Angel in the Shadows

Angel #1

by Lisa Grace

The Difference between vampires and angels? Angels are real. In movie development along with Angel in the Storm, Book 2 by Motion Picture Pro Studios. Fifteen-year-old Megan Laughlin has a gift—or what seems like a curse at times. Megan sees angels and demons. Megan knows her destiny is to protect her friends against dark angels who try to sway them into situations that can destroy their lives, their souls, and their eternity. At school, she recognizes Judas, an über popular boy, as an evil angel hell-bent on destroying her and everyone she loves. As Judas spreads horrible rumors and overdoses two of her classmates at a rave, Megan realizes the enormity of his power. While classmates die, Megan, with the help of an angel, Johnny, and a team of friends will face the fight of their lives as they battle Judas. Megan thinks God hasn’t given her any “special” powers, but discovers she has what she needs as she confronts Judas and his seemingly unconquerable power. Appropriate for ages 12 on up. AOL recommended the Angel in the Shadows series as the alternative to Twilight on the "ALA's Top Ten Most Challenged Book List of 2010"

Genres: Young Adult, Angels, Paranormal, Fantasy, Christian Fiction, Fiction, Demons

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 11, 2009

About the author

I have two new releases:
12 Angels by Christmas: Sweet Christmas Romance which just came out in paperback also.
FEUDAL LAND, Book 1 has been released as an ebook. The 6th part of the FEUDAL LAND serial is available too.

Stories on the Go is #FREE for everyone. My Christian Sci-Fi story the "Trouble with Tribble" is in it.

The paperback of The 15th Star (A Lisa Grace History Mystery) is available and True Treasure (History Mystery) by Lisa Grace are available.
Angel in the Shadows, Book 1 is FREE in all ebook formats here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
and has been optioned for a movie along with Angel in the Storm, Book 2 by http://www.motionpicturepro.com. In development.

I live on the water on the Gulf Coast of Florida. I love boating,reading (I know I have to update my library here, lol), and writing. I'm married with a young daughter. I love all animals and have had a pet opossum (they can be paper-trained), raised & released woodpeckers, & squirrels.
I love to speak at teen events. You can get more details about my public speaking on my website: http://www.lisagracebooks.com

Reviews

[A · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won an autographed copy of this book on Goodreads.com.



This book would be great for a young Christian who enjoys reading thrillers. As an Agnostic, I was a bit put off. The main character, Megan, seemed far too naive to me, and I admit that I rolled my eyes many times while reading this book. Despite feeling like the characters were cheesy and unreal, I actually didn't mind the story. When I finished the last page, I wanted to know what would happen in the next Angel book. The more I think about it, I would say that Lisa Grace did a decent job with her characters - they're just so far from my generally secular world that they seem unrealistic to me. Overall, I would say that this book is good, but really meant for a niche audience.

[c a t h e y · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I start my review I would like to thank Lisa Grace and Goodreads for making it possible that a free autographed copy of Angel in the Shadows was sent to me.

I must admit that I am of that dreaded, widespread sin: of judging a book by its cover. And it's title, too, actually. So I was expecting yet another YA paranormal romance. You know the one, with the heroine who meets a new, mysterious boy. Cue the strange, undeniable chemistry happening between them. Cue the "I'm dangerous, we shouldn't be together". Cue pages and pages of said girl obsessing over said boy. Cue the vapid, annoying girl getting into trouble. And then the heroic rescue, the swooning in each other's arms, and the happily-ever-after. Well, Angel in the Shadows was not like that at all -- in fact, I must admit, it was rather a bit too Christian-y for me.

I'm not an avid church-goer, but neither am I the atheist. I'm the everyday story of a Catholic upbringing, which sort of fell on the way-side. But it seemed to me that Grace was trying to achieve a quick conversion of the masses through the publication of this book. Much like the conversion of Vania. It's not really a spoiler (well, I didn't think so anyway, and did you expect it not to happen?) but seeing as I will hunt down and kill those villains known as "book-spoilers" I will stay on the safe side. About halfway through the book I wanted to use Grace's own words against her:

"Don't impose your morality on me."

So now follows some helpful criticism, with the good help of my friend Dictionary.com. Firstly, this book desperately needs an edit. And a lesson in using grammar and syntax correctly.

com·ma   [kom-uh] noun
1. the sign (,), a mark of punctuation used for indicating a division in a sentence, as in setting off a word, phrase, or clause, especially when such a division is accompanied by a slight pause or is to be noted in order to give order to the sequential elements of the sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list, to mark off thousands in numerals, to separate types or levels of information in bibliographic and other data, and, in Europe, as a decimal point.

The poor comma was abused throughout the book: sometimes it was missing, and sometimes it wasn't necessary at all.

hom·o·phone   [hom-uh-fohn, hoh-muh-]noun
1. Phonetics. a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, as heir and air.

As the internet kindly informs us, "heir" is not interchangeable with "air" -- and neither is "to" with "too".

