This is a trilogy reprinted from three YA books that originally came out in 1995. As a result, there are a few things in terms of dialogue that are a little outdated, but (despite the 700 page length) the trilogy is a quick easy read which sucked me right in and had me breathless over it for two days.
When Ivy's mother gets engaged to Andrew Baines, the wealthiest man in Stonehill, Ivy and her eight year old brother are uprooted and moved to the new town. A junior in high school, Ivy adjusts better than her brother even though the last thing she wants is to move into the Baines mansion with her new stepbrother Gregory, who's also a junior. Then she meets Tristan Carruthers, the popular star of swim team and guy of all the girls' dreams, and he's going to every length possible to try to win her over. But after only a few short months together, on a date to a nice restaurant Tristan dies in a car accident, and comes back as an angel, a guardian angel with a mission. Because, as he soon learns, the car accident wasn't an accident, in fact, someone is trying to kill Ivy, and it's up to Tristan to stop them, even if that means, he'll finally lose her forever.In the beginning, Ivy's belief in angels bothered me - it just didn't seem authentic and realistic for a teenage girl to believe in angels and pray to them quite the way she does. The belief is okay and praying to them is fine, but the way that she does it is just awkward. "_." Also, the angels have names like "Tony" and "_" rather than actual Biblical names. Elizabeth Chandler had a great opportunity to incorporate angelic mythology - and probably be the first YA author to do so (this was 1995 and pre-Twilight) but there's no real backstory or history to the angels at all.
Once I got over Ivy's dialogue and the way she believes in the angels and accepted it as a character "quirk" I definitely believed her. Her anguish over Tristan's death and her struggle to try to accept it, understand it, and ultimately go on living without him really came through her actions, and I struggled along with her. I also believed and adored Philip, Ivy's younger brother, who clung to her belief in angels and tried to use them as a line of hope when Tristan died. Definitely believable.
I found myself wishing more times than once, especially when he was trying to get Ivy to notice him, that I had known more guys on my swim team in high school like Tristan. He's charismatic, funny, kind, and inventive - the way he befriends Ivy's brother because he's lonely and goofs around to cheer him up, melted my heart just like it did Ivy's. That said, he does get a little wishy-washy with all the "I need Ivy to know how much I love her" monologues once he becomes an angel. It does start to get a little annoying, but the Elizabeth Chandler must have anticipated that because the angel Lacey is there to tell him how annoying he's being. And Lacey, as a character is hilariously unique and witty - definitely the comic relief amidst all the suspense. However, I didn't necessarily buy into Chandler's insinuations that Lacey falls in love near the end.
As for the more minor characters, Will, Suzanne, and Beth are all original, complex, and interesting characters that I understood and liked (well, Suzanne most of the time). Gregory's arrogance but softer side when Ivy needs a friend kept me conflicted about whether I liked him or not, and Eric was successfully both creepy and so messed up I felt sorry for him.
The pacing of the plot for all three parts of the Kissed by an Angel trilogy was consistant, and Chandler has done a good job building the suspense over the course of the three books. Though I had my guesses about what was happening throughout the course of the novels, the guesses shifted and changed as I learned new information, and sometimes I was right while other times I was wrong. Though, there weren't any major twists or shocks which had me gasping, like some other recent mystery/thrillers I've read, but I found myself addicted and on the age of my seat for all 700 pages, which is quite a feat. At the end, I still wasn't quite completely convinced of the villain's motivations - I understood them, but wasn't completely sure I bought into the extent the villain was willing to go for those motivations (sorry for the vague statement, but again, I don't to give anything away).
Despite those two reservations (the villain's motivation and Ivy's character quirk), I really enjoyed reading Kissed by an Angel, and since this book was actually around when I was in high school, I'm mad I didn't know about it. Perhaps if it had been marketed then, like Twilight was a few years ago I would have heard about it. Because truthfully, if I read it back then, it'd probably be one of my favorites. But enough of that, here's...
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