#CBR10 Bingo: Backlog – Outcast

3.5 stars

#CBR10Bingo: Backlog (has been on my TBR list since June 2013)

Riley Carver lives in a little town somewhere in the Southern USA. For the past six years, on a particular day, angels come from the heavens and take away some of the townspeople. One year ago, the angels took Riley’s best friend, almost boyfriend, Chris. So she’s refusing to to leave the house (even though the whole town is supposed to the public celebration – or face strong censure), and when she sees an angel in the backyard, she shoots it in the face. Imagine her surprise when she finds a hot naked guy in place of the angel. Riley locks the unconscious guy in her father’s tool shed, determined to question him when he wakes up.

Turns out, the hot naked guy has absolutely no memory of being an angel, and can’t tell Riley a thing about where they go or why they’re abducting townspeople every year. In fact, Gabe McClure thinks it’s still the 1950s, which is apparently when he was snatched by the angels. Obviously, Riley can’t keep him locked up in the shed for ever, so she gets him some clothes and soon he’s used his charm to convince her mother he’s been hired as a handyman and promised room and board, and he enrols in Riley’s school and becomes super popular with his good looks and general James Dean vibe.

Gabe doesn’t seem to take all that long to adjust to modern times, and while he and Riley don’t spend a lot of time together in school, they work together to try to figure out the mystery of the angels and the kidnappings in their spare time. Why did the angels snatch a group of people in 1956 and then no one for another fifty years or so? Why are they returning annually now? Is the creepy Pastor Warren in league with the angels somehow? How can Riley and her motley band of allies (because of course she recruits some) get the missing townspeople back?

Ah, the joys of reviewing something about a month and a half after I actually finished it. Luckily, the plot of Outcast is quite memorable, even though I can’t give you the names of specific supporting characters or an exact time frame without looking stuff up (and I really can’t be bothered).

Full review on my blog.