Fallen to Grace

Celestial Downfall, Book 1

By: A.J. Flowers

Narrated by: Alyssa Jewell

Azrael's a wingless angel, and if that wasn't bad enough, she's the only one with a functioning conscience. Her bi-color eyes mark her as a moral hybrid, and when she breaks her enslavement to Manor Saffron by making a deal with a demon, she doesn't expect to become Queen. She'll have to survive her new royal magic, convince a legion of angels she's worth fighting for, and find the breach in her Faustian deal, or risk a new master with horns.

©2016 A.J. Flowers (P)2017 A.J. Flowers

It was alright

I liked the idea but the execution was a little weak. I found myself confused and drifting off a lot. The narrator was good, but there were a couple errors where she repeated a line twice. Overall, if you like angles give fallen to grace a try. It has a new and interesting take on the genre.

Original Take on Good vs Evil

At it's core this was a tale of Good vs Evil but it is written in a very original and captivating way. The world building is on point and the characters are in depth and relatable. The narrator does a fantastic job bringing the stories and characters to life. I look forward to more in this series

Great storyline

A.J. Flowers has written a very interesting and fast paved novel with a different storyline than the average angel and demon book. Enough so that listened to it twice. She is also talented enough to be able to do her own narration. Fallen to Grace is the first book in my new favorite series!

A solid way to spend a few hours of your day

Though I was a bit confused at times regarding the rules of the particular mythos of the novel’s world, the storyline of Fallen to Grace really captured my attention. Flowers’ descriptions were flowery (no pun intended) and profuse, and Azrael was a very loyal and caring protagonist, though I wish she would have been a bit more proactive and less passive. The supporting characters in the book were also interesting—I especially liked Meretta, Azrael’s best friend. I mostly understood how the world of the novel works by the end of the book, and I think it would have been a lot easier for me to follow along from the start had I grown up Christian (though the mythos here definitely differs a bit from that of Christianity), so I’m not faulting the author too much for the confusion, but it would have been nice to have gotten a bit more background upfront.

As I listened to the audiobook version of the novel, I also feel it is prudent that I comment on the narrator’s performance. Her voice fit the story well—light and airy and sweet. I was able to follow along with who was speaking when, based on her different character voices. There were a few times when it felt like she was over-enunciating, and there were two or three occasions when a sentence was repeated and both versions were accidentally left in the audio track (aka, the repetition wasn’t deleted by the producer, as it should have been), but it wasn’t enough to make the listening experience unpleasant for me.

Some pretty big spoilers below (do not continue reading if you don’t want huge spoilers):

There was one thing that really frustrated me, however, and that was the romance plot line. From the way the characters were written, I really thought Azrael and Meretta were going to end up as a couple, and I was extremely excited about reading about a strong, queer, femme couple ruling the world together. However, Meretta was murdered without either of them explicitly professing their love for each other, and it was talked about afterward as a “sisterly” love, even though the whole first ¾ of the book coded it as romantic love. Azrael then ended up with the angel Gabriel, which honestly felt like much less authentic of a love story to me, and more like it was written in there just to make the story more of a “normative” fantasy romance novel.

Despite the initial confusion and the love story disappointment, however, the story hooked me enough that I am going to read the sequel as soon as I get a chance. I would give the book 7/10 stars, but I am rounding it up slightly to fit the 5-star system, because I enjoyed it enough that I don’t think it deserves to be rounded down. Thank you to the author for providing me with a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

A unique read!

This was such an interesting and unique read that hooked me! This captivated and dominated my attention that I just wanted to forget my responsibilities and just listen for six hours straight...which I did! And I am so glad I did! So incredibly unique and beautiful!

The narration was perfection! I fell into the story with ease since the narrator was brilliant!