Think this had the potential to be a really interesting concept, but the juxtaposition between actual angels falling from the sky, and being set in Edinburgh, just felt quite jarring.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

When angels start falling unexpectedly from the skies across the world, life as Jaya knew it is over. Her father uproots the family to Edinburgh for the summer, adamant that he will be the one to capture a Being alive, and discover just why it is happening. Jaya, on the other hand, is sick of the Angel mania, and hates that her father has just shut down. She's grieving for her mother, and the disappearance of her ex, and all she wants is a bit of normality. So when an Angel falls in front of her, and the Being is alive, Jaya can't believe it.

Well, I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, and I'm still not too sure on what I think of it. It's such a weird premise, that Angels are falling and dying, and no one knows why. Even as the book progresses, not much is really said on the whys or hows. I liked Jaya, and felt like she and Allie really made the book. The story isn't a romance, but their growing feelings were sweet, and I loved the rep which was present. Even though I finished the book at the weekend, I'm conflicted on my feelings over it, but it's probably 3 of 5 stars - not a great book, but enjoyable nonetheless.

There was much to enjoy here, but it wasn't quite for me. I'd read more from this author in the future though, and I really enjoyed her second novel.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

I loved Jaya and the concept of it. I loved how Sophie Cameron explored the thoughts and emotions one has during grief. Also the magical concept she included just added an extra something to the book that I loved.

Trigger Warning: This book features cults, abuse, suicide ideation, suicide, and kidnap.

Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron sounded like such a great story, but I finished feeling disappointed. While the story isn't bad, for me, it was only merely ok.

Jaya is still struggling after the death of her mother nine months ago, while her father has become obsessed with the falling angels - winged beings appearing in the sky out of nowhere, falling at an alarming rate, to crash into the ground, broken, wounded, dead. No-one knows where the angels are coming from, and for a while, most thought it signalled the end of the world. But after several months and nothing changed - except for more angels - people began to get back to their normal lives. Except for those intent on making money out of selling the angels blood, the Standing Falling, a cult who believes the angels are a sign of God's wrath, and Jaya's dad, who is intent on catching one alive. He thinks of pretty much nothing else, and spends all his time researching, and then moves them to Edinburgh for the Summer, certain that his calculations are right, and the next angel will fall in Edinburgh. What surprises Jaya is that he's right - the next angel does fall in Edinburgh, and fall's in her presence, getting caught in a tree that saves her life. Jaya can't think of doing anything other than helping - saving - this angel, and keeping her safely out of the hands of those who would do her harm. But it's difficult to hide an angel, especially one who doesn't speak English. With the help of Allie and Calum, two siblings she's made friends, they try and get the angel, who they name Teacake due to her love of the biscuits, do all they can to mend her wing, keep her hidden, and hopefully get her home. But there are those desperate to get their hands on a live angel - Jaya's dad included - and keeping Teacake safe may be more difficult than they realise.

My main issue with the Out of the Blue is that it's kind of predictable. If you've seen E.T., then you roughly already know what's going to happen. We may not know when or how, which kept me reading, but you know what. And so the story isn't surprising, and doesn't feel that new. I found I really liked Teacake, even though she can't really communicate. I felt for this creature who has no idea where she is or what's going on, and no way of leaving because of her wounded wing, and having to stay in small spaces, when she is so used to the great outdoors and spreading her wings. There is some lightness in the story with Teacake being able to memorise lyrics and phrases she hears on the radio, and tries to communicate with the shipping forecast.

Out of the Blue is kind of beautiful in how it looks at grief. Jaya isn't over it, and believes it was all her fault. But she's unable to process her grief, to talk about it, when her dad is completely obsessed with the angels. They're all he cares about. He quit his job, and now he's uprooted them to Edinburgh with no thought to what Jaya and her little sister, Rani, want. He doesn't pay much attention to them, he barely listens to them unless they're talking with him about the Beings, as the angels are called, and his research. They're not being properly looked after, and Jaya is angry. So angry! He has forgotten about them, and they no longer have a mother. She's drowning in her grief, and she needs her dad, but he might as well not be around either. What she doesn't see is that her dad's obsession is rooted in his own grief, and is his way of dealing with it. It's not healthy, obviously, and he could do with some help, but Jaya is the child here, and she doesn't get it.

