Hallowed, by Cynthia Hand (Unearthly #2)

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.


Clara, after surviving the fires of Unearthly and looking forward to what seems to be a happily-ever-after with Tucker, is back to school for her senior year and trying to live a life as ordinary as she can. However, as a quarter-angel, that isn't really possible. She starts having prophetic dreams of herself at a funeral, and is desperate to save the loved one who is supposed to die. However, its a little hard to save someone when you don't know who you're supposed to save. She also has to deal with the fact that she failed her purpose and gets routine bouts of intense sadness. There's also Christian, who is paying her all the attention he should have in Unearthly, just a little too late, because even though Clara feels like someone up there wants her and Christian together, she's in love with Tucker. (May we all be stuck with such woes.)

After the grand finale in Unearthly, I was scared that Hallowed would not measure up to both the action and the magical way I (the reader) and Clara would discover new things about angels and their mortal children. However, after finishing it I was amazed at how good and unsequel-y it was. Most sequels tend to start entire new issues or make problems out of happy endings, but instead Hallowed followed what seemed to be a proper and inevitable passage of time and life.
One thing I didn't like was the lack of Wendy (was that her name? It was so rarely mentioned that I forgot). She's Tucker's sister, but apparently her brother replaced her in Clara's life because even though they claim to be best friends, it is kind of obvious that they aren't. Best friends have to at least talk to each other every once in a while, not once or twice in an entire multi-hundred page novel that takes place over a span of several months. I can only remember 2 or 3 conversation and only 1 instance of them actually taking time out of there incredibly not busy schedules to spend time together. Someone should sit those girls down and define the term "best friend" for them because my friendships like that or more like aquaintanceships.

5 stars.