Cursed, Book One

Dramatic Action of Good vs Evil as Angels and Fallen Battle for Supremacy This set contains the first two books of the Morningstar Academy series and the main character is celestial warrior Glad (Gladriel), part of squad 132, along with her best friend Astread, and other teammates, squadron leader Kessian, Aliyah, Jael and Issra, who are all part of the cherubim army sworn to guard and protect all that is the Almighty’s from the Enemy, including all humans. They regularly battle Fallen and demons, with demons feeding off humans regularly. Recently, Glad has found her body betraying her whenever Kessian is close and her BFF Astread constantly makes fun of her, even though Glad is sure Kessian has no feelings for her! When the squad gets called to a routine job to rescue humans trapped in their cars from a landslide created by the Fallen, with demons feeding off the trapped humans, she somehow manages to kill a demon with her celestial sword Phantom, something highly unusual, as usually when they are cut, they wink away to regenerate. That didn’t happen this time and now she has been made a target, with the news passed on by the surviving demon that had been feeding off the passenger in the car. It is eons since an angel killed a demon, so not something she knows much about. Their next call goes badly, with her being recognised as the ‘Killer’ by the demons there and they are led into a trap, with the squad quickly getting separated from each other and Glad loses sight of her partner Astread. A group of large wolf like demons call for their attention and suddenly drop something form the skies. It is her friend Astread, whose four wings have been hacked off her back, leaving her in a bad way! The demons warn that this is just the first part of their revenge against her and her team. Glad is really upset and wants these demons hunted down and revenge to be gotten for her friend, who almost died. The squad are called in front of the Almighty and she specifically is called forward and spoken to directly, to be told not to take revenge into her own hands, that he will take action in his own time. After she sees the Almighty seemingly having done nothing after a month has passed, makes her secretively take action herself, without telling any of her squad about what she is doing. She knows what the main demon responsible looks like and she aims to kill him herself, so he can’t do what he did to any of her other friends! When she does, she soon finds herself in trouble for having gone against the direct words of the Almighty and has her two lower wings removed and she becomes one of the Fallen, escorted down to the gates leading to Morningstar Academy in second heaven, where newly fallen angels are re-educated to make human lives a living hell. Not something she finds to adhere to, but there are punishments for failing and especially for talking about the past and the ‘before’ she arrived at the academy. She seemingly upsets her guide to the academy and gets all her hair cut off to show she needs intensive adjustment in her attitude, making her a target for one and all. She is given a mentor, a fellow student called Dante, who is supposed to get her following their rules quickly, or both will be punished and one of those, the Hall of Corrections is spoken of in dread! Instead of even having people know her name, she is only addressed as Trainee Scum, until she earns a name! Her lessons soon instruct her to the three primary objectives and they go against everything she has always believed in and how she has treated humans. Glad thinks of Dante as a brownnoser and hates him and the others in her small classes, but soon comes to realise they are not all as bad as she thought and instead they are trying to graduate, so they can get as far away from the academy as they can! The instructors often take them to events happening on Earth, including the top secret mission the Fallen high ups have been plotting and planning for decades, which they have named Operation Pet Poof. One event sees humans disappearing on a large scale, never seen before and another where even graves are empty of bodies all over, leading Glad to remember a prophecy she had read in the restricted section of the library back in third heaven, where she used to exist. Lucifer is the head of the Fallen and his pet hate is the land of Israel, favoured people of his enemy, the Almighty. All of the students are sent to figure out the situation with the missing bodies and it is Glad who helps her team to actually have some success, as she finally figures out that Bethor, Nisroc, Ambrielle, and even Dante, are playing their instructors and doing only what they have to, to stay out of danger. They need to find a copy of the original prophecy to show to their headmaster, to win a commendation and protect them from any punishments, especially when Glad is reluctant to do as she is told by their instructors. On top of that, Kessian and his team must find a book a former inmate read, which allowed him into third heaven even with all the wrong he had done in his life. It had only been the words of the book that allowed him to reach from the pits of despair to ask for forgiveness that seem to have brought him there. Kessian hopes that might be something that would get Glad back to being where she belongs, with him and the rest of the squad. Parts of the prophecy are coming to fruition and both teams have to try and figure out the next parts and see what they might be able to do to put a stop to all humans on the planet being killed! The four horsemen of the Apocalypse have been released and Lucifer’s plan against Israel has failed, but that hasn’t put a stop to further suffering of humans everywhere. A handpicked human leader has been given special powers from Lucifer himself and as humans everywhere are starving and getting angry, due to the huge numbers that disappeared and the lack of food production. This leader manages to perform what seems like the feeding of the thousands from the bible, but he is on the side of Lucifer, which is never a good thing! The prophecy calls for even second heaven where Glad is now, to be destroyed. Kessian is still able to communicate with Glad telepathically, through their strong personal connection, but it isn’t two way like she is used to. With the prophecy started counting down to its final resolution, Glad and her new classmates start doing all they can to help humans, without their instructors knowing, or any other demons spotting them. Being forced by one instructor to force feed instructions to world leaders everywhere, to do drastic things against their enemies, has them all shocked. Every step Glad and the two teams take, seems to take them only partly forward in their efforts, always behind the eight ball. When her former team are overrun by demons and badly injured, it is only a desperate call out by Kessian that reaches Glad that might save them. So much is going on as the dragon and beast from the prophecy are identified, just as two prophets come to attention and become a target. Glad and co need to figure out a way of protecting the rebels who are on the side of the Almighty, as Lucifer’s pawn of a leader, has a tricky method of identifying all the rebels so they can be eliminated. Glad and her new friends, who only know her as Dree, all would love to get back to third heaven and regain their wings, but Glad will have to take note of the Almighty’s plans this time and not try to take action against his wishes again. Loads to come as we get to see the world being destroyed with fire, earthquakes, plague and more, and all the efforts the two teams use to try and stop all these bad things happening. I received an ARC copy of these two books from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the books above.