'Burn' The Rephaim #4 by Paula Weston

From the BLURB:

Suddenly, Gaby remembers everything. 

For a year she believe she was a backpacker chilling out in Pandanus Beach. Working at the library. Getting over the accident that killed her twin brother. 

Then Rafa came to find her and Gaby discovered her true identity as Gabe: one of the Rephaim. Over a hundred years old. Half angel, half human, all demon-smiting badass and hopelessly attracted to the infuriating Rafa. Now she knows who faked her memories, and how—and why it’s all hurtling towards a massive showdown between the forces of heaven and hell. 

More importantly, she remembers why she’s spent the last ten years wanting to seriously damage Rafa.

‘Burn’ is the fourth and final book in Australian author Paula Weston’s young adult supernatural series, ‘The Rephaim’. 

I did not want to read this book, and at the same time I’ve been dying to read this book! Yes, the epic struggle every reader must face as they come to the end of a favourite series – when we want to find out what happens, but don’t want the adventure to end. So perhaps the highest compliment I can pay to Ms Weston is a conflicting one; when I say I absolutely loved this book, but I hate that the series has ended. 

‘Burn’ picks up from the epic cliff-hanger of Book 3 ‘Shimmer’, when Gaby’s beloved Pan Beach was facing imminent attack by demons … and she also happened to get her lost memories of some 130+ years of life as an angel-spawn-warrior back. Yes – Weston hits the ground running in this epic finale, and she never lets up. 

In ‘Burn’, fans will be reminded that the events of these four books take place over just one week in the series’ timeline. Yes, ‘Shadows’, ‘Haze’, ‘Shimmer’ and ‘Burn’ are set in just one week of Gaby’s life; from the moment Rafa’s mysterious hooded figure first appears in her sleepy beach town, to Gaby getting 130+ years’ of memories back in the blink of an eye. But Weston makes beautifully perfect sense of this elastane timeline – she has, after all, written a supernatural series with immortal, heavenly creatures who can transport to any place in the world with just a thought. And at one point, Gabriella muses on the complexity of her immortality, revealing that Weston has craftily made readers feel as infinite as she does via the book’s elongated timeline; 

A thousand stars fill the sky, ghosts of dead suns suspended in infinite blackness. 

Infinite.  

I’ve never been able to get my head around the concept. How can space be endless? How can time have no beginning and no end? How can I – made of flesh and blood and bone – live forever? How can other realities exist somewhere out there – or right here – side by side with ours? Hell dimensions and heavenly dimensions. Endless realms in between, one of which is probably hiding, or holding, the Fallen.  

Where do we fit in the universe? We exist in this world but we’re tied to other, unseen worlds. We are Rephaim, children of the forsaken. What future exists for us if we find the Fallen? What future exists for us if we don’t?  

God, my brain hurts. 

Weston really plays around with time and memory in this book, which is no easy feat when the crux of the story has been a very human Gaby discovering that she’s actually a very old angel-spawn warrior whose memories were wiped. Weston provides back-story to the decade-old feud between Gabriella and Rafa that saw her turn away from her twin brother Jude when he formed the Outcasts … we are also flung back to just a year ago, and the events surrounding Jude and Gaby’s reuniting and disappearance. 

I have to work out how to wear my old life. I’ve been someone else for a whole year; I’m a different shape now. 

I’m not always a fan of the flashback – but Weston has a beautifully nuanced and complex few in ‘Burn’. I was particularly impressed at how well Gaby’s interior voice changes – between her human self being given back her past memories, and going back to ten-years-ago when Gabriella is a hardened Rephaim fighter. There’s real distinction in the Gaby/Gabriella’s first-person-narratives, and I found myself liking old-Gabriella just as much as the Gaby I’ve been reading since ‘Shadows’. 

I especially loved the way Weston reveals Gaby and Rafa’s tumultuous history. We all knew it was coming – this couple who’ve been drawn and repelled to one another, who have a slow-burn chemistry that’s simply delicious to read – but I tip my hat to Weston for making the pay-off so completely worthwhile. It’s been building up over four books now, but Weston managed to both give Gaby and Rafa enough plausible hurt in their history, tempered with the fiery romance they’ve been building throughout this series … they’re a masterstroke of a coupling, and as this series concludes I’m mostly going to miss their duck-and-weave romancing. 

