Halloween Feature: Review of Bitter Angel by Megan Hand

Today as part of my Halloween feature I have the awesome Zoe Pope with her review of Bitter Angel. I definitely want to read this one!

Synopsis

Torn between two realities.

A choice that will mean life or death.

But she won’t know anything… until she wakes up.

College sophomore, Lila Spencer lived Friday night twice. She doesn’t know how or why, just that she did. As if she split in half and went in two different directions.

Out clubbing with her friends, Heather and Nilah, the girls rock it out and party hard. What begins as an innocent night will lead to a deadly fight for their lives, and Lila might be their only chance for survival.

In bed with her boyfriend, Jay, Lila is safe and warm as she drifts to sleep in the arms of the man she loves. Until she is sucked into a horrifying nightmare of her friends’ deaths.

As the sunlight warms her face on Saturday morning, the two scenarios collide. But there can be only one outcome. Will she wake up in her warm bed with Jay by her side, devastated and grieving for her friends? Or was she there to save them?

The answer is just the beginning.

5/5 Stars

                                            ———————————————————-

My Review

College sophomore Lila Spencer has lived Friday night twice. One where she is out celebrating her friend’s birthday downtown and another where doesn’t go out and stays in with her boyfriend Jay.

She doesn’t know how but it’s like she was split in half.

Out clubbing with her friends, what starts off as an innocent night ends up with the girls lives in danger and it’s down to Lila to try and save them all.

In bed with her boyfriend Jay, Lila is save in his arms but once asleep she is sucked into a nightmare about her friend’s death.

Completely freaked out about the two dreams when she wakes up, which scenario will be true? Will she be grieving for her friends while she’s tucked up with Jay? Or did she save them?

The emotions I felt through this book… I can’t even put words to it. If you are looking for a fluffy romance novel, then this is NOT the book you should read. It’s sinister in parts, it’s scary, its heart-stopping; it pulled at my heart strings, it made me feel sick to the stomach but I couldn’t stop reading it. I had to know just what in the hell was going to happen. It really is a mind fuck kind of book, but a bloody amazing one at that!
As a debut novel, Megan Hand has written such a fantastic story. Not only is it powerful, but what happens in the book really does go on everywhere. (I’m not going to tell you what it is, as it’s a major spoiler) Just trust me when I tell you that this is a book you definitely have to read – it was completely out of my comfort zone. I had no idea it would be that far out of my zone when I started it, but I am really glad that I did, it’s always good to switch up your books and I would re-read this book in a heartbeat.
I wasn’t even that far into the book when I had to stop at a certain chapter. It got too much and my stomach was in knots over what I was reading. As I’ve said, it’s not the usual book I tend to read (Even thought I thought it would be angsty then HEA – my love) and it horrified me to know that this actually does happen out there. (I know I’m talking in riddles, but I don’t want to spoil it for you) and that there are some messed up people out there. I felt sick reading her ‘dream’ and was hoping and praying that Lila would get away and save her friends.
I was crying my eyes out with sadness over the pain of the situation, knotted up whether anyone would help her get away. Oh, I can’t tell you how scared I was reading it. It was too much for me but I powered through. This all happened within the first 25% so you can imagine what I was like for the rest of the book!
Lila, the heroine, is a strong character. She’s gobby and stubborn and sarcastic but she loves with everything. She loves her friends and her boyfriend Jay and would do anything for them – anything to keep them save and out of danger. Her dreams really messes with her head and you can see just how scared she is that both scenarios seemed to ‘happen’ and felt so real to her. Once Lila has a thought in her head, she can’t let it go, she has to go through with it and that’s what she does.  I did admire her. She was putting her life at risk to save her friends and other people in the long haul and at times I was shouting at her to stop being so stupid and to wait for Jay to come back, but as I’ve said, when Lilah has an idea, she doesn’t back down and it got her into danger more than she’d like to be in.
I really liked Jay. I am a sucker for romance and even though this book isn’t filled with hearts and flowers, Jay is a sweetheart. You could see that Lila is his everything. That he loves her with everything he has and just wants to be with her. He hates living so far away from her for university and it kills him. Lila is his ONE. You really feel for him when Lila is frightened out of her mind and its scares the hell out of him not knowing what is wrong. I loved that when he heard her dream and her plan to stop it, he stuck by her, even though he was cautious about it, and went with her to help her out. Although he got angry at her, he understood her reason for doing what she had to do but he didn’t like it. You will see Jay love Lila, help her out, do the best he can to protect her and even save her. Everything he did for her during the book was down to his overpowering love for her. I understood everything he did was for her safety but in the end, he gets Lila forever. And that’s all he really wants.
I can’t really tell you how much more that this book touched me. It was powerful, it was haunting, it had me crying my eyes out, but it also had me smiling at the love the characters had for one another. How close they are, how much they were there for one another. This isn’t like a normal review from me, because I don’t want to spoil the plot. I WANT YOU to read it yourself, and hopefully understand why I didn’t spoil it for you. If you’re an avid follower, you know I read angsty books with a HEA. This book is so much more, and as I’ve said, well out of my comfort zone, but I will definitely be re-reading it. It had that much of an impact on me.

Thank you so much Zoe for stopping by my blog!

You can find Zoe on:

Blog: https://lovebookreviews.wordpress.com

Twitter: @TheBook_Lovers