Okay, so now onto the writing. I find that with a lot of début novels, the writing tends to come with a massive chunks of info-dumps. It makes it a hell of a lot easier for the reader when the information is incorporated into the text. It makes the writing seem jerky, as we are thrown this way and that. I also found it hard to relate to the main character, Megan Laughlin, maybe because of the lack of empathy that the book evokes. The tension wasn't really there, I just kept on reading without a page-turning intensity.

Another thing I must add is that there were a few eye-rolling, "this would never happen" moments. I mean, first of all, purity rings? I mean, come on. Sure, there was a Jonas Brother who had one (I'm not sure which, and to be quite frank, I don't really care. And neither should you), but... Sure, yeah, I get that this is a Christian book, so I guess that purity rings aren't really a far leap at all.

Is it only me, or have you noticed the lack of anger in this book? People get angry and annoyed, sure, but no-one really seems to stay that way. There's an argument and what seems to lead up to a fight, but no! Lo and behold, at the last moment it's all happy and dandy again. Once again, I attribute this to the Christian genre, and not the actual book. But yeah, I think that I might have a problem with other such books.

My final point can be summed up with one word. Goth. The way that Grace went on about how dark and scary etc. etc. etc. they are, and how she acts like they're completely different from the rest of the population. I mean, people can like dark make-up and chains on their clothing without being judged, right? I'm rambling, and not making much sense, so I think the following passage from the book will make it what I'm trying to say a bit more obvious. Background info: Megan has had a make-over by Vania in order to stay below the radar at a party they're going to.

I wonder how I'm going to explain my new look to my Mom.
Vania says, "You write reports for the school TV show. Tell her you're doing a report on the life of a Goth."
I feel stupid, "Oh yeah, that makes sense."

No, no, no, no, no, I feel stupid. It doesn't make any sense. A Goth does not live a completely different and radical life from any one else. You do not need to submerge yourself in their subculture to understand them. Just, no.

So all in all, this turned out to be a pretty long review, but I can't be bothered trawling through and finding out all of the other things that I found fault with. I don't know if I'll be following this up with the second book, I guess we'll see.

I must add as a side-note, though, that I applaud Lisa Grace for this new channel at spreading the Christian message. Or maybe it's not so new, just that I haven't read many books of this nature at all. And also, I understand that it's much easier to criticise than it is to write a book.

[Adam Collings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really drew me in. It fits well into the supernatural young adult genre, but it doesn't descend into cliche. Neither does it just try to copy the formula of other succesful stories.

The plot moves quickly, and the characters feel well-rounded. The story deals with a lot of different themes and issues.

Megan is a sympathetic protagonist, who is struggling to learn how to live with her newfound abilities. The dark angel Jude is the ideal villain for a story like this, chillingly evil and yet charming so few people can see his true nature. He's on a mission and he believes in it just as much as Megan belives in hers. This leads to high levels of conflict and tension. Having recently read Demon: A Memoir by Tosca Lee I can well understand the motivation behind such a character. The character of Johnny provides support, assistance and mentoring to Megan, but he doesn't come across as the convenient solution to every problem either.

While not a sterotypical paranormal romance, there romance in this story, and it is handled well.

This story was written in first-person present tense. I'm not a fan of unusual styles like this. I tend to find that they pull me out of the story, but I must admit that in angel in the Shadows, it worked. The story kept me intersted so that the present-tense thing didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

The tension never really lets up in this story, right up to the suprising cliffhanger ending. After finishing it, you'll want to move on to the next book.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fifteen year old Megan finds out while working as a counsellor at summer camp that she has been granted powers of light by God to battle the evil of dark angels who seek to lead unsuspecting people astray. She has been attending the same summer camp for many years and the previous summer, had noticed a strange bright light surrounding camp counsellor, Mr. Z (as she knows him). When she remarked on it, she was laughed at and so, she has not mentioned it since. However, this summer she gets Mr. Z aside and asks him about it in private, wondering why she’s the only one who can see the light surrounding him. She finds out that Mr. Z is an angel of light sent down to battle the forces of darkness encroaching upon humanity and that she has also been blessed with powers to battle against these enemies of man. Once camp is over, Megan will have to go home and prepare for a great battle that awaits her in her near future and will possibly affect the people she loves.

While I thought this book was written with noble intentions and attempted to convey an important message, I am sorry to say that the storyline just fell flat for me. No doubt, the cliffhanger at the end left me curious about what will happen in the next book in the series (as most cliffhangers do) I don’t think I’ll end up reading the next book in this series, mainly because it was really difficult for me to get through this one. There were many factors that affected my opinion of this story, but I think that the main one was that the behaviour of the characters, the dialogue and certain events were exaggerated and mostly unbelievable. I also felt that the book read like it was written for a much younger audience, even though it discussed issues of sex, eating disorders, teenage pregnancy and abortion, and it came across as too overtly preachy. I found it really hard to buy into a lot of what happened in this book.

Firstly, at the summer camp, I found it incredibly odd how fast Megan and Mr. Z got into a discussion about the light surrounding him and it was very unrealistic how easily Megan believed everything he said and didn’t question his sanity or hers. Their discussion was a relaxed one, as if it were no surprise that he was an angel and she happened to have special powers. Secondly, all the talk about dark forces and angels of light was very vague and Megan didn’t seem at all curious to know more or to know why she’d been granted the power to see these dark angels.
Secondly, I found it a little ridiculous that Megan would see a dark angel influencing two little boys to plot mischief and then decide to go over and warn them against whatever childish mischief they may have been plotting. Little boys make mischief- that’s what they do. I don’t think it warranted such seriousness.