Out of the Blue is quite diverse. Jaya is gay, and she and her sister are biracial; half British-Sri-Lankan, half white Scottish. Allie is bisexual, and has cystic fibrosis, which affects her throughout the story.The romance between Jaya and Allie is a real slow burn, and it's kind of cute, but impeded by Jaya's confusion over her ex, Leah, who left with her mum without a word a few months ago. She's not quite over her, which is a problem in getting things going with her and Allie.

The ending left me feeling kind of disappointed. It was quite sweet in regards to Jaya's story and Teacake's story, but in the grander scheme of things, we get no answers whatsoever. I would have liked more answers in regards to what is going on as a whole, and a conclusion, but we don't get them.

So yeah, it's not a bad story, and I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy it. I just knew what was going to happen, and was hoping for more, so felt a little disappointed. It was just ok. But do read some more reviews before deciding whether or not you'll read it.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Books via for the eProof.

Jaya's mother is dead. Shortly after she dies, being start falling from the sky. Jaya's father is obsessed with them, thinking they will bring him closer to his dead wife. Their relationship is strained, her father used to work away a lot and they don't really know how to be around each other. When Jaya stumbles upon a Being, she resolves never to let her father, but hiding an angel in Edinburgh isn't going to be easy. This book was set in Edinburgh, in places that I know and love well. I loved the friendships that formed from Jaya trying to hide the angel, and the budding romance melted my frozen heart. The book explores grief beautifully. It also has a focus on religious cults and discussions of the afterlife, which I found interesting. The angel, Teacake, copies language she hears which leads to some hilarious conversations as she repeats lines from adverts she has heard. This was a really lovely book and one I'd definitely recommend to fans of magical realism.

It has been SO good to sit down and really enjoy a book again. I'm in the middle of a severe reading slump and while I don't think I'm quite cured yet, this book really helped me a lot! It was actually picked out of a hat for me to read alongside a couple of friends, though it has been on my TBR for some time so I'm really glad I finally got to do so! I went in with fairly high expectations as I know a few people have thoroughly enjoyed this book, and my few days away in Edinburgh felt like the perfect time to start considering the book's setting.

First off, this book had me hooked from the start. I loved the effect that the 'angel epidemic' had on the world, and how Cameron described it all (including the way that the otherworldly beings looked). It was frighteningly easy to believe actually, and set the story up nicely. I also loved that the angels were NOT the centre of the story! Cameron writes a gorgeous novel on friendship, love, grief and family and I enjoyed watching the characters interact more than anything. Jaya was a great MC and I enjoyed her POV from beginning to end! I was also pleasantly surprised by the diversity in this book. It's hard to find in literature, so it's nice to read something that does it so effortlessly!

I didn't have any real dislikes while reading this story, though I have to say that I think that the sequence of events at the end felt a little TOO rushed. Also, though I loved the relationship between Jaya and her family, I find it REALLY hard to believe that she wouldn't have asked her Dad about his plans for the angel upon capturing it. All in all though, this was an enjoyable story and very different from the usual urban fantasy/paranormal stories that involve angels.

The angel's started falling from the skies 10 days after Jaya's mother died. Determined to catch one alive, Jaya's father uproots their shattered family to Edinburgh - but Jaya's still struggling with her grief. With her family reaching crisis point, the unthinkable happens - a Being lands at Jaya's feet, and the extraordinary begins to take shape.

