I picked up Aurora’s Angel by Emily Noon back in June after seeing that it won the LAMBDA Literary Award for romance. It’s been patiently waiting for me in my kindle library for the perfect reading moment which was about two weeks ago. Containing roughly 600 pages, this bad boy took me a little bit longer to finish, but it was all completely worth it.
Here’s the premise –
While pursuing a quest to avenge her father’s death, beast-shifter Aurora finds avian, bird-shifter Evie trapped in a cage. Unable to leave a shifter to be butchered alive in a cutters’ den, Aurora rescues Evie and promises to return her home. While traveling the two women become enamored with each other as they share intimate details and learn the other’s culture/biological differences. The connection is strong but the timing is poor. After finishing her quest Aurora plans to leave everything she knows behind to start a new life, one which Evie can’t readily accompany her to. It’s a bittersweet goodbye that’s interrupted when Evie goes missing as a result of corruption in her flock. Aurora must find Evie and save her again, and this time, she needs to tell Evie how she truly feels without running away.
I would categorize this book as a high fantasy epic romance. The bulk of the story consists of watching these two characters fall in love while learning details about the world around them along the way. I’ve read my share of werewolf books, but not too many in which people can shift into different animals and even mystical creatures. This book had a lot of creativity and a lot of detail was put into the species and unique features of this world. I was left with many questions, especially relating to the portal connecting this world to ours, but I suspect this is the first book in what will be a series. If that’s the case, I look forward to reading more about Noradarra.
I would say the writing here was consistent and strong, but the dialogue was rough at points. I had a hard time with the robotic dumping of information. At first I thought Aurora was supposed to talk that way because of how much time she spent alone, but it seems like she had decent company, and other characters also tended to talk in long chunks. This was easy to move past as the story moved forward at a good pace.
One thing I love in fantasy is when the author uses it as an allegorical tool to mirror our own world. There is a strong theme of prejudice in this book that looks all too familiar. Each species of shifter has their own judgments and assumptions towards other species. We get to see those judgments pushed and questioned between Evie and Aurora and the world around them as they become friends. It was interesting to watch characters grow in this way and I really enjoyed this aspect of the story.
If high fantasy is your game and you need a slow burn to keep you tame – Aurora’s Angel might be for you!