The first of an adventurous trilogy in its name, The Darkangel spews out mystery, fear, love, and magic. In it lies a world, made by long-gone immortals, that’s slowly dying of thirst and lack of workers to run its gears. In the dusty plains of Avaric, a young darkangel, or vampyre if you will, searches for a thirteenth pretty bride. He kidnaps Aerial’s mistress and flies away to his castle with his dozen of black wings. Aerial, now friendless, blamed for the disappearance, and about to be resold into slavery, decides to confront the frightning darkangel and have him kill her too.

However, when the stunningly beautiful darkangel spots Aerial, she is surprised to find that he has no intention of killing anybody, although he easily could. Instead, he takes her too and forces her to be a servent to his wives, who can barely be called women. They are nothing but hollow wraiths whose souls have been stolen by their husband.

Aerial, though pretty much alone and sad, still has a big, selfless heart and she keeps the wraiths company as well as feeds the starved gargoyles that serve as guard dogs. She even comes to love the darkangel himself. She sees good amid his evilness while everyone else feels that he must die before he gains even more power. Aerial only has one short year to make a decision, and she is the only one who’s able to do anything about it. Aerial must take on a large responsibility. Will Aerial risk all of humanity, even her own life, to save his darkened heart?

Meredith Ann Pierce invents a new world that she explains more and more of with each book, leaving great mystery inbetween. The suspense draws you to keep reading until the end of the trilogy, but even then I was still hungering for more. I was first drawn to the book by its mysteriously interesting title and the captivating exposition. Mostly though, I found the font, layout, and design of the book to my taste. The book just looks full of adventure, danger, and inventive fantasy. Yes, I’m sorry but I do judge books by their cover; expositions come second. But I must insist that this story rules, no matter what the cover displays. I had never thought that it’d turn out to be one of my most favourite stories of all time. Honestly, I chased the romance part of it more than the actual adventure. Sad, unrequited love broke my heart and made me cry as I remembered my own heartbreak. Call me sentimental but I adore the little love story that means so much in this story. The author succeeds in making the story feel so real and emotions are reflected so realistically in her words.

The Darkangel Trilogy tells of longing, desire, courage, and sacrifice. Let Meredith Ann Pierce lead you through a heart-gnawing quest that’ll make you wonder again and again how Aerial manages to make it through all those tough situations, with her heart and soul.