Jude is another stand-out in this book which, again, is kinda impressive for a character that readers were only formally introduced to one book ago. But loving Jude so much in ‘Burn’ is bittersweet … but only if this really is the last-last-last time we’ll get any ‘Rephaim’ stories from Paula Weston. Probably because he’s been such a big part of this story, even with so little real-time page-time, Jude still feels like a mystery that readers could have fun unwrapping. And because I loved where Jude ended up by the end of this book, I’m crossing my fingers that maybe Paula Weston has some spin-off, short-stories SOMETHING – ANYTHING up her sleeve!

Highlight for spoiler!

[And because I loved where Jude ended up by the end of this book, I’m crossing my fingers that maybe Paula Weston has some spin-off, short-stories SOMETHING – ANYTHING up her sleeve!]

I don’t want to go too much into the plot details of ‘Burn’ – save to say, Paula Weston answers all our most burning questions and still leaves us wanting MORE … indeed, the book ends with so much possibility. Which is what you want from a series that was all about immortal teenagers – the sense that their crazy, supernatural life goes on and on and on. For me; I’ve loved everything about this series, and the finale was exactly what I wanted. Secrets revealed, lies exposed, romance galore and second-chances. I’m going to miss this world and these characters so damn much, but I thank Paula Weston for gifting readers this epic rollercoaster of a ride. 

5/5

'Shimmer' The Rephaim #3 by Paula Weston

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Gaby thought her life couldn't get more complicated.

She's almost used to the idea that she's not the teenage backpacker she thought she was. She can just about cope with being one of the Rephaim—a 139-year-old half-angel—whose memories have been stolen. She's even coming to grips with the fact that Jude, the brother she's mourned for a year, didn't die at all.

But now Rafa—sexy, infuriating Rafa—is being held, and hurt, by Gatekeeper demons. And Gaby has to get the bitterly divided Rephaim to work together, or Rafa has no chance at all.

It's a race against time—and history. And it may already be too late. 

*** Contains spoilers of second book in the series ‘Haze’ ***

When readers last left the world of ‘The Rephaim’ it was on a roller-coaster ride of mixed emotions: elation and devastation, cliff-dangling and hip-hip-hooraying.

Gabe/Gaby had just discovered that her twin brother, Jude, was alive. She and Rafa tracked him down only to discover he had suffered the same memory loss as his twin (who he also believed to be dead), and all of them still had a ways to go in discovering why Gabe left the Angel Garrison and Jude his Outcasts all those months ago – and who, exactly, wiped their memories clean so they couldn’t retrace their steps.

But Rafa and Gaby also discovered something else recently – a farm in Iowa belonging to a family who have seemingly been tracking the Rephaite for a number of years, who believe them to be abominations and want to see them wiped out. This Iowa community had gone so far as to design and build a magical room that was somehow able to hold Rephaite prisoner … and in the wrong hands, it could be lethal.

Gaby and Rafa also learnt that she and Jude have a cousin in Jason – the affable, curly-haired teenager from Pan Beach who has stolen the heart of Gaby’s friend, Maggie. Not only has Jason managed to keep his being a Rephaite secret from head of the Angel Garrison, Nathaniel, but he’s also been keeping an even bigger secret in the form of 12-year-old Dani, a little girl who can somehow see the future and is connected to the Rephaite in a most peculiar way….

‘Haze’ ended with the reunion of twins Gaby and Jude, a new source of information in Dani and the devastating battle that took place on the Iowa farm … resulting in the deaths of many humans, and the imprisonment of Rafa and Garrison loyalist Taya, in a room that has them trapped with Hellions.

Not to exaggerate, but it feels like I’ve been dangling over a cliff for the last 12 months, anticipating this third book in Paula Westons’s ‘The Rephaim’ series. And now ‘Shimmer’ is here I can safely say it was well worth the wait … but don’t expect to be let off the edge of that cliff anytime soon.

With Rafa and Taya imprisoned and at the mercy of Hellions, Gaby & Co. head to the Angel Garrison to all but plead for help. If they’re to have any chance of rescuing those two, they’ll need an army behind them and there just aren’t enough Outcasts to mount a successful attack. So Gaby and Jude are asking Nathaniel, for help – and waiting uneasily with the rest of the Garrison while he makes a decision. I so loved this set-up because it’s really the first time we’ve seen Gaby on her own, without the safety-blanket of Rafa. Sure, she has Jude now – but he’s got a lot more catching up to do filling in the pieces of his memory-loss. So, driven by a determination to rescue Rafa, we really get to see Gaby take shape as a leader in these trying times. Not only does she have to try and be diplomatic with Nathaniel and Daniel – leader and right-hand-suck-up of the Garrison – but she’s also got to keep loose-cannon, Mya, of the Outcasts in check and make sure the foot-soldiers from both sides don’t kill each other while they plan an attack against real enemies, the Hellions. It’s a volatile situation, and Weston navigates Gaby through it beautifully.