I thought Megan’s and Seth’s relationship was sweet, innocent and quite adorable. Robbie, Seth’s friend, was such a charming prankster (he reminded me a little of Robbie, aka Robin Goodfellow aka Puck, from Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series) and I found him quite entertaining. The mornings when the counsellors met for breakfast and the evening bonfires provided a feeling of warmth and cosiness to the story. It was funny how everyone seemed to be aware of Megan’s and Seth’s relationship, but they were still forced to act like they weren’t more than friends. There was one thing that got to me, though. There was this scene in which Seth sat down to have his breakfast of six doughnuts and a can of soda (strangely, that stuck in my mind because I can’t imagine the sugar high that must cause) and I found it a little unbelievable that he’d say a little prayer before consuming his six doughnuts and a coke, all while sitting next to his girlfriend in a room full of student counsellors. That just seemed odd and out of place. I can’t imagine any teenage boy, no matter how religious, doing that in front of his girlfriend. That’s where the preachy bit comes in.
While I understand the inclusion of passages from the scriptures to explain situations and illustrate points, I just didn’t like the obvious way in which modern-day parallels were drawn to biblical references. I feel that it could have been handled with more subtlety and finesse because there were times when Mr. Z was talking to Megan and it felt like a parent telling bedtime bible stories to a child. By the way, speaking of Mr. Z- him being a camp counsellor known as Mr. Z reminded me of Mr. D in the Percy Jackson series.

I found that things did pick up later in the book when Megan went back home and met Johnny (an angel) at her high school and found an enemy in Judas/Jude, a bad boy transfer student who was leading Megan’s fellow students astray. It was very strange how a Goth chick and non-believer suddenly became a believing Christian and Megan’s closest friend after witnessing Judas’ evil in convincing her friend to commit suicide. As I said, there were just too many things that stood out for me while reading this book and my intention is not to unduly pick apart and criticise this book, but these were just a few mental notes I made as I read along, which I felt that I could not ignore. Overall, I didn’t enjoy this novel despite its well-meaning message but I hope that the next instalment in this series will not fall into the same traps as this one has fallen into and that it will be an improvement on this one.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I must say, thank God I finished it. Holy crap. Bar none, the worst published book I've read this year. It was just terrible. I like angel stories, but you have to do it just right so it doesn't come off as preachy. This completely and utterly beyond preachy and well into controversial topics.

At first, I thought it was a joke. The first couple of chapters were nearly a parody of YA lit. THere was summer camp, a boy she'd been texting for a year and liked a lot (and they eventually started dating), bulimia, angels, dark angels, etc. I wanted to keep reading it just to see how bad it could get. By the end, though, I was sorry I'd said that. It got horrible.

By the end, just about everything that could happen in a YA book did. You shouldn't put all of that in one 144 page book. Besides what was listed above, there was the following: love, long distance relationships, new friends, old friends that fall away from you, a secret you can't tell anyone, a "bully" (or dark angel in this case), poor parents, Goths that break stereotypes, parents that don't pay attention to their kids, guys that are users, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. Was I kidding?

I received the 2nd book free, but there's no way I'm reading it now. I can't put myself through it again. The writing was juvenile, like the 15 year old narrator was writing it herself. It could have been so much better.

The worst part of it all? The author asked me to read and review these for her.

[Cleverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The war between Good and Evil has always been and will always be. It's a balancing act. Before I continue with my review I would like to explain something. I am not religious. I am extremely open minded to all aspects of life and yes that does include all types of religion. This book maybe considered a religious book but the synopsis drew me in and I figured I'd give it a go. I really enjoyed that this book took place in FL. Lisa used some familiar lingo that I was comfortable with. Lisa's book made me feel at home. It's not often you read Kook in a book. Megan was wise beyond her years. She had a way with people that just took hold. I was surprised by how much happened in the book which is only 132 pgs. It never felt rushed and it never lacked. There was religious aspects in the book but I never felt it was overbearing and took away from the plot. In fact it enhanced it.


When Lisa Grace's Angel in the Shadow 2 comes out I will have to get my hands on it.

[Angela Elmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I signed up to get this book I did not realize it would be so religious. With a book about angels its gonna be a little religious. You can tell the author is very passionate about her believes. It was just to much religion for me personally to get in to the story. I think this book is for very young adults I would say 12-15 years old. It has very strong view points on faith, sex, and who will be getting in to heaven. I would suggest that if you get this book for your young teen you read it first there will be many things you will need to talk about after reading it.

[Lisa Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Amanda and everyone who is reading my book. I recently did a CBS TV interview and here is the link:

http://www.koinlocal6.com/content/med...