This is more than a story about angels, it's a story about grief, coping with loss and learning to move on. The author deals with these issues in a sensitive and compelling way, as the story weaves through Jaya's struggle with understanding her loss by building up this incredibly touching relationship between her and the Being she finds (named Teacake). It's almost as though she's learning to heal by putting all her energy and love into caring for Teacake. It actually reminded me a little of E.T. - we have Jaya hiding an other wordly being and learning to overcome a language barrier and gain their trust. However, that said this relationship is not the central aspect of the plot at all - which I found a little misleading given the blurb. It's almost as though the fantasy aspect is a sideline to a more contemporary book, involving Jaya and her friends and family, which I wasn't a massive fan of.

The descriptions of the angels (or Beings) and Edinburgh are also really beautiful. I love books set with Great Britain, and Edinburgh is such a fun, vibrant city (especially during Fringe) that it was great to see this brought to life on the page. I also loved that the Beings are a little different from the normal angel stereotype - full of colour with gold blood, and the secondary set of characters are full of diversity - although lacking any real complexity or emotional depth compared to Jaya. I think this is because the book itself is a little on the short side, and although this means the pace was good, the character's suffered as a result.

I also wasn't keen on the ending. I found it a little rushed, and also a little far fetched. However, that said the book overall was good and managed to convey some very complex emotions well. A decent read, but I think the fantasy aspect should be downplayed slightly to reach a better audience.

Jaya’s mother died two weeks before the first being fell. None of the beings have survived their fall. Jaya’s father has become obsessed with the beings and moved his family to Edinburgh for a while in the hopes of finding a being alive. Jaya stays clear of her father’s obsession with the hope that she can deal with the grief and make sense of her mother’s sudden death. Suddenly, something extraordinary happens to Jaya when a being crash-lands right in front of Jaya and it is still alive.

This is Sophie Cameron’s debut novel and it is incredible! I throughly enjoyed this book and I was a huge fan of the this setting of this novel. It is set in the wonderful Scottish city of Edinburgh which is unusual in a UKYA book. It was lovely to read a UKYA book that wasn’t set in London.

I connected to al of the character in this novel which meant I didn’t want the books to finish because I didn’t want to be done with these characters. Jaya is an incredible main character. She is Sri Lankan and a lesbian which made her character very interesting. I love how she views the beings as people with feeling and not just something to make money from. Jaya also has a lot to deal with throughout the novel. Her mother’s death, her girlfriend’s disappearance and the problems she is facing in her family. She seems to have no one to turn to talk about her problems. When Teacup the being falls in front of Jaya it suddenly gives Jaya something to work for and support but also means she pushes a lot of things away from her. Teacup stole my heart as soon as she arrived, she was a delight and so fun to read about. I love the relationship Jaya has with Allie who is disabled and bisexual. I also really enjoyed what Cameron (Allie’s brother), Rani (Jaya’s sister) and Jaya’s father brought to the story.

This book was so unique and I loved reading a book about angels which is something I have never done before and never dreamed of doing. The pacing was spot-on with everything mentioned throughout the novel. It kept me intrigued all the way through! I just wish we got to see more of Jaya and Rani and why they didn’t have much in common.

The diversity in this book is wonderful and covers many different aspects, like sexuality and race. I love Sophie Cameron’s writing and will certainly be picking up her next novel whenever it comes out.

Out of the Blue ended with me in tears but they were happy tears. Not many books make me cry but this one certainly did.

Overall, Out of the Blue is an extraordinary book about angels that I could not put down. It made me want to read some more books about angels. It is an emotional rollercoaster that I would recommend even if you aren’t a fan of fantasy books.

Thank you to Macmillan Children’s, Netgalley, Nina Douglas and Sophie Cameron for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Out of the Blue considering paranormal books aren’t typically my thing. I picked this book up because I’d heard some amazing things from early reviewers, and thankfully it didn’t disappoint!

 

I liked how the paranormal aspect was in the background of the entire book. Out of the Blue was more about the main character, her family, and the relationships between the friends. It was about grief, and letting go. There wasn’t much focus on the Beings that fell from the sky at all really, as the characters didn’t try to find out where they came from.

