Book Review and Giveaway: Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

TLC Book Tours' latest offering is Angelology by Danielle Trussoni.  There are 18 blogs participating in the tour, offering reviews and giveaways.  TLC has graciously offered two copies for me to give away, so we'll have two winners!  Instructions to enter the Calico Critic giveaway are following my review.  Be sure to check out the other stops on the tour to learn more about Angelology and to enter to win a copy!


Participating Blogs:

• Tuesday, March 1st:  My Two Blessings 
• Wednesday, March 2nd:  English Major’s Junk Food 
• Thursday, March 3rd:  Life In Review 
• Tuesday, March 8th:  Unabridged Chick 
• Wednesday, March 9th:  A Bookish Way of Life 
• Thursday, March 10th:  The Book Faery Reviews 
• Friday, March 11th:  Katie’s Nesting Spot 
• Monday, March 14th:  A Fanatic’s Book Blog 
• Tuesday, March 15th:  Book Reviews by Molly 
• Wednesday, March 16th:  Devourer of Books 
• Thursday, March 17th:  Chaotic Compendiums 
• Monday, March 21st:  Boarding in My Forties 
• Tuesday, March 22nd:  Café of Dreams 
• Wednesday, March 23rd:  Sara’s Organized Chaos 
• Thursday, March 24th:  The Infinite Shelf 
• Monday, March 28th:  Calico Critic 
• Wednesday, March 30th:  Alison’s Book Marks 
• Thursday, March 31st:  Booksie’s Blog

My Review:

When I heard of Angelology and its premise, I was highly intrigued.  I was one of Frank Peretti's many readers 25 years ago when he released his supernatural thriller Piercing the Darkness.  And while his work is more of an evangelical tool, the subject matter is similar.  Those who enjoyed the puzzling religious mysteries of The Da Vinci Code, the forbidden paranormal relationships of Twilight and the adventurous treasure-hunting of the Indiana Jones books and films might also find this to be a good choice for them.

As in Peretti’s world, angels (and fallen angels) are real creatures, having an influence on the world around us.  Author Danielle Trussoni draws much inspiration from passages in the Bible, most notably from the book of Genesis.  During the time of Noah, angels were known to copulate with humans, thereby bringing about offspring known as the Nephilim. In Angelology, they managed to survive the Great Flood and have been on earth ever since, secretly holding great positions of power throughout history and enslaving the unwitting human race.  Unfortunately for them, a group of angelologists have been striving for centuries to resist their tyranny, and at the turn of the 21st Century, things seem to be in great upheaval.  A battle between the fallen angels and their enemies becomes inevitable.

This story is quite multi-layered, and difficult to summarize concisely.  There are many characters and more than one time period covered in the narrative.  Most of the plot is contained within about 60 years of time, yet most of the story takes place during the few action-packed days in which it is set, December 23-25, 1999.  At times the novel is slow, but never boring.  It took me a while to read this title, but I always enjoyed returning to it for another chapter or two.  Or three.  There are plenty of exciting scenes, and it doesn’t surprise me that Angelology has been optioned by Sony Pictures and is in development for a possible 2013 release.  I’m not sure how the screen writers are going to capture the essence of Trussoni’s work.  The story is long, rich and full of detail.  It should be an amazing film.

Danielle Trussoni

I loved the characters of Evangeline and Verlaine.  I could see Natalie Portman playing the young angelologist and David Krumholtz as the quirky professor.  Both of these characters go through so much in this story, with their lives as they know it being completely turned upside down by the supernatural world around them.  They certainly grew and changed as individuals throughout all of their ordeals.

To my knowledge, Angelology is Trussoni’s first published work of fiction.  She has done a masterful job. She’s an excellent writer and kept me fully entertained for hours on end.  I’m not an expert in all things angelic and from a religious standpoint I don’t believe in everything that occurred in this story.  However, it was a fun ride and it also gave me a few things to think about.  Don’t take this as a literal view of how things may or may not be in the spirit world.  Just enjoy the novel as an intriguing thriller that spans millennia and multiple planes of existence.  Angelology is quite an experience, indeed.

Angelology Giveaway!

Here are the guidelines:

• Leave a comment below; this counts as your only required entry.  In order to filter out spam, all comments will not post until I've had a chance to approve them.
• Entries accepted until 11:59pm EST on Monday, April 11th.
• The winners must supply a US mailing address for prize shipment.
• Make sure at least one posted comment includes your email address. If you'd rather not have your email posted here, you may contact me directly to give me that information after you've entered here.
• I will compile the entries and the two winners will be chosen by Random.org, so even one entry can make you a winner.
• Should you win, I will contact you on Tuesday, April 12th.  Please take measures to ensure that my email will make it past your spam filters, lest you miss my message. (CalicoCritic@gmail.com) You'll have 72 hours to respond before I pick another winner.
• More information on the giveaway policies can be found on the Contact / Policies page.

Bonus Entries

Please make note of all your bonus entries in your comment(s).  You may post either separate comments or a single large comment.  Here are your bonus entry options:

• Follow The Calico Critic by clicking on the Google "Follow" button on my sidebar (old or new followers both get the bonus entry, just please let me know your follower name).

• Follow me (@LHartness) on Twitter and tell me your @UserName.

• Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter.com; be sure to use an URL linking back to this blog posting in your tweet. You may do this as frequently as every 8 hours between now and April 11th at 11:59pm EST.  For each tweet, please come back and post the direct URL link to that specific tweet, not just your @Username.  Here's a sample tweet; feel free to copy and paste:
  

@LHartness Giving away 2 copies of the novel "Angelology" by @daniellemybella, thnx 2 @TLCBookTours.
http://bit.ly/AngelologyContest #free

That's it!  Thanks for stopping by, and good luck to all the entrants!

One final note:
When I had only read a few chapters, my eyes accidentally brushed over the last page of the book.
BIG mistake. HUGE spoiler.
Don't make the same blunder I did.