You may have to paste it into your browser in two pieces.(I'm not very tech savy) Getting reviews is very scary because you have no control (unlike your characters)over those who are reading it. LOL
Lisa

[Chris Yorgason · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I thought the premise was interesting and I generally enjoy Christian novels and suspense novels. The story was a good one, but I struggled with some of the juvenile dialogue. I guess I got a little bogged down with the teenage lingo, etc. That said, a pretty good read for someone who enjoys the 15-year-old world.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’ve had this book on my shelf for so many years and i’m honestly not entirely sure how i even got it. after randomly deciding to read it on a whim (because the synopsis was giving me christian twilight with angels instead of vampires), i can now say that this book was definitely,,, a book. unfortunately, it was not christian twilight or anything similar. i don’t actually know what it was.

as this book’s target demographic (i guess) i understand what the author was trying to do but there was just a lot going on. most of these reviews seem to be negative because of people not realizing it was a very much a christian book. because of that i think the reviews don’t really reflect the book as well as ratings for other books might, but it definitely still had its faults.
there were quite a few spelling and grammatical errors that made me question whether or not this book had been edited and it was honestly just really cheesy. also,, the morals were so weird ? like their behavior was v strict and biblical i guess but there were also very strange extremes and random exceptions. there was one scene where an angel warned them against drinking redbull right after encouraging that she lies to her parents and giving her his car keys so she could drive illegally ???

as far as things i enjoyed, i thought the main plot was pretty interesting (even if it wasn’t christian twilight). the amount of scripture used was cool too so maybe the book helped witness to someone ? i also thought the main character and her boyfriend were cute and i liked her friendship w johnny and the goth girl (i forgot her name). OH one thing was that i am usually a sucker for enemies to lovers (and like,, morally gray dark haired characters in general) but i didn’t like judas at all so the author succeeded in making me dislike him.

idk all in all when presented to the right demographic it reads as a cheesy, wholesome book you could kinda turn your brain off to read. it was an entertaining and short enough that i finished it in one sitting which is always nice.

[Serena · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was . . . full of errors. Grammatical errors, spelling errors, continuity errors.

The story itself felt sketchy to me - as though it was the seed of a story that had not quite been grown into the story it was trying to be. Also, the cliffhanger I read in other reviews that I would find at the end? It read less like a cliffhanger and more like this was only about one third of the actual novel.

For all that the book is about a great battle, on the spiritual plane and the mortal one, Megan, our main character, did not seem to really come up against and overcome - or be overcome by - any significant obstacles. When she could not accomplish something she tended not to even try, and some other event or person would come along and make it disappear.

Megan also did not wind up making many of her own decisions on large or small issues; she followed the instructions of the angels almost without question. Just as she accepted, from the very beginning, any and everything they told her, including the very fact that they were angels.

I will say - I am not a Christian. I occasionally read Christian fiction, for many of the same reasons I read other books out of my usual genres. (Curiosity is a big one, also I like to try to be well-read - I’m a writer, it’s important to me.) None of my problems with this book were explicitly because of it being a book of Christian fiction.

Among the many, many errors I came across (among the grammatical side of things: missing commas, missing full stops, missing quotation marks, sentences and paragraphs without spaces or breaks between them, misused words) were also some things that were perhaps not specifically errors.

For example, late in the book, when Max is mentioned hugging Megan and talking to her - I honestly had no idea to whom the book was referring. I had forgotten that this girl, who is the main character and supposedly quite dedicated to her family, had a younger brother. I almost had to page back to the beginning to reassure myself that I had been introduced to him before.

There were some heavy real-life issues tackled in the book, as I half expected from what I had read about it prior to beginning it - most of them were merely glossed over, even if they were focused on specifically as horrible things; serious issues that if included in a story like this really must be focused on more seriously.

The serious issues that were treated as serious issues were dealt with too quickly and too easily, sometimes in the wrong ways - and I'm thinking of an early case, a non-religious issue, when Megan (eventually) sought help from an adult for something she found out.

It was not only Megan's worries and uncertain way of dealing with the issue that bothered me - she's a fairly sheltered teenager, I would not expect her to handle things perfectly, I perhaps even expect missteps. An adult should do better, particularly one in such a position.

An argument made - whatever side of it I happen to come down on - that has actual facts to support the argument. Use those facts - do not lie about those facts, it only weakens the argument. (Included with straight-up lying in my book: leaving things out entirely, inflating or skewing statistics, formally or informally.)

Preaching. It is Christian fiction, I expect it to be Christian fiction - I have no false expectations of it to be like, say, a fantasy novel. However, I do not expect things to come the way that they did in this book. Megan's inner monologues often felt like lectures or sales pitches - and I'm not sure which is worse - directed at the reader.

Leaving aside the over-the-top feel of the almost precisely the same things directed to Megan's friends, family, and acquaintances - and when they do the same - I cannot believe that anyone actually thinks in those particular pathways. It felt forced and also a little bit like I was being attacked, even on points I might agree with Megan on, by about the second time she delivered such an inner monologue or stream of consciousness.

As I said, I am not a Christian. I have attended church, and have had a number of friends who are very passionate about their faith. I have only rarely come across people who treat ‘recruiting’ (this is a term used in the book) or ‘saving’ people in the way that every Christian we meet in this book seems to.