It’s also a situation that allows readers to get better acquainted with a few secondary characters who have sparked out interest in the first two books. The Garrison and Outcasts reveal their true colours during this highly emotional time, even more so because many of them are learning that Jude is alive – it’s even more fascinating seeing how characters react to him. The Outcasts treat Jude as their leader, and he seems to pick the mantle back up with easy aplomb. Many in the Garrison still feel the sting of his betrayal, and worry what it means that once-loyal Gaby/Gabe is back in cahoots with her deserting brother.

Two secondary characters I really fell in love with in ‘Shimmer’ are Micah and Daisy – they were on the periphery in ‘Shadows’ and ‘Haze’, known only as two of Gabriella’s closest friends, who were also close with Jude and Rafa before they abandoned for the Outcasts. In ‘Shimmer’ they’re fleshed out a lot more, Micah especially reveals a crushing back-story that speaks to the very tragedy of these Rephaite:

‘How does that fit with the lecture Daniel gave me about Nathaniel teaching the Repahim to “control the lustful desires,” of our fathers?’ 

‘Ah, now, see, there’s doctrine and then there’s reality. And it’s not realistic to think a bunch of supernatural beings eternally trapped in adolescent bodies with adolescent urges are going to keep their pants on.’

This is also the first book that readers are properly introduced to Jude – and now I can see why he’s already amassed quite a fanbase! But it was probably Daisy who intrigued me most of all – it’s been hinted in the past that she had a whopping big crush on Jude, and harboured a deep hatred of Mya for putting thoughts of desertion in his head in the first place. In ‘Shimmer’, after the initial elation of learning that Jude is alive, readers are then able to see her revert back to past grievances with Gaby’s charismatic twin. I guess I really loved Daisy because, even though she is very much secondary in this book, Weston builds enough intrigue and back-story to have me craving more and wishing (hoping, finger-crossing!) that this series won’t end with fourth book ‘Burn’ in 2015, that we’ll get a Jude spin-off (or short stories?) … and all because Weston masterfully leaves breadcrumbs to his connection with characters like Daisy;

‘Daisy,’ Jude says quietly. ‘Do you know where she is?’ 

‘Wow. It’s been a while since you used that look on me.’ 

‘What look?’ 

‘The one that says: “Daisy, don’t let me down.” That stopped working the day you followed Mya out the door.’ 

She doesn’t look away and neither does Jude. I shift my weight, force myself to stay out of it.

I also really loved Daisy because I could relate to her motivations. While everyone else is very firmly entrenched in their Garrison or Outcast camps, Daisy feels torn between her friendships and loyalties, and a craving for a sense of belonging;

‘We could’ve used you and those twin-sided sais in Iowa,’ Jude says. 

Something crosses Daisy’s face – regret? ‘I’m not like you: I like having a home. Not all of us can get away with defying Daniel.’

I think ‘Shimmer’ is setting up much more of the Angel politics and the long-game ending for book four. There’s also plenty of action (fist-thumping, lip-splitting, sais-wielding action!) but I really loved the down-times in this book too, when we get to know the secondary characters better and see Gaby and Jude handle themselves in this new/familiar environment.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be ‘The Rephaim’ series without some seriously sizzling romance. You guys – I can’t even with this book. I’ll only say that the fans will be very, very happy indeed.

Paula Weston has done it again. ‘Shimmer’ is another stellar instalment in this, the best Angel-themed paranormal series I’ve ever read, and it’s so much heart-palpitating fun that I don’t even mind being led back to that cliffhanger rock-face again for the ending.

5/5

'Haze' The Rephaim #2 by Paula Weston

 Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

‘But what if we can’t find Jude?’
He leans closer. His breath is warm on my ear. ‘We will.’
‘How can you be so sure?’ I want to believe him so badly, but this is Rafa. The guy who’s all action and no plan. His smile is tired, knowing. An echo of a shared past I don’t remember.
‘Because I’m not smart enough to give up, and you don’t know how to.’ 

Gaby Winters’ nightmares have stopped but she still can’t remember her old life. Still can’t quite believe she is one of the Rephaim—the wingless half-angels who can shift from place to place, country to country, in the blink of an eye. That she was once the Rephaim’s best fighter. That demons exist. That Rafa has stayed. 

But most of all, she can’t quite believe that her twin brother, Jude, might be alive. 

And Gaby can’t explain the hesitancy that sidetracks the search for him, infuriates Rafa, and sends them, again, into the darkest danger.

