Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Title: Unearthly
Author:  Cynthia Hand
Published: January 4th 2011 by HarperTeen
Hardback: 435 pages

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, I love pretty book covers.  So it was no surprise when I spotted Cynthia Hand's Unearthly on the shelves in mid December and bought it straight away, with barely a glance at the synopsis.  When I did read the synopsis, I knew Unearthly was going to be a page turner.  I draws you in from the very first page, and doesn't wait to get into all the juicy parts, which is a quality I love in books.  It's so much more fun getting straight into it instead of waffling for a while and THEN the good stuff starts happening.

But no, from the very first pages we learn that Clara is part-angel, or an "angel blood."  Obviously, this means that she has angel blood running through her veins, although she's not a full blooded angel.  Clara is referred to as "Quartarius" meaning she's a quarter angel and her mother half angel.  We also get to learn that each angel blood has a "purpose" which they must fulfil.  A purpose is the crucial rite of passage for every part-angel.  Clara has visions of her purpose where she feels as though she is right there in the vision as opposed to seeing it happening in front of her. 

Clara's purpose leads her to Wyoming, where her visions of a terrifying bush fire occur and where she meets the boy that appears in her visions, Christian.  The only problem is that Clara has no idea what she has to do (does she have to save Christian or something else?) or even when the fire occurs.  So a large portion of the first part of the book is Clara coming to terms with her purpose and her angel-blood status.

What I liked about Unearthly is how it's a very different angel book compared to others I have read, like Hush, Hush and Fallen which are both amazing books.  I love how Clara doesn't need to be saved, and as opposed to being the damsel in distress she's a heroine.  All the fantasy/paranormal books that I have read seem to have the male love interest as the mysterious, handsome not-human, and the female protagonist is always ordinary.  Now, I love that, the fact that we are able to relate to the protagonist but I also like to read books that wander of the usual track of keeping the girl human and the dreamy character a paranormal entity.

Now, Clara thinks that she has to get close to or even date Christian, after all he is what she considers her dream guy. But then along comes her classmate Tucker, and she soon realises she has feelings for him as well.  So of course Unearthly fills one of the main paranormal tropes called "the love triangle" but I love love triangles. I don't think I'd ever get bored of them. But, yes, immediately she's drawn to Christian who she thinks she has to save and he's such a nice, well-mannered kid.  But Tucker is the opposite to Christian, as he's cocky and a jerk.  Although you soon find out he's rude to Clara because he likes her, I found Tucker to be annoying at times because of this behaviour.  But his early actions are somewhat justified as the book progresses. 

So, now Clara finds herself torn between fulfilling her purpose or following her heart (even I admit, that is kind of a hard decision. Hot guy or possible really bad consequence to not fulfilling your purpose? Hmm...).  But you find yourself asking can she have both? You'll have to grab a copy of Unearthly for the answer.  However, Clara soon finds out that her love life and her purpose are only two small pieces of a one thousand piece puzzle as she discovers the existance of a war between the angels and their devilish counterparts, the Black Wings. 

Now onto the topic of Clara's family.  Her father doesn't play a huge part in her life as he lives in New York.  It's never really revealed if he knows anything about her angel heritage, but I'm fairly sure he might play a bigger part in the series as it progresses.  Clara and her mother are really tight knit, however as Clara begins having visions of her purpose and asking questions of angel lore that her mother carefully shrouds and avoids, Clara is left feeling stung and her relationship with her mother fractures.  She has a younger brother called Jeffrey who seems like a minor character in Unearthly but I'm assuming as he gets older and the series progresses that his powers will become more apparent and important, for reasons that I will not delve into here. You'll have to read the book.  

But if there is one thing that let me down a bit, it was the ending.  The plot line and synopsis of Unearthly leads you to believe it will have a really suspenseful ending and be really climactic throughout, but I found that that wasn't the case which was disappointing.  The ending wasn't as suspenseful as I'd anticipated and I wouldn't have minded some more twists and turns in the story line and conflict.  But overall it was a really, really good read and a great debut novel.  I'd highly recommend going and grabbing a copy from a library or bookstore.  I'm eagerly waiting for the next installments in the Unearthly series and I don't want to wait til next year!