Toward A Secret Sky by Heather Maclean

Published April 4th 2017

368 Pages

Goodreads Summary: Shortly after 17-year-old Maren Hamilton is orphaned and sent to live with grandparents she’s never met in Scotland, she receives an encrypted journal from her dead mother that makes her and everyone around her a target. It confirms that her parents were employed by a secret, international organization that’s now intent on recruiting her. As Maren works to unravel the clues left behind by her mother, a murderous madness sweeps through the local population, terrorizing her small town. Maren must decide if she’ll continue her parents’ fight or stay behind to save her friends.

With the help of Gavin, an otherworldly mercenary she’s not supposed to fall in love with, and Graham, a charming aristocrat who is entranced with her, Maren races against the clock and around the country from palatial estates with twisted labyrinths to famous cathedrals with booby-trapped subterranean crypts to stay ahead of the enemy and find a cure. Along the way, she discovers the great truth of love: that laying down your life for another isn’t as hard as watching them sacrifice everything for you.

Review: I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was pretty excited about this book when I found out that the protagonist and I share a name and that it mostly takes place in Scotland. It seemed like it was going to be a thrilling fantastical adventure with the whole battle between angels and demons. And it was fairly enjoyable, and I probably would have liked it more had it not felt so similar to the Premonition series by Amy A. Bartol. A girl loses her last living parent, goes off to a new place and meets a thrilling but mysterious boy who turns out to be an angel and soon finds herself in the middle of the battle between angels and demons…. It was just too similar for me to really enjoy more.  I think that if I had read this book first or not read the other series at all it would have been much more enjoyable so I would still recommend fans of fantasy to check this book out.

3 Stars

This guest review was contributed by The Worn Bookmark. Maren posts book reviews and tags, and she participates in challenges and read-a-thons. A book store or library is her paradise.