EVANGELINE'S HEAVEN

Lucifer’s daughter tries to save the heavens, discovering truths along the way.

On her 18th birthday, Evangeline’s father visits her on the outskirts of First Heaven. She treasures these moments, since she can’t see him very often, as he is wanted by the Archangels for leading the Commoner angels in open rebellion. Evangeline, whose late mother was a Dominion, is a mixed-class angel. She supports her father’s Cause, having long recognized that the higher classes unjustly discriminate against her father’s people. After she overhears the Archangel Gabriel discuss plans to kill her father, she sets off on a mission across the seven realms of the Heavens to warn him. On the way, she learns of a key that would open the higher Heavens to her fellow Commoners, and she witnesses evidence that Lucifer’s tactics may not be as holy as she presumed. Evangeline also acquires an unlikely travel companion from their shared school days—Gabriel’s son, Michael. Braaksma’s angels are mortal creatures with wings, so there is a grounded sense of reality to the bucolic setting. The novel incorporates elements of the supernatural and Christian mythology. Also present are djinn, who live in the UnderRealm and are described as evil creatures lacking in honor and loyalty, raising questions of Islamophobic and anti-Arab stereotypes. Evangeline has a fairly typical coming-of-age story arc in which she discovers her individual strengths and experiences a bit of romance. The angels are racially ambiguous but have varied wing coloring.

An entertaining Christian-inspired fantasy with some questionable representation.