*** This review contains spoilers of first book ‘Shadows’ ***

Her worst nightmares were actually memories.

Gaby Winters was dreaming about hell hounds and sword fights, and a beautifully dangerous boy at the centre of it all . . . and then she discovered it was all real. Arriving in the sunny Australian seaside town of Pan Beach, Gaby thought she was running from the twisted memory of the car crash that killed her twin brother, Jude, and left her scarred. But then Rafa arrived – with his hard eyes and quick smile – and he told her the truth. That Gaby’s memories were not her own, that she was not even human.

Gaby and Jude were like Rafa and countless others . . . they are Rephaite, offspring of fallen angels. Angels, who unleashed themselves on the earth and impregnated countless human females – and then left their offspring to deal with the fallout and their holy task to find their fathers, and bring them to justice.

Suddenly Gaby was inundated with her own history; both good and bad. She learned about the Angel Garrison and the Outcasts, and the fact that she and Jude hadn’t spoken to each other for years – ever since they had very different ideas of what to do with their fallen fathers, should they ever find them. Gaby discovered her wicked sword skills, and the decades-long feud she’s had with one Rephaite called Mya, who has romantic history with both Jude and Rafa.

The more Gaby learns however, the less she knows. She doesn’t understand why the Angel Garrison and Outcasts don’t work together. She doesn’t understand why she would not talk to her twin for years and years. She doesn’t know why she’s drawn to Rafa, but he speaks cryptically of a falling out that seemed to wound them both. And most importantly; she doesn’t remember what she and Jude were doing right before they had their memories wiped. 

But one thing she does know – if she was made to believe Jude was dead, there’s every possibility that the same thing happened to Jude. And he could be alive.

‘Haze’ is the second book in Australian author, Paula Weston’s, paranormal YA series ‘The Rephaim.’ 

Some books you crave. You keep returning to the cover art and re-reading the blurb, you stalk the authors’ Twitter, Tumblr, Goodreads profiles in hopes of gleaning morsels of information… you count-down to release day. Paula Weston’s ‘Haze’ was just such a craving. Her debut ‘Shadows’ snuck up on me at a time when I thought angels were done-to-death and could no longer tempt me. It was an exciting, careening paranormal YA debut that kept me guessing and had me falling for its bad-boy hero, Rafa, and cool heroine, Gaby Winters. Long after I’d finished reading I was still recommending the book to friends overseas, and spruiking to fellow bloggers. 

So when ‘Haze’, the second book in the series, arrived early for me … I was a wee bit thrilled. ‘Shadows’ was such a tantalizing set-up; the fallen angels history, Rephaite responsibility and this brother and sister at the centre of a conspiracy theory. Weston left just enough breadcrumbs to drag me in, and leave me desperate for the second book. 

‘Haze’ picks up where ‘Shadows’ left off – mainly that Rafa and Gaby have decided there’s a very good chance that Jude could be alive, and they have to find him. But in the search for Gaby’s brother and Rafa’s best friend – other factors are working against them. Like the fact that Gaby had been missing for months, presumed dead, and now that she’s back both factions of the Rephaite, the Angel Garrison and Outcasts, want a piece of her. 

I loved that Weston really delved into the Rephaite rivalry in this second book. Admittedly, there were lots of story threads that interested me in ‘Shadows’ and ensured I'd be coming back for all subsequent books in this series – but the secondary Rephaim characters we met in that first book really intrigued me. Particularly when we discovered that Gaby was actually dating Daniel, right-hand man in the Angel Garrison, right up until the moment she went missing and got her amnesia tailor-made. In this second book we learn a lot more about Rafa and Jude’s Outcasts – namely, how much of a beloved leader Jude was, and the twisted relationship he and Rafa seemed to have with new designated leader, Mya. Then there’s Jones, Ez, Zak, Taya and Nathaniel – all these Rephaite characters who are really rounding out Jude and Gaby’s story, and making for a very interesting secondary cast line-up.

Another big focus in this book is on Rafa and Gaby – or, rather, Rafa and Gabriella. Weston leaves so many enticing little hints about what Rafa’s tumultuous relationship with Gabriella was like, and how it’s now influencing how he sees Gaby. 

‘Sparring with you. I don’t think he was ready for it.’  

I try to laugh but it comes out as a rasp.

'I mean it. You haven’t trained together for a very long time. For the last decade, any time you two threw punches at each other, you were deadly serious.’ She tucks her feet underneath her. ‘The problem today was that you were too good.’ 

‘How is that a problem?’ I finally look up. She gives me a sad smile.  

