Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

I expected not to like this book. I'm not really a fan of the whole "angel" phase the YA world is going through right now, however I was surprised to find that I completely loved this book!

First of all I'm very glad that they started out with Clara already knowing she's an angel, I think I would have been really bored if the first half of the book consisted of the same whiny "I'm Different" speech. The whole "purpose" concept was great, the idea that Clara's whole life revolved around this one task, this one boy, was so intriguing. I also really loved the love story in this book, it was simple but in an awesome way. I know for sure what team I'll be on if a love triangle develops (although I'm a big fan of Clara for not swaying towards the boy she did not previously say she was in love with).

I loved Clara's character, she felt exactly like a normal girl to me, well besides the occasional flying. As I said before I really liked that she knew what she wanted. She never made me think she was a typical stupid teenage girl, even though she did have a teenage girl crush. My two favorite characters in this novel though had to be Tucker and Wendy. Tucker was just such a sweetie and Wendy was such a good friend (although I did love the little bit of sauciness we saw in her, I wanted to shout GO WENDY!).

I'm impatiently waiting on the next book in the series! Definitely make sure to check out this fantastic 2011 Debut!