No Sparkly Vampires or Helpless Females here.

I wasn’t going to read this book.  I have already declared a moratorium on post-apocalyptic trilogies starring plucky youngsters sprinkled in fairy dust that are the saviors of the entire world.  Especially since this is one of those series that is self-published on Amazon and included in the free Kindle library.

But the other day I was looking for something fast paced and interesting and this one was free so I gave it a shot.

It’s fairly obvious that the heroine, Penryn is modeled after Katniss Everdeen.  She has an absent father (ran away) a useless mother (Schizophrenic and off of her medication) and a vulnerable little sister (paraplegic from an incident before the events in the series.)  Because of the incident that caused her sister’s injuries and her mother’s fear that she will harm her children, Penryn has been taking self-defense classes for many years.  This experience comes in handy when the End of Days begins and angels start destroying cities and mass-murdering humans.  The series starts about six weeks after  the first angel attacks and the city that Penryn and her family live in has become home to desperate street gangs and not much else.  The family sets out to forage their way into the surrounding areas where it might be a little easier to live.  As they start to make their way through town, they witness a group of angels attack another one and cut his wings off.  Penryn assists the angel in part to create a diversion so her family can escape.  This backfires spectacularly and sets her up to care for the enemy so as to be able to rescue her sister.

There are a couple of things the author does that sets this story apart from some of the others in this genre.  First the attacks are global and intense.  The Angels are extremely powerful and difficult to kill, but they are susceptible to lots of bullets and the humans do fight back.  There are resistance fighters and warring factions and the presence of a higher power that is MIA.  While Penryn is capable and makes smart decisions, she is also realistically flawed and susceptible to romantic delusions.  The romantic subplot is a little iffy, but hopefully the other sci-fi elements of the story will keep the saccharine schmaltz to a minimum.