‘There were moments when you fought like the old Gabe. I think at the end there, he forgot which version of you he was fighting.’ 

I've never read a relationship quite so complicated as the one Rafa has with Gabrielle/Gaby – and I love that Weston is making their relationship a mystery unto itself. I will say I wished Weston would delve a little more into Gabriella’s romance with Daniel, but I understand that’s hard since Gaby can’t remember anything and Daniel hasn’t exactly endeared himself to her . . . but it’s the very reason that I can’t picture him as a love interest that I’m desperate to know his history with our cool protagonist.

Weston is really proving herself in this second ‘Rephaim’ book, to be one very savvy paranormal author. She knows just how to expand and contract the universe she’s created – balancing new clues regarding the fallen angels and a mystery room in Iowa, with the more personal and immediate story of Gaby’s memory loss and her missing brother. There’s a really nice balance in this series so far, that when the fallen angels plot seems too big and all-encompassing, a mammoth story to be played out, that Weston brings the plot back to being about Gaby searching for her brother, and just trying to remember herself.

Everyone who read Paula Weston’s, ‘Shadows’, would have had an inkling that this was an exciting debut author, and one to look out for. But those who come back for a second spin with ‘Haze’ will know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Weston is something special indeed, and ‘The Rephaim’ is one of the most original and intriguing new young adult series available right now. ‘Haze’ leaves on one heck of a cliff-hanger, and I am absolutely desperate to follow Weston down whatever twisted path she has planned for the third book.

5/5 

Interview with Paula Weston, author of 'Shadows'

♦

Angels are everywhere.  They have exploded on the young adult book scene and now seem to be in some bizarre turf-war with vampires and zombies for supernatural creature du-jour. That's why, when I say you have to read Paula Weston's debut novel 'Shadows', it's a big freakin deal! Angel-themed it may be, but Weston's 'Shadows' is "the bets of the angelic bunch", in my humble opinion. 

This book has everything - exotic locales, masterful biblical origins, amnesiac twists and a couple so sizzling they scorch the page!

But don't take my word for it. Read it to believe it, and in the mean time check out this interview with the lovely Paula Weston, debut Aussie YA author on the rise! 

♦

Q: How were you first published, agent or slush pile?

Agent (Australian Literary Management, who I’ve been with since 2008.)

Q: How long did it take you to write ‘Shadows’, from first idea to final manuscript?

I’d had a kernel of an idea for a few months before I started fleshing out the characters and plot. I was working on another project at the time, and when that ended in a series of rejections, I decided to play around with the other idea…just for fun. I wrote 20 pages in a day and then had 90 pages within two weeks – and I was hooked. I had a completed manuscript 12 months later.

Q: Are you a plotter or a ‘pantser’? – That is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally?

A bit of both. I’m definitely a plotter as far as character and main story arcs go, but I like flexibility in how I get there. It’s nice to have enough freedom to go where your characters and the story takes you. (Having said that, I do know how each book in the Rephaim series will end.)

Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall?

For me, ideas always start with characters and the dynamic between them. Shadows started with the idea of two people with a complicated history that only one of them remembers. I knew their story had paranormal elements and went from there.

Q: Were you already interested in angels before you had the idea for ‘The Rephaim’ series, or did your research start the moment you had the story spark?

I’d definitely been interested in angels before the idea for the series came along, but I actually didn’t set out to write an angel story. I wanted to write a paranormal story (a genre I love when done well) but it was only when I started brainstorming the plot and character arcs for Shadows that I realised the fallen angel concept was the best fit for what I wanted to achieve. I then started researching relevant mythology/theology, which in turn sparked more plot ideas.
 

Q: Angels have kind of blown up in the YA genre lately (but I must say, ‘Shadows’ is one of the best, and most original, Angelic-themed books I have ever read!). I’m curious if you’ve read other Angel books to compare and contrast to yours? If so, did you read them before or after you finished ‘Shadows’?

Thanks for the lovely compliment. :) I’d read a few angelic themed books before I had the idea for Shadows: the first two of Lauren Kate’s Fallen series and the first two of Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush Hush series (in between a stack of vampire, werewolf, zombie and faerie stories). But I think it’s safe to say Shadows is very different from both of those series as far as mythology, plot and character development goes.

Q: Your protagonist, Gaby Winters, is one tricky heroine. She’s battling grief, memory-loss and the dawning realization that she’s not entirely human . . .  how hard is it to write a character who’s really sort of a two-for-one-deal? Gaby is also ‘Gabe’/‘Gabriella’ – with a history of violence and a reputation for bad-assery. Was it hard to write her, while keeping things from her (and readers) that are so intricate to who she is?

