Audio book by Christina Bauer, I found the pace of the story great, the narration was fantastic and really had me smiling.

Myla Lewis is a girl who takes no crap and gives out the perfect punishment.
I absolutely adored her character and Walker! There are so many things to love about this book and this world that Bauer has created that I can’t help but want them all in physical books!
Bauer narrates this book herself and she does a brilliant job of voicing so many characters.
I could actually go on and on about this book but I don’t do spoilers so I’ll leave you all with this.
Angelbound surprised me, had a little zing of spice 😉, made me laugh out loud, smile a whole bunch and I even got a little teary.
I was not entirely sure going into this, but can honestly I really really enjoyed it!
Thanks Net Galley!

Thanks to NetGalley and Monster House Books for providing me with a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The audiobook was so good. It's not often that you find an audiobook narrated by the author, and I think that's great, specially because they give the exact emotions and voices they originally intended for the characters. I really liked the author's voices, and I found a YouTube video where she explains how she did every one of them which is very cool. I liked most of the voices though some of them were kind of annoying at times.

About the story, we have Myla, our protagonist, a half human and half demon girl, who fights the souls of the deceased for their right to move on to Heaven or Hell, in a trial by combat. She is also a "normal" 18 year-old who goes to high school in Purgatory, has a best friend, is sort of rebellious and all that jazz. I think this could've been a book I really would've liked when I was 16 or 17, specially because it has angels, demons, hunters, royalty and all that fun stuff we were into in the 2010s. I enjoyed most of the story and the characters, and had a good time listening to this book.

The review in Spanish can be found on my Goodreads profile as well as this previous review.

A great start for a series.

I really enjoyed the different voices the author made as she was reading her book.

The characters were great and well written and so were the descriptions.

The pace was slow in the middle and at some point, it felt like the whole plot was going in circles.
The subplot of Myla isn't in love with Zeke, but Zeke thinks she is and even her BEST friend Cissy thinks she is, is unnecessary. It didn't move the plot forward, it didn't help with the characters' development.

All it did was make me dislike Cissy. And Myla. She is a bit annoying.

Anyway! In general, it is a nice book with interesting lore and world-building.
Can't wait to read the next one!

I got an audiobook from Netgalley for a review.

Myla Lewis is an eighteen-year-old quasi-demon whose passions include kicking ass and demon bars. As she enters her senior year at Purgatory High, she realizes that maybe her life isn't as simple as she thought it was. During her many trips to the arena fights, where she gets to battle souls to the death to decide whether they get into heaven or hell, she notices that the demons are beginning to act weirdly. So now she is starting to question everything about her whole life. Her mother has raised her alone, and in addition to being so highly anxious over her fighting in the arena, she also gets extremely skittish when Myla asks questions about her father. Myla also has caught the eye of the great Thrax Prince Lincoln, and she begins to feel things she truly doesn't understand. So, with the help of some divine intervention (that she thought would give her some answers and help her relationship with her mother), she realizes that the answers might be way more than she bargained for.



Angelbound left me pleasantly surprised; it is very much YA, but the romantic tension is still palpable. Myla is such a great MC. She is a badass half-demon, half-human that does not take shit from anyone. The way the relationship between Myla and Lincoln develops is swoon-worthy. Who doesn’t love it when two people who should naturally be enemies become lovers? The banter between the two of them is entertaining. I also love how Myla speaks her mind no matter who you may be. Even if she is speaking to the King of Hell, The King of the Thrax, or her BFF, she pulls no punches. Angelbound is the first book of 12 in the Angelbound world, and I can say that when I finished book 1, I rushed to start the next one. If you like books with angels, demons, badass/snarky female MCs, magic, humor, great (but not overly complicated) world-building, and some paranormal romance, check out this series now. Christina Baurer has created a world so entertaining and unique it will keep you wanting more.

It's a fun easy listening young adult fantasy fiction. It's the first time listening to an audiobook read by the author. I was pleasantly surprised that it was well done. Also, it's nice knowing that it's read in the way the author had intended it to be interpreted.

This is a book I was surprised by when I found the audiobook on NetGalley. I wasn't too sure what to expect, except that I really loved the summary and wanted to read more right away. Diving into this book I was excited about Myla and following with her storyline.

The beginning is definitely slower, but the audiobook made it a lot easier to get through, and sometimes I found myself feeling like it was going in circles, but after getting about 25% of the way through it I was really starting to enjoy the book. Myla is complex, interesting, and a character that you start to see bits of growth through as you get through book one. The world building in this book definitely helped when it came to understanding what was going on, but also Myla herself. She's this fierce heroine and you don't really understand how fierce until you understand the world and how it puts her through these trials and tribulations.

This book was a hidden gem & a series I will definitely be watching out for, because I can't wait for more!

I did not like this book.

It was way too juvenile. The audio for this book distracted me too much. Genuinely not a fan of it at all & I really do love YA books :(

I ended up DNFing this book. I found the description very interesting and this book may be for other people - it just wasn't for me. The first-person POV with Mylah and her rambling type of narrative made me struggle while listening to the audiobook. She had a spunky, sarcastic attitude which I liked but her actions and words felt juvenile to me as she was an 18-year-old but acted more like a 15-year-old at times. I think it all boiled down to my personal preferences that led me to enjoy this less than I expected.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved Angelbound. I could picture Purgatory and all of the action happening in the story. I loved the world building, the dynamics between the characters, and the Kickbutt heroine. I also loved the horse-I hope he makes an appearance in later books. Overall I think this is a fun story and I will be purchasing it for our library. I did love the author's narration.