It came across as aggressive, a little bullying, and talked about the individual ‘saving’ whoever they had been speaking to - or, once or twice, failing to do so - again, my knowledge is based mainly on friends and long-ago days of attending church myself, but I don’t believe that is how it is supposed to work. Is the idea not that humans can lead each other to the knowledge, but only God/Jesus can ‘save’ anyone?

That was one of several issues that made me wonder about the Christians as I saw them depicted in this book, but I feel too uncertain in my own knowledge on most of these things to comment in an informed manner.

Honestly, I would probably not have finished this book at all if it had not been so short. I was curious (and concerned) about how Lisa Grace would handle the issues she had raised, and also about the cliffhanger I had read.

I've done my best to give a fair review that does not depend specifically on my views on any religious or controversial things in the book, but opinions are, of course, subjective.

Oh, and in that vein. . . This is honestly one of the worst books I have ever suffered myself to read in its entirety.

[CHIP MILLER · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Angel in the Shadows" by Lisa Grace is a young adult novel that explores the ultimate battle between good and evil through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Megan. The religious theme may polarize readers, and its message makes this a book to avoid if you're trying to find an escape from real-life issues. The occasional stilted language and dialogue can be overlooked. Also, it would have added intrigue if the dark angel had been part of the clergy instead of a stereotypical bad teen.

[Merrill C · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Angel in the Shadows" by Lisa Grace is a young adult novel that explores the ultimate battle between good and evil through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Megan. The religious theme may polarize readers, and its message makes this a book to avoid if you're trying to find an escape from real-life issues. The occasional stilted language and dialogue can be overlooked. Also, it would have added intrigue if the dark angel had been part of the clergy instead of a stereotypical bad teen.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not make it past the first couple of pages, too cringeworthy.

[Diana Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to put it down

[Flamingcrystal Flamingcrystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Angel versus devil YA story

A clean Young Adult, angel versus devil , christian story that I would recommend to all Young Adults and older readers too.

[Mary Findley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bringing Light, Casting Shadows

Many friends and blog readers may be offended that I have read and am reviewing a book sometimes classified as "Christian Horror." Calling it an oxymoron or worse, some people say horror has no place in Christianity.
What is appropriate to write and call Christian is a big area of disagreement. Workshops, seminars and conferences teach biblical standards. I have different beliefs and standards from Lisa Grace. Many people will reject this book without reading it because they don't think they would agree with all it teaches. That would be a mistake.
Lisa Grace has said, "Nothing is more horrible than going to Hell and being without the love of your Creator. I find Christianity and horror extremely compatible for this reason. Why do people commit suicide? Because they lack hope and love." Most of the modern definitions of horror don't fit this book. There are no undead. There is no gruesome violence or dwelling on the occult. She deals with both good and bad spiritual power but in a pretty down-to-earth way, at the risk of resorting to a pun.
Seth, a character in the book, is a growing Christian, as any teenager might be. He joins the spiritual rollercoaster ride with his girlfriend Megan (the main character) and shows faith, patience and dependability not everyone would be able to manage. Seth learns that we can sometimes fight the good fight without wholly understanding it, and grow into better understanding of our spiritual battles along the way.
I found technical flaws in the book. The writing style is intended to be simple, to reach more readers, but I think a cleaner, more traditional attention to style and mechanics would not hurt its influence much. The handling of angels living among us and interacting with humans was also a bit clumsy at times. I am not sure their consistent physical presence, like Grace portrays, would really be compatible with an angel's mission either to help man to good or to tempt man to evil.
People in the story say they don't have enough knowledge of the Scriptures but little attention is given to more study. The book seems to portray some loose personal standards as compatible with Christianity. While we all come to the Cross with baggage, mental and physical, we need to learn what has to be left at the Cross or quickly discarded.
The book shows a sex and drug party. Little detail is given. The evil angel is active in temptations there. The lifestyle is shown as wrong, resulting in death and terrible consequences. Teenage sex is also there, without real detail, and it is shown to be wrong.
Adults, even Christian ones, are portrayed as weak and are disturbingly uninvolved in their children's Christian lives. Megan's mother automatically disbelieves her account of a lifesaving event. Parents and adults are purposefully excluded from the main spiritual warfare of the book. I did not care for this obliviousness, though I know it is sometimes true. We as writers are here to edify, not reinforce what may be true but we acknowledge is wrong. I object to running down parents and lifting up teenagers as superior beings.
This book has a FANTASTIC occurrence near the end drawn from real life experience. The book is worth reading just to see how God can work even in the most impossible circumstances and concerns an issue crucial to our times and our Christian and human natures. It is one of the best descriptions of characters and events I have ever read.

[Kathleen (Kat) Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Megan Laughlin looks like any other average high school girl except for one unique thing. She has the ability to see angels. Not only is she able to see their glowing light that surrounds them identifying them no matter how hard they try to blend in, God's given her a gift into the unseen realm.

