Monday, January 20, 2014

Book review: The Second Sign by Elizabeth Arroyo


Bred to believe in the war between angels and demons, Gabby has come to the conclusion that love is responsible for war, jealousy, and all the other deadly sins she can think of. So when she’s exiled to the middle of nowhere for getting kicked out of her fifth school for fighting, she doesn't expect to meet Jake. Much less fall in love. But Jake is quickly drawn to the eerie beauty of her violet eyes while Gabby is unsettled by their undeniable connection.

When a demon guardian comes to collect her soul, she refuses to give it up. She’s not a demon. She can’t be. Her father and twin brother are angels. The demon gives Gabby twenty-four hours to decide her allegiance, and then starts killing her short list of friends, leaving a message behind: She is the Second Sign.

As Gabby and Jake begin to unravel the mystery behind the Second Sign, she learns Jake may be the key to saving her soul. But it means a sacrifice has to be made that will change their lives forever.


This book was given to me for free in return for an honest review.

Well, it seems the next few books I’m reviewing will be Christian mythos ones; I have the sequel to The Blessed after this, and the sequel to this book after that.  Is basing books around Christian mythology becoming more popular in the last few years?  I mean I’ve seen it before with the Hush, Hush series and its angels, so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me.  And it is a welcome change from all the vampires.

I had mixed feelings about The Second Sign.  On the one hand, for most of the book, it’s pretty well-written, and I didn’t find myself annoyed with the main characters, which is always a plus.  The deeper you get, the more complex the plot gets, and you realize just how intricately the author has worked on weaving this together so that nothing is pointless and everyone has a role to play.  It also doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to violence, which can be seen as a plus for people who are tired of things always getting solved in a fade-to-black or in an easier way.  For God’s sake, a girl gets her limbs pulled off her body one-by-one.  I couldn’t help but wince at that.

There are a few things that bugged me about the story, though.  Sometimes the fight scenes got so convoluted that I had no idea what was going on anymore.  There are times when things don’t add up or the plot doesn’t quite fit, such as how Jake and Jenna got all the way from California to Maine in so little time when all they had was a truck.  Traveling at all seems to be glossed over considering the book runs into the same problem with their father when he goes to see them; if he was in California, how’d he get to coastal Maine in just a few hours?  And there’s the problem that the book has the tendency to use words that are very similar to what should actually be used but aren’t that word, which throws things off.  Considering how often it happens, I’d have to say the editing job wasn’t quite up to par.


All-in-all an okay book.  It gets points for taking place in Maine, since so few books do.  Despite its flaws I’d say it’s worth a read.

No comments:

Post a Comment