Review: "No Angel" by Theresa Sneed

After being forced (by life, December, everything in general) to read "No Angel" in spurts that were sometimes separated by several weeks, I finally finished! Woo-hoo! This makes two "angel" themed books I've read so far during the latest craze. ("Fallen" being the other; liked this one better!) Read on for the review!

The Point of the Plot:

Jonathan Stewart only goes to earth to fulfill his Guardian Angel duties because he has to. And he picks a spirit marked for an early death to get the experience over with as quickly as possible. But along the way, Jonathan learns a lot about who he is, who his friends are, and exactly what he got into by choosing Celeste.

Basically Believable: ****

Theresa has all her ducks in a line when it comes to making this plot work. The "organization" of Heaven stands out and makes the threads all come together. Having that kind of structure helps make everything go for the book. I only had two troubles with believability in the book; one I'll talk about with characters. The other: during Jonathan's experience in the "Root Room" (for lack of a proper name), I found it difficult to picture what was going on or understand exactly what Jonathan was doing and why. 

Charismatic Characters: ****

In "No Angel" readers spend the bulk of their time with Jonathan and one of his companion guardian angels, Grace. As far as characters go, these two walk the walk and talk the talk. Jonathan starts out as a snarky, reluctant "gangel" with frustrated Grace having to point out everything! These two stay true to this, even at the worst of times, which speaks out to their credibility. I take issue with only one thing (as I mentioned above): in Heaven readers are introduced to Jonathan as a guy who does everything by the book. Yet time after time he doesn't follow the biggest rule--to read the manual. After one, maybe two, mishaps because he missed something in the manual, I expected Jonathan to sit down one night and do a cover-to-cover; but it never happened, which seemed off to me. 

Yay or Yuck, The Final Word: ****

A "yay" for sure. Despite that the narrative sometimes feels like too-much-information, it's still a great read. Especially toward the end my husband got sort of annoyed that I didn't want to put it down to, say, make dinner or attend to the kids. :) I'm definitely anxious to read about more of the characters, which as I've said many times before, is definitely the hallmark of a good book.

You can buy "No Angel" in paperback or for Kindle here. And coming tomorrow: an interview with the author, Theresa Sneed!