Very tricky! One of the most challenging aspects of the series is that there’s always several layers of plot going on – and they all have to come together and make sense in the final book. That’s why plotting certain aspects of Gaby’s past was critical at the start. I needed to know the whole story so that I could plant the right seeds at the right time, and get the timing right for major reveals. My goal with the series is for readers to get to the end, understand everything that’s happened, and want to start at the beginning so they can experience it a second time knowing the whole story. (And by the way, I love the term ‘bad-assery’)

Q: One of the things that made ‘Shadows’ so enjoyable is the much-talked-about chemistry between Rafa and Gaby. They absolutely spark on the page! How do you gauge, as a writer, when you’ve struck gold between your love interests? What do you think are the essential, romance ingredients that ensure a couple is one readers will get invested in?

Thanks! It’s always hard to tell whether or not you’ve struck gold – at least in a way that appeals to someone other than yourself as the writer. For me, the essential ingredient has to be believability. Characters have to behave like real people, with real challenges (it’s just as important in a paranormal story as it is in “straight” fiction). The attraction and relationship for any love interests have to be established through their characterisation and their experiences - and they need to grow and change to keep readers engaged. I’ve always loved antagonistic romantic relationships, but they have to be antagonistic for a reason. I’ve tried to achieve that with Gaby and Rafa.

Q: Tricky question, but if ‘Shadows’ were to be adapted into a film or TV show (fingers crossed!) who would you cast in the main roles?

Very tricky question…Naturally, I want readers to picture the characters for themselves, but I’d be fibbing if I said I hadn’t thought about it. I honestly haven’t seen an actor where I’ve gone “that’s Rafa!”. But there’s a scene with Mila Kunis in Friends with Benefits that to me is vintage Gaby (when she confronts the doctor on the street after what turns out to be a one-night stand). I’d be interested to know who readers picture for Gaby and Rafa (or anyone else in Shadows).

Q: ‘Shadows’ is full of delicious, careening twists and turns, and by the last page I was absolutely desperate for book #2. So, can you tell us anything about what’s in store for Gaby and Rafa? Even a book title? Or, how about an approximate release date? And how many books are planned in this fantastic new series (my vote is for an indefinite number, FYI),

:) There are more twists and turns in Book 2 – as well as some answers. Gaby learns more about the past (including things about Jude’s life), and the Rephaim discover something that threatens all of them. And, yes, there are plenty of interesting moments and developments for Gaby and Rafa. The working title (which I think will stick) is Haze. It’s the second in a four-book series – but thanks for the vote for indefinite number! (At this stage, Haze is due out around mid 2013).

Q: Favourite book(s) of all time?

It’s an eclectic list: Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series and The Scorpio Races; Saving Francesca (Melina Marchetta); Truth (Peter Temple); All I Ever Wanted (Vikki Wakefield); The Book Thief (Markus Zusak); The Arrival (Shaun Tan); The Road (Cormac McCarthy); The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkein); and, of course, the Harry Potter series (JK Rowling).

Q: Favourite author(s)?

Maggie Stiefvater, Markus Zusak, Melina Marchetta, Richelle Mead, Peter Temple, Claudia Gray, Carrie Jones, JK Rowling, Marianne de Pierres.

Q: What advice do you have for budding young writers?

The usual: read lots and keep writing. And never give up if writing is what you love to do. (I wrote five other full-length manuscripts before Shadows and have a huge folder of rejection slips – but all that frustration and disappointment has been worth it to get to this point.)

♦

All images are from weheartit.com

'Shadows' The Rephaim #1 by Paula Weston

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Love. Nightmares. Angels. War.

It’s been almost a year since Gaby Winters was in the car crash that killed her twin brother, Jude. Her body has healed in the sunshine of Pandanus Beach, but her grief is raw and constant.

It doesn’t help that every night in her dreams she kills demons and other hell-spawn. And then Rafa comes to town. Not only does he look exactly like the guy who’s been appearing in Gaby’s dreams, he claims a history with her brother that makes no sense.

Gaby is forced to accept that what she thought she knew about herself and her life is only a shadow of the truth—and that the truth is more likely to be found in the shadows of her nightmares.

Who is Rafa? Who are the Rephaim? And most importantly—who can she trust?