She finds out about this unique gift when she begins seeing things that she wonders if she isn't going crazy. One of her camp counselors, Mr. Z as he is know about camp is glowing. Thinking perhaps he may be dying of some radioactive disease, he asks her one morning at the beginning of camp, just what she sees. She tells him that he glows. He laughs and then proceeds to enlighten her on his true identity of being called by God to help Megan with her gift and the coming evil that's headed her way.

Megan fears that even though she loves Seth, her boyfriend, who is also a believer, he may not understand her gift and would end their relationship. So Megan struggles with using her gift of sight during the 8 days at camp. During this time she sees evil spirits that manifest as a dark shadow like cloud, while the dark angels who can change forms into whatever they desire are the ones see is advised to stay away from.

When she returns home from camp, she soon learns that their is a new kid in town, who is very popular in school, Damon Vincente Lawless or D.V.L. for short. Nice initials huh? Now its a battle for the very lives of those she attends school with and for Damon this is a game about soul winning and he isn't about to lose.

In the first book in the Angels in the Shadow series, so we begin the battle brewing between good and evil, heaven and hell and even angels and demons. Angel in the Shadows, Book 1, by Lisa Grace will have you glued to the pages of the first book. I literally inhaled it in two hours and could not put it down. The only disappointing thing was it ended too quickly. I could have read this book all night long for how well written it was. It literally pulls the reader in from the first page.

Even Amazon has placed it in the top 10 as one of the most downloaded teen books!! She has also been interviewed by CBS on her books as well! I can easily see why. Now that I have finished the first and Lisa was kind enough to send me the second one, well you can imagine where I will be after writing this review, back into book 2, Angel in the Storm just to see where this one picks up. I know I will not be disappointed. This book easily rates a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. This series is just as good as the Twilight series but deals with reality instead of fictional vampires and werewolves.

I received this ebook compliments of Lisa Grace for my honest review and am so glad God blessed me with the opportunity to review this one. I can't wait for my oldest daughter, whose 18 to pick this one up.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say, this book really challenged me in the review department because I can't really fit this book neatly into one primary genre. This book is definately Christian Fiction, but not your mama's Cfiction! It's teen Christian Fiction - younger teens primarily in the first half, but older teens would enjoy the second half. It also has YA Paranormal appeal because of the contemporary setting and good/evil angel battles. It definately has a refreshing approach to battling evil in fiction.

Megan starts seeing a glow around a camp counselor only to find out he's an angel. Not only does she have the gift to see good angels, she can also see dark angels. Because of her gift - the dark angels are after her. When school starts, she meets dark angel, Jude who wants company in his eternal lake of fire. Jude is posing as a student and doing everything he can to influence other students to make bad choices - some that eventually lead to death and eternity with him. Fortunately for Megan, she meets Johnny, a good angel also posing as a student, and forms a team of Christian friends that together come up with strategies to save their friends before Jude destroys them.

What stood out the most to me was the sheer creepiness of the evil - definately felt like I should wear something like an enormous cross necklace. Just kidding! I know you can't fight evil with jewelry (unless you are into vampires), but it would be a good reminder of who can overcome evil barehanded and blindfolded.

Megan - oh if I ever had a daughter I hope she'd be just like Megan! But for a main character I felt she was a little too perfect to relate to most of the time. Jude's character was very well written - his mannerisms, his sly tricks to get people to do his work and his brazen attack on Megan's character made me want to keep my eyes on him at all times and even after I put the book down I felt like he could be just around the corner.

The biggest surprise was the cliffhanger ending. Angel in the Shadows is currently in the top 20 for teen fiction at Amazon! Be watching for seven more books in the series - one every three months to satisfy readers of Christian fiction, Teen Christian Fiction and YA Paranormal lit. I have a feeling book two, Angel in the Storm, will be even more exciting. You can find Angel in the Shadows at Amazon and become an Angel-Friend of Lisa Grace at lisagracebooks(dot)com. I give Angel in the Shadows four**** angel-glow stars!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I'm not actually sure where I got this book from, I know that sounds bad but it really is a mystery to me. It's been on my kindle app for ages and I never got round to reading it. I've just searched back through my emails to find out who sent it to me and apologise for the very delayed review but there is no email. I don't delete request emails until they are 'completed' and even then I tend to put them in a folder, so I am stumped.
Anyway, I finally got round to reading it, however long it's been on there. It's not a very long book, I read it in about 3 hours.
From the blurb I knew there would be some reference to God and Christianity etc but I didn't realise just how much there would be. I am a Christian so I of course don't object to talk about God and religion, but this did feel a little bit too preachy. So if a good Christian adventure is your taste then you will love this, but if not, it's probably not for you. The author clearly has very strong beliefs and she puts them across throughout the book, I admire her firm beliefs and I will admit I learnt some things I didn't necessarily know before.
As for the actual storyline, it was well thought out and quite compelling, I wanted to know more and actually read this book in one go. There is enough mystery, adventure and action to keep you hooked and everything moves on at a good pace.
THe voice/narrative grated me a little bit, it was very descriptive and written a little bit like a log, I didn't feel Megan's voice ring out to me, it was more telling me what was happening than showing me. I felt like a spectator, on the outside looking in. It didn't feel like I really got to know Megan or any of the other characters. And in some places the tenses would shift, (not direct quotes) but from 'we sat and talked as the evening passed' to 'If I hadn't have waited then it might not have got worse'. These rare moments do make you feel like she is talking to you as a reader, but they are very out of place and kind of make the story slightly disjointed.
Despite that, I did enjoy the story, as I said before it was very gripping and leaves on a cliffhanger that made me want to dive into book 2, which mysteriously I had on there too and am now halfway through (look for review tomorrow).

