Review: Devoted by Emery Skye

Summary

"Her world, her mission...is about to change. What do you choose when your blood is on the line." A world where your life is a mission and to succeed you must have resolute devotion to duty. All Anna has ever wanted is to be the best Warrior and sister she can be. Easier said than done. Seventeen-year-old Anna Hasdiel is a noviate at Hope Academy, a secret school for young angels where she and her sister, Amalie, train to become Warrior Legites with the duty of protecting humans from Demons for the Legion United. Anna's devoted to the angelic cause. She's always known she would be a Warrior for the Legion. Her world is about to change. For months, noviates have been disappearing from Angel Academies around the world. No one knows why. They just hope they won't be next. The Powers that govern the lower choir angels have sent reinforcements as protection and Anna feels an inescapable pull to Legite Nathaniel Deror. Legite Deror is strong, fierce and mysterious. He seems to have it in for Anna one second and the next he's rescuing her. He makes her feel things she shouldn't. When Amalie's boyfriend disappears, Amalie decides to search for him. This decision takes the group to the Dark World, the home of the fallen Archangel Lucifer, where they will encounter insurmountable trials and fight past a host of deadly enemies. Where do loyalties lay? She never planned for this. She never planned for him.

Review

Devoted by Emery Skye is utterly different than other angel based novels out for reading today. There were so many elements that were unexpected and unique compared to other novels, making Devoted a book in its own realm. Anna Hasdiel, the main character at the angel academy, is a strong willed female lead, a personal weakness, who struggles an inner battle between duty and family. Eventually, family wins over, and there is nothing Anna wouldn’t do for her younger sibling, even if it means going into literal hell. 

I truly loved the plot of Devoted, it kept me on my toes through the entire novel and I never knew what to expect around the next corner. I was given an electronic copy for an honest review, and I noticed throughout that there were many grammatical and punctuation errors, all very small ranging from the omission of a word to the lack of an apostrophe. I read books very critically with an editor’s eye, so I pick up on the smaller details that are otherwise overlooked. I would wish for it to have had another read through, however, small punctuation errors do not inhibit the wonderful world and story Skye has spun. 

As I mentioned, I love a strong female lead and Anna encompasses everything this type of character should embody, making her not only intriguing but a role model for the audience and characters within the novel. Anna is not the only character the audience will fall in love with, every character she takes the time to describe and characterize becomes interesting and with that, you fall in love with all of them—until she rips all you know out from under you with the ending.

I must say, the ending of Devoted was heart wrenching and I hated it only because I am in a state of distress wondering what is going to happen next. Not only was the ending a cliff hanger, but right before it ended, the audience is thrown for a loop. I don’t actually hate the ending, I personally think it was quite genius, Skye left the audience and myself, in a painful anticipation for the next in the Angel Academy series. 

Reviewed by Rachel Keane

Pages: 389 pages
Publisher: Lemon Press; 2nd Edition edition (August 20, 2014)