 

One of the supporting characters had a disability, which was great to see as I’ve not seen CP portrayed in a book where it’s not the main plot point.

 

I also really liked the darker parts of the book as well which were to do with the cult. I wish that had been explored more because it was fascinating, but at the same time it didn’t detract from the main plot and there was the perfect amount of detail there for me.

 

I’d recommend this even to readers who don’t usually enjoy paranormal stories as it’s more of a contemporary about grief and friendship than angels.

A gripping, heartwarming and unique read.

My Q&A with Sophie Cameron will be posted on the link below at 10am on 27 March.

So there is so much to love about this book! I love the concept. I so want to know more about it all but actually feel that what we get is perfect. But will this is obviously a book about angels falling from the sky, this is also a book about relationships - family and romantic. I loved all elements of them.

So first. So much inclusion omg. Bi-racial characters (and I like that it’s not a focus - I love those books too, but I definitely also want to see main characters that are in all books), lesbian and bi characters, disabled characters. Yesssssss. In a contemporary/fantasy. Yes! Really enjoyed how well that was all done, and I hope others agree with me.

Then we have Jaya, and her family. Still reeling from her mother’s death, and disconnected from her dad and sister, I really empathised with her. And her with Allie and also Leah? 😍💙😍💙😍💙😍 I also loved her compassion for the Angels, especially Teacake. That relationship was lovely.

I also want to mention the relationship between Allie and Calum. Her little pet names, his worry and over protectiveness. Just all of it. Love.

And there’s a spoilery thing about Teacake that they do that I loved, and I sort of wish I could flail about it without being spoilery lol. But anyway, I really enjoyed that.

I did want a little more between Sophie and her family, especially her sister, as that seems a little forced. Having said that, it’s a relatively wide age gap, so I do sort of get it. But I think that there was room to expand a little there. And I want to know what happens next!! Not in a sequel way, but just in terms of everything in their lives 😂😂😂

So yes. I really enjoyed this. And I hope you do too. I give it a strong 4.5 stars.

Enjoyed this book and would like to see more young adult fantasy featuring angels.

*A copy of this book was received for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Angels are falling from the sky, and Jaya’s father is obsessed with catching one alive. Jaya doesn’t share his obsession and is still grieving after her mother’s passing, just two weeks before the angels began to fall. The unlikely happens and Jaya finds a fallen angel, and she’s alive.
This novel was well written, the plot was well paced out, and the story is not one I have read anything like before which is a plus. I enjoyed reading it, and the characters were likeable and relatable. I was drawn in by the storyline and how believable every character was, I loved how the relationships progressed.
I read this whilst going through quite a busy time in my life but I still made sure to put time aside to curl up with this captivating novel, it took a lot of willpower to pull myself away from the book, it would certainly be one of those books I read in one or two sittings had I had the time to do so. So if you’re looking for a book to get lost in perhaps add to your to read list.
Overall this was a really good book, I enjoyed it from start to finish and will definitely be keeping an eye out for future works by Sophie Cameron, if you’re a fan of YA fantasy novels then you should definitely check this one out!

This ticked all the three 'd's for me - it was different, diverse, and didn't resort to the easy way out - making it a great read. I was SO happy at how the Leah/Jaya arc panned out in particular - something I never saw being a particularly big part of the storyline, but was actually worked in so well by Cameron. Where required, things had clearly been well researched, but the readers weren't overloaded with the results and these points were unnecessary focal points of the story. A really impressively written debut!

This review appears on Goodreads and will be cross-posted to my blog.

This is a difficult book to review because I didn't have a huge amount of brainpower at the time that I read it, and thus keeping my thoughts in order is a little tricky. On the whole, I liked the book, though there were a few changes that might have made me like it more.

I was talking to an online friend about it while I was reading, as they're really into books about angels, and they wanted to know how deep the "lore" was. I had to admit that the answer was "not very". The book is really a story about friendship, grief, and living for the present (with a bit of romance in there too), with angels falling from the sky as the setting. I'm not saying that's an unimportant part of it, but if you're looking for an epic fantasy about angels, this isn't the book for you.

