ARC Review: Lailah by Nikki Kelly

Title: Lailah (The Styclar Saga #1) 
Author: Nikki Kelly
Genre: Supernatural
Source: NetGalley
Format: eBook
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: October 7, 2014

Summary: 

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel. 

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel. 

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom? 

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

~~~

From the moment I finished the prologue, Lailah had my hooked and ready to read more. Lailah is a fast paced, action packed, unpredictable thrill ride that we leave you hanging on until the very last page. I won't lie, I have read so many vampire novels that I was nervous about this one. But vampires and angels? Well now that is something new! 

Cessie is immortal, she hasn't aged since the first time she died and she doesn't stay dead when she does die. With no recollection of her past lives, except for visions she gets when triggered by an action or an object, Cessie has no choice but to start over. When Cessie rescues a Jonah, a second generation vampire who is being hunted down by his master, a pure blood vampire, to be killed. When Cessie almost gets herself killed, she never imagined to be looking up into the eyes of the boy who had been in her dreams or visions. But soon the Pure Blood vampires aren't hunting for Jonah anymore. They are hunting Cessie. To out run them Cessie joins Jonah and Gabriel along with their few allies to stay alive. 

Character wise I loved Cessie. She wasn't totally blind to the vampire world, she learned about them through an relationship that didn't end well. But we learned about vampires as Cessie learned. Now I am pretty sure you are thinking "Who is Cessie?" She is Lailah, her name from her first life. A life that that Gabriel knew her in. As well as the theme the story is Lailah finding out who and what she really is.

Gabriel, is an angel from the dimension of Styclar-Plena (Heaven) sent to the second dimension (Earth). I liked Gabriel's character, but he frustrated me so much. He wanted to Cessie to trust him but he wasn't open with her and kept plenty of secrets. Like one being, that none of the other vampires could know that she was immortal. Like, what? But Gabriel treated her well and genuinely seemed to care about her.

Jonah, is a second generation vampire, who in seeking redemption for what he is, works with Gabriel in saving others of his kind. I don't doubt that Jonah actually cares for Cessie, but I felt he more or less tried to have her affection to be able to feed off of her. But there were times were he was caring and gentle and made me route for him. 

Now, I am mixed on the topic of love triangles. I like them, but then I don't like them because I always end up on the wrong side. But Nikki sure does know how to write a love triangle. I couldn't stick with one boy, and the story is about finding darkness within the light, and light within the darkness, at least. So both boys had their imperfections, and their dark and light in them. But both Gabriel and Jonah were swoon worthy, and I changed my mind on who I liked the most several times. My verdict though: I liked Gabriel the most.

  

I officially declare Nikki the plot twist Queen. There are plenty of twists and turns in the plot of Lailah and that is what keeps you on your toes, but then you have the biggest plot twist in the history of plot twists and suddenly you are not sure what to think anymore. Then the plot twist bought you back to which guy you like best? And oh my feels. It just hits you in the feels. Then on top of all these feels, we are left with a cliff hanger. Now I want to cry.

Nikki has a knack for story telling and her writing sucks readers right into the story. Along with an interesting idea and a plot to leave readers wondering what is happening next. Gabriel is only about a year away! *said trying to be cheery but dying inside because of cliffhangers* But:

RATING: ★★★★★