I absolutely adore this book.

I loved reading the world Bauer created and I loved listening to it being narrated by her even more. I think more authors should do this if they get the chance because no one knows how to bring their characters to life more than the person who created them.

I love the fun, unique take on demons, purgatory, heaven etc. that Bauer has created in this world. It's light and fun hearted but fleshed out and so well thought through.

The characters are also so loveable and well-written. I adore Myla as the main character and the grudging relationship between her and Lincoln is one of my favourites.

This is definitely a title I'll keep coming back to reread time and time again.

As a 31 year old woman I was unsure just how much I would actually enjoy this book, but I am so glad that I read it because this was SO GOOD!

The world building and the character building in this was so well done and really captured my attention and made me more interested in the story as it progressed.

I absolutely LOVED Myla. I thought she was an amazing main character with a lot of depth and embodied female empowerment and the idea that women can do anything men can do.

I thought the twist at the end was great, slightly predictable, but still very much enjoyed it.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Angelbound and am excited to continue the series and see where the characters stories are taken.

Also Christina Bauer did an amazing job narrating. The amount of detail she put into each character voice was phenomenal.

This audiobook was amazing and it was so good. Loved the characters and the plot twists . Loved the ending

Angelbound by Christina Bauer was a great intro into the world of Myla. Angels and Demons and Ghouls and Quasi demons and more, I loved the different power structures, the new types of creatures and Mylas never-ending glee at the many ways to kill different demons. I found the first half of the book a little slow and boring, but the second half really picked up. I detest the main character's best friend, she's a TERRIBLE friend and adds literally nothing to the story. I absolutely adore when she finds someone who appreciates her warrior ways and makes an awesome teammate. The author narrated this book and did a good job on most of the characters and differentiating them. I will assume the following books will have a quicker pace since most of the world-building is already there.

Loved Angelbound. It was such a fun and amazing read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And Christina Bauer makes an excellent narrator. It's not everyday that you get an author to narrate her own titles.
Would definitely purchase the rest of the series to find out how this story is going to end.

There's something special about authors reading their own books for the Audiobook version. I listened to this book as a NetGalley review and was thrilled to read another paranormal fantasy book with such rich world-building development. Myla was a funny and engaging protagonist and I enjoyed following her story. I feel this would be a good read for anyone who enjoys strong female protagonists and complex worlds with complex histories.

Well, this story is a fantasy paranormal angels-demons high school story, set in a very interesting world-build, gladiators in purgatory, yeah it's interesting and original. Myla is a character that you either like or not, for me it was a bit of a miss, the idea was good, and the construction was in a good way but in the end, it felt flat for me. The story pot is interesting, definitely kept me reading all the different elements and characters. The audiobook narrated by the author herself had me a little bit worried, however, I really think she did a good job doing it, some of her voices were a little high pitched, but the character's main voice narrative and the other characters were done in good pacing and clear pronunciation.

I felt like the idea behind this book was really good and the strong female character is always good. But I found it to long and slow to begin and it was really hard for me to get into it. Myla was a bit annoying at times too and she spoke and acted younger than 18 with her "I'm not like most girls" monologue which I didn't enjoy. But I found the idea of a world and story set in purgatory new and interesting and a quasi-demon is also a unique concept I've not encountered before.

I really loved the narrator. Her voice has so much sass and it matches to tone of the book perfectly. I also appreciate that she had different inflections for each character. The mother was the best. “Baby don’t die”.

This was a fun ya fantasy book, with a badass heroine and a very imaginative world.
It’s a great book, but for a better experience I would recommend you listen.

I really enjoyed this book but it definitely took me slightly longer than I expected to get through it!
I tend to love audiobooks to play while I am busy doing other stuff, but I couldn't just play this in the background while focusing on something else. The world building, the amount of different characters and names, it just required a bit more of my attention.

I love how Christina reads her own book and I love how she represents each of her characters, always making the story entertaining and engaging.

In general, I do think this is a good book. I like the story, I like the world and I like the characters. I do however feel like it was unnecessarily long. I do think there is a need for explanation especially in fantasy, but there are definitely some parts that could have easily been removed without affecting the main plot and generic storyline.

Overall I did really enjoy reading (listening) it and I'm intrigued to see other work by Christina!

I was gifted the audio book to review by NetGalley.

This is a YA paranormal fantasy with complex world building, and a strong feisty heroine. There were some moments where I was confused by the world building aspect but I think the author ended with tying it well together.

Myla is a quasi-demon which is half demon and half human. At 17 she loves nothing more than fighting in the purgatory arena. She is very outspoken but also hilarious and had me giggling throughout the book.. This book at the basis is a heaven and hell outline but the author built upon it five realms with deep history which kept me interested.

The author narrated this audiobook version, and it was actually a unique experience for me. I was not sure what to expect but the author did a fantastic job!!! I will definitely be adding more audiobooks by this author to my tbr list!

What I liked:

The arena
The creatures
The MC

What wasn't my cup of tea:

The narrative was sometimes borderline rambling in my opinion, and some could have been cut back, along with some of the world building. I generally love complex world building and while I think the author did a great job, I also think some of it could have been phrased differently. At times it seemed like there were piles of details that didn't really make sense in the moment.

The best friend just was not my cup of tea.

Overall I give this book 3.5 stars!