Book Review: Heavenward

This review is part of a blog tour for Heavenward by Olga Gibbs, set up by the lovely Melanie’s Fraser Fun House.

Synopsis

With the power to end the world, would you protect humanity when it broke you or would you take revenge?

Meet Ariel: a quiet, unnoticeable girl with an incredible gift…

Ariel never had an easy or pleasant life, but the arrival of three gorgeous strangers meant her measured life is turned upside down, as she discovers that angels exist.

Now against her will, she’s drawn into an ancient celestial conflict, where her powers will decide the fate of humanity.

Deceived, threatened, hunted and now on the run, who can she trust?

My thoughts

I was immediately captivated by the whole celestial aspect of the story. You see witches and vampires in YA fantasy much more than you see angels, and since I’m a massive SPN fan, the angelic side of this book had me hooked.
The book was a fairly quick and easy read while doing a good job at maintaining the element of surprise. The overall pacing went well with the length of book – the beginning of it had a slower pace but picked up later on and the story just blossomed into an even better experience.
Olga is fantastic at creating a world and scenes that are so vivid and descriptive that it easily transports you into the story with the characters, whether that be in a place with humans or angels. I loved how rich the details were, from the issues our main character Ariel faces to even the minute features of the people surrounding her.
I have to give Olga credit for doing a good job with how she handled the more sensitive topics of this book, such as abuse and mental health. Even though this book is aimed at teenage girls, and I’m not a teenage girl anymore, I thought that the way she incorporated these issues into the story was very well done in terms of her target audience. I also very much liked how she sculpted a lot of Ariel’s personality around these events that impacted her and I felt like I could relate to Ariel in the way that she just wants to stay out of things and not draw attention to herself. I’m sure it’s even more relatable to the actual teens that will/have read this book and I’m even more sure that Ariel being pretty relatable is appreciated by most.
I don’t recall finding any grammatical errors, which is refreshing. The only thing I took some issue with was in the first half of the book and in some scenes, the flow just felt off. I noticed this most during Ariel’s dreams and episodes. They certainly gave a lot of insight into more of what the main character had gone through and was still going through so I do think those scenes were still necessary. I just think the flow could have been a tad bit more worked on.

In Conclusion

Overall, I absolutely loved this book and was so happy to be a part of this blog tour! I’m very much looking forward to the next installment and would encourage anyone who loves angelic lore, fantasy, or really just YA books in general to grab a copy of this book. You won’t be disappointed! 4/5 stars.

Author Bio

Olga Gibbs lives in a leafy-green town, nestled amongst the green fields of West Sussex, England. She was writing from the age of fifteen, mainly short stories and novellas. She was also a guest columnist for a local newspaper. When she is not dreaming up new adventures for her imaginary friends, she does outreach work with teenagers. She is currently writing a second book in the “Celestial creatures” series and another stand-alone psychological crime thriller book.

Author Links

Website: https://olgagibbs.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgagibbsauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgagibbsauthor/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorOlgaGibbs/

Purchase Links

Available to buy from (multi link)

Amazon US

Book Depository

Want this book for free? We’ve been given the opportunity to offer for you guys to read Heavenward for free, available for December 2018! Just follow this link to the Celestial Club, sign up, and wait to receive your free e-copy! Click here!