Let's start with the things that the book did really well, though.

I liked that there was a really strong emphasis on friendship throughout the book, both between the various human characters, and with the angel (whom they nickname Teacake). I feared, because it's YA, that there'd end up being some weird interspecies romance with this fallen angel that they've managed to capture/save, but that didn't happen at all -- and not because both the protagonist and the angel are girls, because the protag is also canonically gay. But it's made very clear that she's not attracted to the angel because being attracted to a non-human being would be kind of weird, and I appreciated that.

Jaya, the protag, befriends a girl called Allie, who is passionate about rights for 'Beings' (i.e., the angels). Partway through the book, we learn that Allie has cystic fibrosis, and had a lung transplant a few years ago. I really liked that this wasn't A Thing. I mean, it was a thing in that it affected her life, and it was dealt with sensitively and meaningfull, including issues like reduced life expectancy. It was never brushed over as unimportant. But it wasn't her whole story, not least because Jaya was unaware of it for quite a long time, before Allie had a flare-up and told her about it.

Conclusion: more sensitively handled disabled characters in YA books that aren't about disability, please. They're too rare.

Allie and her brother Callum generally had a great sibling relationship, and that added to the overall focus on platonic relationships that I really enjoyed. That said, there was some romance (queer romance!), but it was very much in the background of the story. It was cute and I would have been happy for it to come to the foreground a bit more, I think, but I liked it as it was, too, as a sort of nice additional touch. And between humans. Which I always appreciate.

So, now onto the issue of the "lore". One thing I found somewhat disappointing was that we never really got to know anything about the angels. Where did they come from? Why were they there? That was the question that Jaya's father wanted the answer to, and as a reader, I wanted to know too. But humans can't communicate with the angels -- most of those that have fallen have been dead, and Teacake, the first survivor, can't speak English, although she learns to mimic it throughout the book -- and as a result, we actually never learn anything about them.

I guess the lack of answers mean the book is less controversial (if it turned out to be a religious thing, some people would have issues with it, I imagine), but it was somewhat frustrating. I kept waiting for a reveal and there never was one.

On an emotional level, it was a satisfying book. It dealt with big issues like grief and death, without sending me into yet another existential crisis the way some books do. It featured lots of interesting and developed relationships.

On a plot and worldbuilding level, though, I was somewhat disappointed. Although the pacing was fine and there was plenty of tension about keeping Teacake a secret, as well as the added concern regarding a cult that has developed since the angels started to fall, I felt it was building up towards some kind of denoument about the angels' backstory, and when that didn't come, it felt like something of a letdown.

Gripping and unique. A very different tale about angels fa,king to earth. Wonderful.

My first thoughts

It’s ET meets I am Traitor in this wonderfully thrilling story. I couldn’t put it down.

The Characters

I love Jaya. She is headstrong, wonderfully moral and self assured. This is quite possibly the first LGBTQ+ main character who knows what and who she is and therefore doesn’t divert some of the plot with that exploration. Plus, it’s wonderful to just have a character who happens to be gay and her sexuality have no direct impact upon the plot.

The angel that falls is wonderful and while unable to vocalise her pain, confusion she is able to communicate. I’ll leave the name for you to discover, but it’s a delight and reflective of her innocent charm.

The Plot

The plot is perfectly woven out of a teen thriller nursing an injured angel back to health and a commentary upon religious belief and how we respond to the end of the world.

The sub plot looks at cults that can arise in such situations and the people who join them. It comments upon the challenges people face when drawn in without considering a way out.

It’s a well developed plot that has a balance between humour and tense drama. Something that will keep you up at night; if you start it, you won’t stop till its finished.

The Writing

It’s clear storytelling and third person narrative gives the story a film-like quality. It’s demonstrated best as the action heats up in the later section of the book. It’s a perfect read and I’d gladly welcome a sequel.