "the touch" as her grandmother called it. It helps Dru and her father to find the paranormal Other, a world full of the things that go bump in the night. These creatures include ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the rare zombie. Then, one day, Dru finds her father died and turned into a zombie. Dru finds help with Graves, a loup-garou, which is a wulfen with the strengths of it but don't change fully into a wulfen, and Christophe, a djamphir, the result of a male Nosferatu and a human woman. With thier help, she travels to a Schola, a school for the Others.
In Betrayals, Dru and her friend Graves arrive at the Schola. Graves makes many wulfen friends and is recognized as a sort of "prince" as loup-garou rank higher in the wulfen order. As Graves makes friends, Dru finds out that she is a svetocha, a female djamphir but more powerful than them. Attacks on the Schola grow more frequent when Dru and Graves arrive and Dru finds out there's a traitor in the Schola's mist.
I would recommend this book to people who like paranormal fiction, werewolves, vampires, and supernatural abilites.
Profile Image for Cat.
305 reviews
July 20, 2024
Read the first book before but really enjoyed it again. The second was good as well. Love the fight scenes and how they are written. Dru is real and believable and I like Graves too, they are good together. Not too many main characters to make it hard to keep track of, so that’s good as well. I have ordered the next books in the series and hope they arrive soon. This one was hard to put down.
Profile Image for Holly.
10 reviews
January 15, 2019
Wasn't a very big fan of this one. I kinda had to force myself to finish it. The characters were fun but the story was not as interesting as the characters personalities to me.
1 review
September 8, 2025
This book sucks so bad genuinely a waste of money and time. Maybe the author had a bad day writing this because I could tell with each page a read through.
Profile Image for Christina Pomeroy.
11 reviews
January 3, 2026
Vampires & werewolves & MORE! Action, suspense & mystery. This book sucked me in! Its a 5 book series!
15 reviews1 follower
December 14, 2018
All I can say is this is amazing! My friend hand me this book and said, “read.” I did, I loved it. Graves has to be my favorite but Dibs is a close second! I can’t stress how much I love it. Can’t wait to read the next book!
Profile Image for Lothfleur.
369 reviews49 followers
June 1, 2013
Tome 1 : Strange Angels

Vous connaissez Vampire Academy ? Eh bien dans Strange Angels, on va un peu plus loin dans les histoires de djamphir et cie. Et on a des loups-garous, tels qu'on les entend (et d'autres... je suis curieuse de connaître les termes employés en français pour les différentes créatures d'ailleurs). Et devinez quoi, Nosferats et Werwulfs ne peuvent pas se sentir. La mythologie est un peu ce qu'on connaît déjà, mais avec un petit plus, donc.
Rose Dru est une jeune fille qui est forte, on lui a appris à se battre, mais aussi vulnérable. Le temps qu'elle passe à pleurer dans le roman est tout à fait compréhensible, elle est vraiment toute seule, notre Dru, mais je n'ai pas l'habitude ! C'est une jeune fille qui a l'œil, qui est sensible aux odeurs, qui va vous décrire les personnes qui l'entourent sans fard (Graves par ex), et dont on sent bien la jeunesse, que ce soit le bouton sur la tempe qui fait un mal de chien, ou son besoin d'une personne pour l'aider à surmonter tout ça, d'un adulte. On se fait très vite à son point de vue, elle nous ressemble tout en étant différente de nous car elle côtoie le surnaturel tous les jours, elle a un don particulier, une enfance peu ordinaire auprès d'une grand-mère à qui elle pense souvent, et qu'elle a aussi perdue.
L'autre personnage majeur est Graves, un gothique d'origine asiatique qui a la bonne, ou mauvaise, idée de la prendre sous son aile, d'être sa béquille. Il est adorable, Graves, il est bienveillant – qu'aurait-on fait sans lui ? – mais aussi déterminé, touchant, et intelligent (je m'arrête, je m'arrête !). Bon, il est aussi un peu maladroit, adolescent que ce soit dans certaines de ses réactions (la blague qui tombe à l'eau et les rend, Dru et lui, écarlates, par ex) ou tout simplement physiquement. La première image qu'on a de lui est en fort contraste avec l'autre « homme » de l'histoire, Christopher, qui sent la tarte aux pommes (!) et si je vous dis sa nature, vous devinez tout de suite le genre d'adjectifs qui s'appliqueront à lui (je vous laisse deviner, et Dru ne manque pas de nous dresser son portrait).
En bref, c'était une lecture très agréable en dépit des quelques répétitions, dans les descriptions ou certaines expressions (to + vb +a good one...), ce premier tome m'a un peu donné la sensation d'être une mise en bouche, mais pas d'une façon négative car il se passe beaucoup de choses, c'est surtout car c'est notre introduction au monde de Dru, qui est elle-même introduite dans un monde qu'elle pensait connaître et qu'elle découvre plus complexe encore.
Profile Image for Arren.
44 reviews12 followers
February 13, 2012
I picked up Lili St. Crow’s first Strange Angels entry because I’d read some of her adult urban fantasy books. I enjoyed those for the quick-paced, no-brainer reads that they are, a pleasant romp through near-pulp, and wondered if she could pull the same thing off in the YA market. Apparently she can because the older teens (and a number of adults, evidently) are flocking to her new series. So far the series hasn’t dipped into the sex scene, but we’re definitely in hard-R territory when it comes to language, which some parents might not realize.