Gaby Winters is hiding; hiding from her grief and anger, her parents, her life and from missing her dead brother, Jude. And as far as hideouts go, Pan Beach is a pretty nice one. Even better is that within a few days of arriving at this seaside town, Gaby met and befriended Maggie, a local beauty still reeling from her own loss and looking for a roomie. And working at the local library isn’t such a bad way to keep productive and avoid constantly thinking on the car crash that killed Jude, and left her with permanent scars.

But Gaby’s grief is constant, and even after months in Pan Beach, Jude’s absence still keeps dragging her under. So Gaby starts writing about her dreams, and posts stories of them on a fiction-sharing website. Dreams about a beautiful sword-wielding, green-eyed boy and slobbering, hellish creatures that need beheading. Fantastical dark dreams, a literary glimpse into Gaby’s aching heart.

And then Gaby meets Rafa.

One night at the local bar Gaby spots him looking at her – and she can hardly believe it. He’s the boy, the beautiful sword-wielding, green-eyed boy from her dreams. He’s real, and within a few minutes of talking to him it becomes clear that he has been appearing in Gaby’s subconscious because she and Jude have met him before . . . except Gaby has no memory of him.

According to Rafa, he and Jude were best friends. He has holiday photos to prove it. And, according to Rafa, he and Gaby have never gotten along – in fact, the last time they spoke she gave him a broken nose. But Gaby has absolutely no recollection of this – much to Rafa’s anger. She leaves him, unamused by his cryptic talk and insistence on calling her ‘Gabriella’. But she can’t forget about him – his green eyes, nor the fact that he stopped out of her dreams and into reality.

As Maggie finds herself falling for a tourist called Jason, Gaby is in a similar situation with Rafa. Despite his infuriating suggestions that she is faking her memory loss, not to mention his enviable past friendship with Jude, Gaby is intrigued by him, and maybe even a little bit smitten . . .

And then she is attacked. A group of teenagers, no older than her, descend on her in a park late one night. And, like Rafa, they accuse Gaby of faking her memory loss – and demand that she start acting like herself, like Gabriella. This band of beautiful thugs even expect her to fight them (as though she could?) and when she doesn’t, she is thrown bodily and beaten bloody.

Rafa is there to help her recover – in the most inexplicable, incredible way. And so the truth slowly starts leaking out . . . Gaby’s past and her memories are not her own. She and Jude were in fact Rephaim – bastard children of fallen angels, fallen angels who centuries ago broke out of hell and are still on the run. It is the Rephaim’s task to find their fathers and bring them to justice – though Jude and Gaby found themselves of differing opinions regarding what to do with their fallen fathers once they were found.

Gaby’s memories are not her own, she is not even human. But she cannot remember her past as the Rephaim ‘Gabriella’, or what happened to Jude except that he is dead. Which begs the question – who (or what?) would take Gaby’s memories, kill Jude and try to assassinate her?

‘Shadows’ is the debut book from new Australian YA author, Paula Weston and the first in a new paranormal series called ‘The Rephaim’.

Now, I have read a lot of YA-angel books lately. They are one of many supernatural species in the overcrowded YA-paranormal scene, and I have read some truly brilliant angel books over the years, and some God-awful (pun totally intended) angel books. But I've got to make a big call and say that Paula Weston’s is, in my humble opinion, the best of the angelic bunch.

Told from Gaby Winters’s perspective, the book begins innocuously enough on Pandanus Beach in Queensland, where we meet our heroine whose thoughts are clouded with her dead twin, Jude, and a feeling of unease from the surrounding trees. We learn that Gaby has been living in Pan Beach for a few months, rooming with the beautiful Maggie who recently lost her father to cancer. In a bid to rid herself of dark dreams and a constant sense of dread, Gaby has been posting some of her short stories on a fiction website, a bit of purging literary catharsis. But when the boy from her dreams (and stories) turns up in a local bar, Gaby’s entire world is turned upside-down and inside-out . . .  enter, Rafa.

With the appearance of this smirking, green-eyed boy comes the revelation that Gaby has lost huge chunks of her life since the car accident that also killed Jude – as Rafa explains that he is one of Jude’s oldest friends, and an unhappy acquaintance of Gaby’s. Confused by Rafa’s protestations that Gaby is Gabriella, and somehow ‘pretending’ to forget who she is and the infamous falling out she had with Jude – the situation is further compounded when she is attacked by sword-wielding teenagers who likewise call her Gabriella and expect her to fight back. Lo and behold, it is revealed that Gaby’s memories of an innocuous childhood with Jude, raised by loving if ambitious parents are all false – so too are the memories Gaby clings to of backpacking around the world with her twin before his death. All of them are a lie, presumably planted by whatever or whoever killed Jude, and tried to kill her too. The truth is far more complex, and closer to the stories Gaby has been writing . . . she is one of the Rephaim; progeny of fallen angels, now tasked with hunting those same angels down and returning them to hell.

