REVIEW: UNEARTHLY BY CYNTHIA HAND.

Title: Unearthly
Author: Cynthia Hand
Series: Unearthly #1
Edition: Paperback, International
Publication: January 4th 2011 by HarperTeen
Source: Bought from Fullybooked
Pages: 439
Genre: Paranormal, Romance

Synopsis:

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.

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After loving Fallen, The Revenants, The Mortal Instruments and disliking Hush, Hush series, I was skeptical about Unearthly. I thought I had too many angel-inspired books and I was actually afraid this would disappoint me so I kept ignoring it until one day, the book lover in me won and finally surrendered to the book store's cashier.

Unearthly tells a story about Clara, an Quartarius (quarter blood) angel-blood who needs to fulfill her only purpose here on Earth. She needs to save a young man in her fiery vision which then leads her and her family to move from California to Wyoming. When she gets to her new high school, she's drawn to Christian, a high school heart throb which happens to be the man in her visions. She needs to work and train to be ready for her purpose only to be side-tracked by another beautiful yet annoying young man, Tucker.

Unearthly was not what I expected it to be. It actually exceeded whatever I was so surprised with how much I got excited as I flip each page. The modern world where the story took place fits perfectly to the story and what I love about it is you could actually Earth Google it. The premise isn't too complex yet bizarre enough to leave you mad for answers. I loved how it made me my emotions change drastically from sad to happy and how I could easily relate to the situations the characters are in.

One of the so many things that made me proud of Hand is that she made a male character normal. This is the first time I've ever read something like this and I am so happy about it at least for once, I was able to know a normal male character. Clara, though an angle-blood, is your typical teenager going through normal things. Her feelings and attitude are definitely relatable and her eagerness to find answers about her being is also something you'd die to know. Hand did another outstanding job in cliffhanging a lot of things here. We are all in this limited understanding of what Clara's heritage is all about and good thing is, so does Clara. I love her mood swings, her hair (not the Carrots one) and my favorite part is the Glory. It's unique I guess and thrilling.

I know a lot of you who have read this would say that there's a love triangle. At first I thought there's a love triangle forming but when I finished the book, it turned out something different for me. I understand how Clara would feel for Christian but I never anticipated how she would feel for Tucker. Christian, aside from the fact that he's the one in her visions, is also a very handsome, sweet and respectful young man that every woman would fall for. Tucker on the other hand, aside from handsome, his personality is too strong at the beginning and you would appreciate him as a whole one you get to know him - another kind of guy you would fall for right? But definitely, there's no love triangle there. Because one isn't in love with Clara and I'll leave it like that.

Angel-inspired books are very common especially in Young Adults genre. I am just so happy that I picked Unearthly and completely have my mind blown over its compelling love story and sweetly-written premise that I wish I could have given justice to it through this review. But some good things are better left unsaid. I couldn't wait to get Hallowed and continue this exciting journey!

"So often we only do what we think is expected of us, when we are capable of so much more."