I’ve enjoyed Dru Anderson’s character. She’s turning out to be a lot of fun. Part Appalachian transplant with “granny woman” magical abilities and part vampire that’s just now beginning to “bloom,” Dru was also brought up by an ex-military father who declared war on the Real World (anything supernatural). As a mix of all these things, Dru tends to be strong-willed, vocal, and independent.

Betrayals seems to wander around a bit, though, and I was a little disappointed. On the surface, a lot was potentially going on. Characters and situations got introduced, some history was revealed, but nearly the whole story was confined within the walls of the school where Christophe dumped Dru and Graves in the last novel.

I liked the school setting overall, but weirdly there just wasn’t enough of it. The school itself didn’t seem to be well thought out beyond being some intriguing ornamentation and outlying area that never got completely explored to my satisfaction. A lot of the book remained inside Dru’s head as she tried to figure out who to trust and when she could trust them. Personally, I already know what’s going on in her head and I just want to see more of this world.

In the first book, there was a lot of action and movement. In this book there are several physical encounters, including the gym classes that got out of control, as well as attacks on Dru and the school.

I did like the way Graves came into his own in Betrayals. Unfortunately, I’m beginning to believe that was more to complete the romantic triangle that will soon be Dru’s life. But I have to admit, the idea of her hooking up with Christophe — with him old enough to be her great-grandfather — isn’t what I want to see. The whole Edward and Bella thing soured me on that because you just can’t have people with that big of a discrepancy between life experiences truly hope to make it.

As always, St. Crow’s writing is easy to read. The pages turn easily and quickly because you can just look at a page and see the story taking shape there.

Profile Image for Agnes Sy.
100 reviews2 followers
October 23, 2013
This is probably my least favorite paranormal series so far. I'm obviously in the minority here.

The story was painfully slow. Dru is not a very interesting character, and she thinks way too much for her own good. I think there were way too many conversations inside her head and it kind of just really slowed down the whole story.

Characters were a little boring, even her love interests weren't very interesting. I didn't care at all for Graves or Christophe.

One of the worst things about this book, especially in Strange Angels, was the lack of characters. For the most part it was just Graves and Dru, and personally I think that made the book really boring. And then there are a bunch of new characters when she reaches the school, but she doesn't even bother learning any of their names. Annoying.

I think this book could have been great. It just wasn't written very well. There are a lot of things that needed explaining, but I feel like I wasn't given enough to really understand everything. Way too many terminologies that somehow don't stick to your mind as well as they should.

Unfortunately I already bought all the books in the series. Thank God they were on sale.
Profile Image for Steffi.
90 reviews16 followers
April 24, 2012
Dru and her father are always moving and chasing after all the things you'd thing that the don't exist. But her father dies on a job and Dru trys to find out with the help of her friend what her father had been working on. Then the misterious djamphir Chritophe turns up just in time to save her from a bunch of nasty werewolfes. It tunrs out he knew her father and he wants to help her getting to safty. But once she thinks shes save there are lots of new porblems to be solved.

I liked the book pretty much. But some parts are repeated over and over again in dreams or flashbakcs and thats really boring.
Profile Image for Whitney- Lifestyle of a Blessed Bookworm.
375 reviews2 followers
January 11, 2015
These books suck you in from the beginning. When Dru's father is killed and the evil comes looking for her she is forced to use her powers to hunt down ghosts, vampires, wulfen, and zombies. When she goes into hiding she finds herself stuck with Graves the cute boy from school. Together they face many obstacles and team up with Christophe (Sexy Vampire). The two boys do not trust one another, but both want to protect Dru. When Christophe leads them to a school for wulfen and djamphir they are forced to start questioning if this place is a safe house or not.