Although there were issues with narrative and over preachy, this book was a good read and I must say I enjoyed reading it. So wherever it came from, thanks.

[Alana Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

God versus the Devil, good angels versus bad angels; this is the ultimate good versus evil story.

It's book 1 in Grace's The angel series, the first two of which have had the film rights optioned. Book 1, and I presume the rest in the series, are aimed very much at the young adult reader. I imagine the film will have a much broader appeal but I could be wrong as I don't know much about movie targeting and what brings in the money.

Megan lives in the suburban beach town of Clearwater, Florida, and is pleased that she's finally old enough to be a junior counsellor at summer camp. She's bouncing with excitement on the bus trip because she'll be reunited with Seth, the boy she loves. She has no inkling that she'll be a very different person by the time camp is over. One worry that will be solved for her by camp end is why she sees people who shine. Who'd have thought she could see angels! It's a relief to know that it's real and not caused by a brain tumour. Book 1 sets the scene for what I anticipate will be an epic battle for Megan, chosen by God to fight evil incarnate in the form of bad angel Judas.

One of the things I like about this book is that it's a full length novel. Many series take advantage of the electronic format to deliver shorter books.

I was disappointed that it finished on a cliffhanger. That's obviously the hook to get me to buy the next installment but as a reader I prefer the books in series to be complete. If I enjoy the first one I don't need a cliffhanger to entice me into wanting to read the rest.

I like the message Grace is sending: be brave enough to stand by your principles and beliefs. Not easy when you're a teenager and want to be accepted by your peers.

My one criticism is that at times I found the language and dialogue stilted.

But it's not hard to see why a film is in the works. With CGI magic the visuals should be terrific.

The book should appeal to readers who like the genre.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I equally liked and was annoyed by this book.
Liked:
- Megan is a normal girl from a normal family. She is a good girl, has a belief in God, and that's just who she is.
- Meg's boyfriend is also a decent guy, with a good family and a belief in God.
- These things are not seen as being detractors to the characters. They also are not perfect, nor are they seen as stupid, gullible, or boring (at least to the reader) (though I would have liked to see a bit more development, especially of her boyfriend)
- I was eternally grateful that Meg did not fall in love with an angel.
- As the story progresses, there is quite a bit of tension and not everything is solved easily, and this tension is not based in Meg's love life.
- Many of the secondary characters are interesting and some of them are pretty well rounded as people.
- I like the concept of having spiritual warfare in a YA with the main character receiving the ability to see angels and demons without it being sensationalized.
- There is a grounding in scripture.

Annoyed:
- The writing itself was unpolished. There is a lot of potential, but it feels about 3 drafts shy of being well edited.
- Many of the characters (especially the adults) are very flat and/or merely placeholders.
- Mr. Z (the first angel Meg meets) seems to have basically zero purpose except to tell her about her gift. He says she has 8 days to ask him questions, but then routinely makes himself unavailable. I just didn't understand the purpose of the camp altogether, actually.
- While I appreciated the grounding in scripture, there are times where the tone turns a bit too didactic and times where it's too preachy for the audience.
- There are a lot of stereotypes and stereotypical events. And all packed in together. And a cliffhanger that comes so abruptly the book doesn't feel finished at all.

I enjoyed bits and pieces but not enough to have any desire to read the next book.

[LadyCalico · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I am a senior citizen I do not shy away from YA stories and enjoy those that are good novels whose characters just happen to be Young Adults. However, this is not one of them; this is truly a YA novel aimed at a YA level for Youth alone, maybe 14 and under. However, some of the subject matter may be too mature for young tweens, yet the style of writing was too immature for older teens--so I can't tell what age group the author was targeting. Maybe some parents might consider this a good teen book, but I doubt very many young folks would agree. The book did have a lot of pluses and there was a lot I did enjoy, but the main character's holier-than-thou preaching at (not to) her friends was very poorly done. If the author felt she had some important messages to send to young teens, lecturing at them is exactly the way NOT to reach them, and the silly sermonizing accomplished nothing except to make the heroine too obnoxious to care about. Let's just say the author chose the wrong style of evangelism for Youths. In real life, I doubt the little shrew would have any friends at all and certainly not a boyfriend. I really love Christian fiction like Frank Peretti's in which the action takes place on two levels, spiritual warfare in the spiritual realm mirroring real-life struggles in the earthly realm, but the heroine's self-righteous monologues ruined the more original and interesting elements of the plot. I would have considered this a really good teen book if the author had just let the story speak for itself and knocked the obnoxious little haranguer off her soapbox before she drove the young readers away.

[Mlpmom (Book Reviewer) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

I had heard so many good things about this book that I was pretty excited to read it.

So you can understand my disappointment when I started it and it just wasn't what I thought it would be.

