Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom

or, just adopt me (come on George, I know you would love a 28 year old daughter)....but seriously, how can you not want to pick up a book with a title like that?  It just begs to be read.

Here is the synopsis off Goodreads
Violet's TV-director dad has traded a job in Vancouver for one in Los Angeles, their run-down house for a sleek ranch-style home complete with a pool, and, worst of all, Violet's mother for a trophy wife, a blonde actress named Jennica. Violet's younger sister reacts by bed-wetting, and her mother ping-pongs from one loser to another, searching for love. As for Violet, she gets angry in ways that are by turns infuriating, shocking, and hilarious.
When her mother takes up with the unfortunately named Dudley Wiener, Violet and her friend Phoebe decide that they need to take control. If Violet's mom can't pick a decent man herself, they will help her snag George Clooney.
In Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom, Susin Nielsen has created a truly original protagonist in Violet and a brilliant new novel that will delight readers into rooting for her, even when she's at her worst.
And with a synopsis like that, I was picturing "laugh out loud" hijinx (ok, there were some really cute parts about Violet only answering her father with phrases from a Magic 8 Ball, or when she crashed into George Clooney's car), but overall, there wasn't much. 

I found the book to be pretty predictable and I felt like I had read it before.  Who hasn't imagined what it would be like if one of their parents were famous, felt like a younger or half-sibling was loved more, or felt like they just weren't good enough?  Other deja-vu scenes included Violet and Phoebe stalking her mother's boyfriend, Violet's second trip to LA, and just how her mother handled her relationship with Dudley.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 on goodreads, but only because goodreads doesn't do half stars.  In reality, I'd give it a 3.5 because while it wasn't horrible (I can see children going through a divorce really liking this book), it was just too predictable for my tastes. 

Angelfire

Synopsis from Goodreads:
 This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.

Ok, my turn at a synopsis:
Angelfire is the story of Ellie, a typical (rich) suburban Detroit teenager.  She hangs out with her friends, she's having trouble with some classes, but there is this mysterious boy that shows up out of nowhere at her school.

The boy, Will, claims that Ellie is a Preliator (warrior guardian sent by God to protect souls from being harvested by Lucifer in the Second Coming) and that he is her guardian.  He tells her that she has been reincarnated several times and is always charged with this task.  Ellie (for some reason) doesn't initially believe Will.  Until a reaper (a fallen being who sends souls to Hell) attacks her.  Ellie doesn't want to believe Will, but comes around.

They do the normal teen stuff (party, hang out, schoolwork, etc), and Ellie explains Will's presence to her friends as being her new tutor.  While Will does help her with her schoolwork, they are together to train and hunt these demonic beings.

Eventually, they learn that Bastian, the main reaper, is after this ancient being that will basically kill Ellie and bring on the Apocolyse.  So, Ellie and Will find the being and dump it into the ocean to destroy it.  We also learn who/what Ellie really is.
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What I liked about the book:
Ellie and Will's relationship seemed very real to me.  They didn't instantly fall in love, they didn't pretend to hate each other but secretly love each other, they acted like two normal people getting to know each other.

I felt bad for Ellie because of the situation with her Dad.  I kept thinking that he might have been a shape-shifting reaper and that she would eventually have to kill him.  I was a little disappointed that this drama wasn't played out more, but I was also happy that she didn't have to kill him (maybe in the sequel).


What I didn't like:
I found the book hard to get into.  The subject matter was interesting, but I think it could have been whittled down a little more, there was just too much going on.

All in all:
it was an ok book.  There wasn't anything, for me, that made it stand out from all the other paranormal YA (romantical type) books.  I would give it a 3 out of 5 (not the best book I've ever read, but if there was a sequel, I'd get it from the library just to see how everything played out.)

 Angelfire is written by Courtney Alison Moulton and published by HarperCollins.

*I downloaded a digital copy of this book for free via NetGalley in return for a fair review*