BLOG TOUR {Review #80 & Giveaway}: The Morning Star by Tania Penn

Title: The Morning Star
Author: Tania Penn
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: January 10th 2013
Pages: Hardcover, 367 pages
Source: Received from the author for an honest review

Summary from Goodreads:
Being the daughter of Lucifer keeps seventeen year old Dawn Belial busy. For almost her entire lifetime, she has been trying to think of a way to free her Archangel mother, Michaela, whom her father has held captive for centuries. She's also attending high school - balancing trigonometry, history, and recruiting souls for her father along with her wicked half-sister, Venus.

There has been no time for love until she meets mysterious Gabriel, a British exchange student. As they fall in love against their will, she discovers a startling secret about him, and a shocking connection to her mother that changes everything.

“In Case you haven’t guessed, my dad is Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, the Devil. Or as he likes to be called, Luc. My mom is also an Archangel. The only female one, in fact. Her name is Michaela. And father has kept her imprisoned for more centuries than I care to count.”

Dawn and her succubus sister, Venus are not your average high schoolers; in their free time they help their father out by recruit souls for his army. In a typical Lucifer fashion, their father is trying to take over the Kingdom while keeping Dawn’s mother Michaela locked away. Michaela was locked away because she chose Ramiel over Lucifer and he just couldn’t get over it. While this whole power struggle is going on, Dawn is just trying to live a semi-normal life and date the mysterious but gorgeous Gabriel.

I had no idea what I was really getting into reading The Morning Star but the summary sounded interesting and I enjoy books about Angels so I figured, why not give it a read. I am so glad I did. The angel aspects of the story had interesting twists, like Dawn having a step mother who is a succubus. The characters while a bit stereotypical at times were perfectly developed.  Lucifer, while being a pretty good father and loving his daughter is described as a beautiful, expensive suit wearing dad. Venus is a tight dress wearing, super flirtatious man eater while Dawn is a bit more reserved.  And Gabriel is supposed to be a swoon-worthy British exchange student.  The love-hate relationship between Dawn and her sister was believable and entertaining; Venus was constantly insulting her sister and bantering back and forth. Gabriel and Dawn had a bit of insta-love but it was mixed with a whole lot of drama that made up for it.

My only reservation about the story was sometimes it was a bit slow and the plot was a little predictable. That being said, it did not bother me too much since there were still twists in the story that left me saying WHAAAT just happened here… On a side note: While this did not affect the amount of stars I gave this book, I do wish there was a better cover. It is just so plain and does not encompass the angels and drama or really do the book justice.

Tania Penn did an excellent job of writing a modern day angel story that is blended with traditional angel lore and high school drama. The Morning Star was a 4 star book; just when I thought the plot was getting predictable I was greeted with a nice unexpected twist. I would recommend this story if you enjoyed The Fallen series and are looking for a bit more of an upbeat story. I will be reading the next one in the series!

About the Author:
Author of debut young adult novel, The Morning Star. Currently working on the sequel, Equinox, as well as a chick-lit, rom-com, slightly sleazy and funny story with a twist, Catching Frogs. And, because I'm loco in the roco, I've got about 12 more on the back burner. When I'm not writing I can be found kayaking, hiking, ninja-training, traveling, and taking a ferry over to the San Juan Islands to search for the elusive creature known as the "Orca." I also am constantly adding ridiculous wants, needs, must-see's and do's to my ever expanding bucket book.

I covet a delicious malbec with a rare steak and make a killer salsa.

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