Reviews : World After & End of Days by Susan Ee

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : World After (Penryn & the End of Days #2)
Author : Susan Ee
Publication Date : November 19th 2013
Publisher : Skyscape
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

In this sequel to the bestselling fantasy thriller, Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what's left of the modern world.

When a group of people capture Penryn's sister Paige, thinking she's a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels' secret plans where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

Personal Thoughts

*Sigh* This series is just so perfect. Angelfall is one of my all-time favorite books. It has one of my top OTPs, but I didn't pick up World After the day it came out because I wanted to binge read it together with the next book, End of Days. I'm glad I waited to read it because the pain of having to wait for End of Days would have been pretty painful.

Penryn has got to me one of my favorite YA protagonists. Her loyalty and devotion to her sister in Angelfall made her easy to connect with. In World After, I was so glad to be back inside her head. She was braver than ever and I just loved how despite everything she was still willing to go to ends to protect her baby sister. Plus, her sassy nature continued to be an absolute delight. Penryn was the sort of character that you couldn't help but love. I liked how even though Penryn might come across as this bold and badass character, she still had her more fragile side that made it easy to bond with her and understand her. I struggle with dystopian/fantasy heroines at times because I can't emotionally connect to their badassery, but this wasn't the case with World After. Our favorite angel, Raffe, took  his good time to make his reappearance, but when he does, my goodness! The easy going nature of their relationship was what made this book such a delight. The banter seriously made up for Raffe's absence for most of the book. I ship these two so much, it ached my heart when they weren't together. But the swoons that Susan Ee brought to the pages! WOW! The stakes were also higher in World After and I liked how the world building became so much clearer. The angel lore that Susan Ee has crafted was rich, complex and utterly enchanting and even though it's a pretty dark world, it's one that I wouldn't mind getting lost in.

By the end of World After, I was terrified of what was going to happen next, but also excited to see how Susan Ee would wrap up the story. As a sequel to a first book, World After was stunning and beautifully written.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : End of Days (Penryn & the End of Days #3)
Author : Susan Ee
Publication Date : May 12th 2015
Publisher : Skyscape
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

End of Days is the explosive conclusion to Susan Ee’s bestselling Penryn & the End of Days trilogy.

After a daring escape from the angels, Penryn and Raffe are on the run. They’re both desperate to find a doctor who can reverse the twisted changes inflicted by the angels on Raffe and Penryn’s sister. As they set off in search of answers, a startling revelation about Raffe’s past unleashes dark forces that threaten them all.

When the angels release an apocalyptic nightmare onto humans, both sides are set on a path toward war. As unlikely alliances form and strategies shift, who will emerge victorious? Forced to pick sides in the fight for control of the earthly realm, Raffe and Penryn must choose: Their own kind, or each other?

Personal Thoughts

Reading the final book in any series is always nerve-wracking, but when you're reading one for one of your favorite series, the anxiety level skyrockets. Thankfully, I really had nothing to worry about because Susan Ee knew exactly what she was doing with End of Days.

Can I just say how incredibly I was to see Penryn and Raffe TOGETHER for most of the book? This made my heart so happy and made me want to hug Susan Ee. I thought World After was swoony, but woah! End of Days was a thousand times sexier and I definitely enjoyed the amped-up swoon levels. Perhaps the best part of End of Days was watching Penryn and Raffe working as a team towards a common goal. The characters continued to shine and I have come to love Penryn so much.  As much as I adore Raffe, I have to say that Penryn really makes this series for me with her braveness and her unwillingness to bow down to obstacles. Raffe surprised me in this final installment. He did things that I didn't think he would do and I think I fell even harder in love with him than I did in the first two books, if that was even possible. Where End of Days really impressed me was the plot. It was non-stop action that had me gasping out loud and at the edge of my seat. It was brutal, violent and all kinds of dark. It certainly had that urban fantasy vibe to it which made it quite the unique book for a YA series. The final scenes were honestly breath taking and because of how vivid Susan Ee's writing was, I felt like I was physically in the book while the epic battle took place. The ending was just so perfect and I could not be happier with the way things turned out.

End of Days was a brilliant finale. I'm leaving this series with happiness in my heart and so much love and for these characters. If you haven't read the Penryn & the End of Days series, change that soon. It epitomizes everything that is amazing about YA.

Rating 

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 5/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 5/5

Thank you to Skyscape for the ARC of End of Days.