Review: Power

Title: Power (The Descendant Trilogy #1)
Author: Theresa M. Jones
Publication date: February 2013
Source: author

Rating: 3 stars

Goodreads

Thousands of years after the battle between the angels, when Lucifer was defeated by Michael in the Heavens, the war is still being fought on Earth by the humans who have their Power, the Angel’s Power. 

Allison Stevens is a 21 year old single mother who gets thrown into the middle of this battle when Damien, the Leader of the Rising, decides to hunt her down and kill her because he fears she is the descendant prophesied to save the world. 

David, a member of the Order, takes Allison under his wing in order to show her the ropes, and hopefully groom her into being the one they have been waiting for. The only problem is that they start to grow more attached than a teacher/student relationship should allow.

But that isn’t all. Damien wants to open the Seven Seals and bring about the apocalypse and it’s up to Allison to not only save herself and her family, but save the world, all while trying to keep her heart from breaking.

No problem… right?

Power follows the story of Allison, a 21-year-old single mother who, after a series of nightmares and painful power outbreaks, learns that she is gifted with power from the archangel Michael.

Now there have been quite a few Good vs. Evil (or Angels vs. Demons) types of books out there these past few years, but the concept of Power was surprisingly refreshing and kept me glued to the pages. Without a doubt, my favorite part about this book was learning about all the different abilities that these descendants of the Primitus had. What's more, I loved reading about how these descendants came to be about, how they became gifted with these special powers--not just them, I also enjoyed learning about how the bad guys, the leaders of the Rising, came to be. In this story, Jones has deftly weaved together elements of known Biblical stories with a touch of the supernatural to create a story that makes me want to jump into its pages and experience it for myself.

This book is written in shifting POVs, mainly between Allison, the main character, and David, the love interest, however there are also chapters told from the perspective of the bad guys. Normally, changing POVs really aren't my cup of tea, but somehow Jones has really made it work, made it into one of the books' strengths. I liked seeing the story unfold from multiple viewpoints and it also gave me more insight into each character's mind. Strangely enough, I ended up really liking reading from the villains' POV.......

Allison was a character that I don't often get to read about, mainly because I don't find many YA-ish books centering around a single mother. This facet of her character made her a lot more mature than I expected her to be. Overall, I thought she was a pretty strong character, though I couldn't help but think she had a few Mary-Sue characteristics.

Personally, I felt a little disconnected from the characters. As if I were watching everything unfold from an observable distance instead of actually experiencing it through the characters' hearts and minds. This disconnection might be attributed to the, at time, stiff and formal dialogue and an edge of instalove in the romance.

All in all: this was a good story! The plot was fast-paced, the supernatural element was really interesting to learn about, and the ending left me very curious to find out more about the world of the descendants.