Author: Federica Bosco
Original Title: Innamorata di un Angelo
Series: Innamorata di un Angelo #1
Country: Italy
My Rating: 4 cups
If you’re looking for a HEA book, this isn’t your book. Before you go away though, I have to say there is a second book after this one. I don’t know if there will be others or if the next one will be also the end of the story, though I’m sure I’ll be buying the next book and the ones after that. Like I said, no HEAs, but you do get an extraordinary book, one worth reading.
It’s told from the heroine’s perspective. Mia is a fifteen year old girl, with big dreams of making it to the Royal Ballet School in London. But she’s a real teenager. You know how you get to read YA novels and they don’t feel they’re about real teens? This one is. You get to read about real teens, with teenage angst, first love, first kiss, the first real fight with your best friend, first time, first big fight with your parents, wishing never to grow up if that meant understanding what “compromise” is, everything.
Aside from being a very good ballerina, Mia is also experiencing forbidden love. She’s in love with Patrick, her best friend’s older brother, but she tries so hard to hide it, knowing that if she acted on it, she might lose her only real friend. So she keeps silent, left only with dreams, fantasies and hopes. When Patrick lets her know that he actually fell for her, it’s like a dream come true. And while it might seem sappy, their love story is so pure and real and strong and it left me rooting for them and hoping they make it and stay together forever. Then the ending came and things changed, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I loved Mia. She was a little too mature at times, not in a false way, but because life was a bit cruel for her and her mother, and that forced her to see the world as it is too early. I think a lot of girls, teenager or past that age, could see themselves in Mia. She’s an outcast and while at fifteen anyone feels like that, she was a real outcast. She was a virgin while all girls her age were so past the first time, it wasn’t even funny. She wasn’t talented at anything except dancing, she wasn’t one of the best students in school. A real outcast, with only Nina as her friend. Though I have to be honest, I didn’t like Nina at all, even at the beginning of the book. She seemed like one of those girls that would have a best friend but not be a best friend. Mia was always there for her, but Nina wasn’t or when she tried, she came up with crazy stunts which landed only Mia in trouble.
I loved Patrick. While older than Mia, he didn’t treat her like she was a mindless little girl. On the contrary, he treated her like a mature woman, not trying to shelter her with pretty words when she needed to be shaken up a little bit and when she made a mistake, he told her she made it and why she needed to apologize or make it right. I loved him for that and for also being able to treat Mia like the most special person in the world.
The ending left me crying. It’s been a long time since I actually wanted to curl up in bed and cry after reading a book, but this one made me want just that. I wanted to slap Nina so hard at the end. And also, the ending didn’t feel right. Maybe it ended that way because there is a second book, maybe there will be some way to make it all right. But for now, I feel my heart breaking just thinking about the ending and about how Mia and Patrick’s love story developed. It may as well have ended, though I don’t want to try and anticipate anything. All I know is that I hope I’ll find the second book fast. I need to see what happens next NOW.
I do hope this book gets translated in English, because I do believe it’s one of those Must Reads. So if you can speak Italian or if In Love With An Angel is already translated, go check it out. You won’t be sorry for trying it, trust me!
