Review: Unearthly - Cynthia Hand

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen (January 4, 2011)

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .
Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has apurpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

I feel like I just got off a roller coaster.  This book hit all my emotions.  I really enjoyed all the characters in this book, None of them seemed to be filler characters, they all added something here or there.  One of the things I liked the most about the book was Clara knew from page 1 what she was.  You don't see that all that often.  I also really liked her family dynamic, Usually YA book have teens running around all hours doing crazy things that leave you sitting there going "Wow, where the hell are your parents?"  In my opinion Clara came off as a pretty normal teenage girl despite being an angel-blood, that is what really made me fall in love with the character.  There were parts of this book that had me giddy and smiling, then biting my nail, sitting on the edge of my seat!  Now I know that everyone is probably sick to death of "the love triangle" but this one was well done and I feel it was different than other books because it feels more like a triangle between duty and the heart.  I was reading asking myself "what would you do?"  I never came up with an answer, but I did like Clara's choice.  Now as far as our leading males went...I really loved Tucker, his jackassness in the beginning was actually cute to me (I totally need a team Tucker pin lol). Christian rubbed me the wrong was from the beginning, I'm not sure why but I never really feel for him or felt myself routing for him through out the story.  I can't wait to read the next book and see what happens to this groups, or if any of my theory's pan out.  I believe this is a 5 star book that I highly recomend to everyone, even though that say I am not a fan of angels.  After this book...you will be!