Review: Radiance

Jul •  25 •  2010

Title: Radiance
Series: Riley Bloom # 1
Genre: Middle Grade- Fantasy/Supernatural
Author: Aylson Noel
Publisher: MacMillan
Release Date: August 31, 2010
Book: Sent by Publisher

“Riley Bloom left her sister, Ever, in the world of the living and crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. Riley and her dog, Buttercup, have been reunited with her parents and are just settling into a nice, relaxing death when she’s summoned before The Council. They let her in on a secret—the afterlife isn’t just an eternity of leisure; Riley has to work. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a curious boy she can’t quite figure out.
 
Riley, Bodhi, and Buttercup return to earth for her first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But he’s never met Riley…”

 

 This is a spin off from The Immortal Series and a great spin off it is.

Riley is now in Here, a place where people are after death. Riley meets up with the council to be placed where she belongs. After meeting with the council Riley is placed as a Soul Catcher, one who travel to the earth plane to help bring soul who linger for too long.

Riley is placed with Bodhi. A super geeky, with no fashion sense is Riley boss. From the very beginning they did not get along. Riley was always defying him always doing want she wanted. Her first task as a Soul Catcher was to help The Radiant Boy. A boy who has haunted a castle for years with no Soul Catcher able to ever bring him over. Will Riley be able to help The Radiant Boy?

Alyson did a great job writing Radiance. It was what I expected and more. I loved that I finally got to see an insight into Riley’s point of view. Now, this book is for a younger age group, but nonetheless, this book was awesome. Riley’s is a great character and had me hooked. Her quick wittiness and sarcastic comebacks had me laughing.

I also like that this book was written appropriately for the age group. There was no cursing, bad scene, etc. Just great teenage-drama without all the bad junk. Alyson Noel’s transitioning from writing older teen books to this one, I think she did a great job. She was able to catch that young voice and portray is beautifully.

Radiance is a great summer read. It had a great plot and was a short,easy to read book. I really wish there was a little more for me to read. If you love The Immortal Series, then you will like this book. I would suggest that you read The Immortal series first, at least the first one, Evermore, so you can fully understand what happens in the the book.

I give it 5 BITES!

Happy Reading!

6 Comments

  1. The Norwegian BookGirl
    Jul 25, 2010

    I have preordered this book, and after reading your review I am even more excited to get it in my mailbox.

  2. Petula
    Jul 25, 2010

    That sounds like a great book. I don’t normally read YA, but if I saw this one I would definitely pick it up.

  3. Aww, this one looks really good!! I haven’t read any of the other books in this series.

  4. The Bookish Type
    Jul 26, 2010

    I’m really looking forward to this book! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

  5. oooh cool to know that this is a good one! =)

    Great review!

  6. May
    Jul 30, 2010

    I saw the book trailer and even tho I didn’t read any of The Immortals’ books, I really want Radiance, it sounds really cool and very different from all the other books out there…
    Lovely review 🙂