Don't get my wrong, the storyline is a nice one but what ended up happening, at least for me, is that I felt like I was being preached to throughout the whole book.

Sometimes this works and sometimes it just doesn't. In this case it just didn't work. It was a little over the top for me and I am so sad about that.

I really truly wanted to love this book but I just couldn't.

It always saddens me when that happens and I do realize that this is a first novel for the author and the first book in a series but I still wouldn't be honest with myself if I rated this higher than 3 stars.

I think with a little less preaching and more actual action and storyline this could really have been a much better book, first in a series or not.

I think maybe I am the wrong age group too, I can see this appealing more to the tween market.

I would like to say that I would be willing to give the second book a try but I think this is just a series I will have to pass on. It just wasn't for me.

[A.Lux · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.5)Nothing wrong with a Christian novel, just wasn't expecting it to be very black and white, good vs. evil. I'm not Christian, nor am I an atheist, but this felt preachy. A little too much religion in it, I remember reading The Dark Divine and people that had too much religion in it, and it wasn't really even a big factor in that story.

But this? I dont know. I didn't mind it, its just, kind of annoying, I mean I get why the author did it and why she did it to get some of the story across, but I guess I was expecting something different? Okay, okay, I'll admit I was hoping for a paranormal romance. Girl falling in love with the bad guy, no matter how cliche and overused, we never really stop loving those kind of stories, but this wasn't it.

I have to admit though, even though I love me some bad-boy, mysterious guy, and a part of me always roots for them--this is me leading up to say--I liked Judas out of all the characters, and not just because he is evil and dangerous, to me, he was the most interesting out of all the characters. All in all it was okay story.

[Savannah (Books With Bite) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved stories of heaven and hell. Good vs. Evil. So when this book came upon my lap, I knew I wanted to read it right away. This book started off slow for me, and it slowly picked up the pace of the book.

What I like most about this book is the plot. I loved reading about the war raging and growing on earth's plane. Megan has been gifted by God and knows that she must do everything in her power to fight. I loved that Megan didn't depend on any super powers but merely her faith in God. Megan faith is strong and the hope that she gives the reader raises faith in them as well. One thing I didn't like is that Megan felt to mature. She is after all a 15 year old.

The plot line of this book is slow and little predictable. I kept waiting for something more to pop up at me. While I enjoyed the angels, faith, and God, this book did grab my attention as I wanted it to.

Overall, this book is a good book. It has great morals in it, lots of faith and truth about a war that is going on even now. If you want a book with real biblical truth, then this book is for you.

[Pat Dyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine her awe when a gifted, fifteen-year-old high school student, Megan, discovers that she can see angels; then her shock when she realizes she not only sees God’s angels, but evil ones as well. She seems to take it all in stride, however, realizing that with her newfound ability comes responsibility—to try to keep her friends, classmates, and even family from being deceived, injured, or even killed by the evil angel,Jude/Judas/Damon.

The young protagonist’s faith in God keeps her strong through the various situations and is a guiding testimony to some of her friends to whom she seeks to share the Gospel message of salvation. The contemporary perspective hits today’s teen dilemmas head-on and sets the stage for convincing young people to think about moral choices they must make, as well as consequences of their actions both good and bad. I’m happy to see a book series with a Christian perspective that appeals to today’s teens without seeming too “preachy.”

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book would appeal to a very specific audience, namely, preteen or young teenage Christian girls. I had no idea when going into this book just how strong the religious themes of this book would be. Though I am Christian, I still felt like this book was very clearly trying to advocate for certain moral choices and demonise other decisions one might make. That alone would likely turn off many less traditional Christian or any non Christian readers and it even bothered me sometimes.

The story and writing are simple. Again, they're appropriate for a younger and less experienced reader. That said, there were some abbreviations the author used that were never explained and that I did not inherently know.

All in all, it wasn't a bad book, but it just definitely wasn't the sort of book that appeals to me.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fight between good and evil is surrounding us day and night. Angels and demons are fighting before our very eyes and no one can see them. Well almost no one. Megan though that her summer was going to be normal, but she discovers something shocking. She can see the good and evil around her. When she gets back to school she discovers an angel and they become fast friends and none too soon. A boy that goes by many names appears and starts to tear apart their lives. No one knows who will get hurt next or if it will be deadly.

This book was thoroughly interesting and I really enjoyed it. The only thing that idid not like was that the Kindle version had quite q few spelling mistakes. In addition this book was very simply written and was very clear. Meaning it is for a younger audience. It is still a good book for anyone to read and have already recommended it to many people.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!!!! What a powerful book! I couldn't put it down. It left me on a cliffhanger and now I *have* to read the other books! She does a wonderful job of helping people understand that there is a Spiritual battle going on. Angles and Demons are real and they are here. Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they're not here or not real.

I read the Kindle version and did see some typos. Hear for here and a couple of words like that that spell check will not pick up on. But, overall I REALLY, REALLY enjoyed this book. Wonderful YA book that I hope my kids will read.

Thank you so much Lisa Grace. I look forward to reading more of this series! Keep up the good work and God Bless you!