My head is pounding.
‘What did Jude and I argue over?’
Rafa uses his thumb and forefinger to rub his eyes. ‘Does it matter?’
I wait.
Another sigh. ‘For the moment, let’s just say you, me and Jude, we’re part of a very large and dysfunctional . . .  association. Within our ranks, there’s a difference of opinion about how to tackle a particular problem, and you and Jude chose different sides.’
That makes no sense. ‘And you and me?’
‘Not on the same side. The last time you saw me, you broke my nose.’

Paula Weston beautifully sets Gaby’s story up – leaving cluey breadcrumbs from page one and effectively hooking readers from the get-go. It helps that one of the biggest, tastiest breadcrumbs is bad-boy Rafa – whose appearance is the trigger that starts Gaby off on her quest to discover who she really is.

And Gaby’s true identity is a doozy – she is a Rephaite, offspring of fallen angels. The story, mired in the Hebrew Bible, goes that God’s fallen angels were sent to hell as punishment for their lustful ways: "Destroy all the souls addicted to dalliance, and the offspring of the Watchers...” (Book of Enoch). But centuries ago they escaped from hell and went on a lustful rampage across earth – impregnating thousands of mortal women before going into hiding. The product of those pregnancies were the Rephaim – not to be confused with the Nephilim (bastard children of Fallen Angels), because the Rephaim have dedicated their lives to the ‘Angel Garrison’ and hunting down their fallen fathers, to return them to their punishment. . .

In lots of angel-YA books, I do find that God is taken out of the story; which often makes sense. If you bring religion into anything it tends to confuse everything – and I have often praised angel-themed books for avoiding those murky waters and treating the angel species as just another, malleable supernatural group with their own mythology to be played around with – the same way that not all vampire books hold to the lore’s passed down by Bram Stoker (hello, sparkly Edward!). However, I think Paula Weston tips her hat more to the Biblical underpinnings of her angels, and the book is far more interesting for it.

The big guy (God) is mentioned in passing, and in a most plausible referential way that doesn’t entirely sweep him under the rug. What I’m talking about with relation to Weston’s angels is the rather pious attitudes of the Rephaim as Gaby gets to know a few of them and their cause. Turns out that ‘Gabriella’ and Jude were on different sides of the Rephaim’s hunt for the Fallen Angels – with very different views on how to live as the product of their lustful fathers, and opposing opinions on how to deal with the fallen when (or if) they are found. It’s interesting that a band of these Rephaim have dedicated their long, immortal lives to hunting down their fathers and living ‘pure’ in the meantime. There’s definitely lots of room for future explorations into the repercussions of a life dedicated to virtue, thanks to the sins of their fathers.

Paul Weston’s angelic world is an epic one – taking us from pretty Pan Beach, to picturesque Patmos and the snowy peaks of a Cliffside Italian monastery. The history surrounding her Rephaim is utterly compelling, and filled with enough Biblical-intrigue to warrant quite a hefty series . . . but it’s Weston’s characters that ultimately carry ‘Shadows’, and have me desperate for book number two.

Rafa and Gaby steal the show – or I should say their chemistry steals the show. Their quips and sharp wit come out like claws the moment they cross paths – but their biting repertoire masks a lot of lustful curiosity and delicious possibility. Even though Gaby doesn’t remember Rafa from her past, she’s intrigued by him – and, heck, she has been dreaming about him for months now! Rafa seems equally curious as to why this amnesiac Gaby doesn’t loathe him like the Gabriella he remembers. It’s certainly an interesting romantic conundrum for these two – and Paula Weston plays it beautifully. Even more interesting than Rafa and Gaby’s present-tense flirting is the slowly revealed truth about their past. . .

As much as I loved bad-boy Rafa (LOVED him!) and Gaby together, I also have a lot of praise for Weston’s secondary characters. Ruthless Rephaim like Daniel, Mya and Malachi are a rude-awakening for Gaby concerning her past. While her human friends; Maggie, Jason and Simon are a fantastic counter-balance to the fantastical goings-on in her life. I really look forward in future books, to how Gaby’s past will keep creeping up on her and how she now relates to her old Rephaim friends (more like frenemies?).

I really can’t praise ‘Shadows’ enough. It’s a tough, smart and refreshing new Australian paranormal YA, not to mention it’s the best angel-themed book I have read. I am so excited for book two in ‘The Rephaim’ series, and desperate for more Rafa.

5/5