I will be reading the next books in this series <3
307 reviews
December 14, 2011
I had skimmed through this, thinking the story would be about angels, but its not even close to it.
I thought there was just too much thoughts that flowed through her head (the italicized ones) and it made it difficult to read. And the plot wasn't even much to begin with. The sixth sense that was mentioned in the blurb made it seem like it would be a major part of it, but it wasn't.
Some of the descriptions, I felt, went for far too long. And the constant repetition of the phrases were irritating.
Profile Image for Hanna Richardson.
27 reviews6 followers
January 30, 2013
Loved it! Every second I had time I was reading it. It kept my attention all the way through. I love that despite the two guys in this, I don't think love is really even a subplot in this. The story has a strong female lead and you really gotta admire Dru's courage. I love how well developed the relationship is with her and those around her. There is a lot of the books that is her thoughts, but at the same time it strengthens the book. Not another love triangle, and not Twilight. I highly recommend it.
Profile Image for Meranda.
32 reviews
April 30, 2014
Loved this book!!!! You can really feel what Dru is feeling and connect with her. The story itself is just an amazing thriller, always leaving you on the edge of your seat, if you love adventure and action with a love triangle you will love this book! its not some cliche vampire werewolf book its so much more with zombies, ghosts so much more i just loved the book and how its contently moving not in just one place its heart racing thriller keeping you on your toes with every turn of the page.
Profile Image for Chelzea.
33 reviews5 followers
November 5, 2012

The book is good though, I forced myself to finished it. I'm actually not into paranormal things, like Zombies or whatever.

My mind is off while i'm reading this.. Don't get me wrong, I like the book but honestly saying it's getting boring when you reached the second part. Maybe because I don't like paranormal thingys.

Well, I must end up my review here, I'm out of words...

If you like vampire and werewolves you can read this, It's likeable I should say.
Profile Image for MJ.
97 reviews8 followers
May 14, 2015
I actually loved these books so much that the moment I finished, I jumped online to buy the next 3 in the series. There are some annoying things in the writing.. like the decriptive word overkill and the occasionally childish narrative from Dru.. but it didn't bother me enough to dislike the book. The characters were so interesting and genuinely likeable. The beginning hints of a love triangle were nice because they didn't distract from the book. I can't wait to keep reading.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
5,556 reviews48 followers
July 19, 2012
This series is starting out pretty interesting. I like Dru she's just a little nutty but who wouldn't be when dealing with the Real World. I also enjoy Graves he's an interesting Guy who becomes quite the hero since he gets bitten by a werewulfen. I'm interested to see where this series go and who's behind the death of drus mom.
Profile Image for Alyssa.
4 reviews41 followers
December 14, 2012
This series needs to be turned into a movie series, like the Hunger Games. It has a lot of potential. A lot of people are worried about the director missing an leaving out good parts. Lili St. Crow can help produce the movies, I mean she is the one who wrote them. My requests for characters would be Missy Peregrym as Dru, Drew Roy as Graves, and Alex Pettyfer as Christophe.
Profile Image for LOL_BOOKS.
2,817 reviews54 followers
Read
October 13, 2015
THERE'S A YA BOOK BY SOMEONE CALLED LILI ST CROW THAT SOME VERY SJ FANDOM PEOPLE BACK ON LJ LIKED WHICH CALLED A HALF-ASIAN CHARACTER A HALF BREED. THERE'S SHEER STUPIDITY INVOLVED HERE. AS FOR THE EDITORS, I THINK RACISM AGAINST ASIANS JUST DOESN'T RING BELLS THE SAME WAY IT DOES FOR OTHER ETHNICITIES.
Profile Image for Haven Angel.
43 reviews
October 19, 2011
To summerize it simply
AWSOME and AMAZING

I was hoocked, this is one of thos series that it pulles you in and dosnt let you go till the verry last word on the very last page of the very last book.
i coudnt put it down, and cant wait to read the rest of the series
Profile Image for Bcoghill Coghill.
1,016 reviews24 followers
November 21, 2011
Fast paced YA adventure/romance/vampire novel(s). Of course it is better than the twilight series, but what is not? I enjoyed and recommend to anyone looking for a quick light read.
A bathtub book. If I dropped it in the tub - no great loss.
Profile Image for Heidi.
40 reviews19 followers
June 16, 2015
Ok while I did enjoy the combo books. I find the second book a little confusing. We are caught in Dru's head a lot and some of her ramblings didn't make sense. Also her characters personalities seems to have changed. All in all I do really like the story line. It's very intriguing.
Profile Image for Lexi.
23 reviews1 follower
January 2, 2013
I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. I had heard and read so many great reviews, but I was very disappointed. I probably will not continue in the series.

To read my full review, please visit callingallreaders.wordpress.com. Thanks!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.