Spirit's Bane

Guardian Angel Files, Book 1

By: Julie C. Gilbert

Narrated by: Reuben Corbett

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The Kindred Spirit Bond makes them powerful....

Lucifer has noticed. As with all young angels on the Guardian path, Allister and Mina undertake a wide variety of missions to discover their Gifts. Meanwhile, Satan and his top lieutenants have a new secret weapon to test, so they set a trap for the pair.

Now, the Guardian Angel candidates need protection. If Spirit's Bane successfully destroys the angels of light, the last line of defense between humans and demons will disappear.

©2017 Julie C. Gilbert (P)2018 Julie C. Gilbert

Guardian angels as never seen before

Two angels who are close friends going through Guardian angel training have their spiritual lives turned upside down once they discover not only a deep connection not seen in a long time but the powers they are able to weld. With the fight of good vs. evil evil has become interested in what they can do and want to bring them to the dark side and if they can’t they want to break not only their bond but their faith in the light. Who will win?

Hope there’s a sequel

I really enjoyed this book. It kept my interest all the way through. I wish it gave a little more detail about the workings of angels but that would have required a longer more involved book. The narrator was great and I especially liked his demon voices. I also appreciated that he didn’t try to make his female voices too high. I have listened to some books whose male narrators made that mistake. I hope a second book is coming soon.

Angels vs. Demons

The stage has been set for another fabulous series by Julie C. Gilbert.

Allister and Mina are in training to become Guardian Angels. During their training things go awry and the battle between good and evil heats up. I can’t wait to see what the next book will bring!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

What a moving tale.

Angel's vs Demons with heartache of humans on the inbetween. Maybe it's because I am a sap, not sure but just listening to some of the prayers moved me. I am not sure if my heart can take reading the rest of this tale, but I am going to try. Thought provoking, action filled and soul moving. Loved this!

A different type of story, from this author's norm

This is a story of Angels: The training they do, the jobs they can select from and other items that ensure we mortals hear the word of our Father, and vice versa.
It also shows the demons and Dark Lord's attempts to overcome heaven and earth.
Although not religious, even though it deals with topics that are of a religious nature, it is more a following of two trainees, and their options and trials in securing their final graduation.
Although a different type of book, to the norm, I found, through the audiobook version, an interest in the drama and intrigue on the backstory, similar to any government agency, with spies and superior personnel issuing orders to subordinates, which they demand total adherence to their cause.

Impressive

I am intrigued by this book. I'm looking into reading the next book very soon. Well, when I can that is. It gave an intense level of fantasy while also being somewhat realistic as well. It also cleverly threw in some very inspirational words as well. I recommend this book strongly. I do have to say that there are a lot of biblical type references in here. It is an angel verses demons type of story. An amazing one at that. This book kind of struck me as Supernatural without Sam and Dean. Or better yet if Sam and Dean were a man and woman instead? Great book!

Wonderful Concept, Narrator is Fantastic

This is a very fun novel of Angels versus Demons. I love the religious aspect inside the novel. It battles a lot of tough questions of "Why does God allow this" scenarios, and forgiveness, as well as how hard it is for people to turn back to faith when they do something that they feel tears them too far away from it. This work was fiction, but the overtones of it were beautiful, and had me tear up several times. The narrator does a fantastic job with the audio version.

Keep in mind this is fiction/fantasy

I like the book, but readers must keep in mind that it is fiction/fantasy. I don't usually like books that take poetic license with scripture, but this one was done well and I kept my mind on the fact that it was really just fiction. I was pleased that the author explained that in the beginning and would hope no one would be led to believe it was strictly based on scripture. The story was wonderful and I plan to listen to the next book as well.

The narration was great. That can make or break an audio book for me so I was glad to enjoy this narrator's rendition of the book.

I requested this audio book from the author and have voluntarily left this review.

What Questions Do Angels Ask?

Written in the style of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Randy Alcorn's Lord Foulgrin's Letters, and Frank Perretti's This Present Darkness, Julie Gilbert adds an impressive story to the collection of Christian speculative fiction surrounding angels, demons, and spiritual warfare. The story switches back and forth between communication between demons and the experiences of the angels, with humans playing a vital but secondary role in the story.

I had no expectations coming to this book, except perhaps that I doubted it could measure up to the previously mentioned books. But those are some of the best in their genre, and it turns out it didn't matter. This book asked a different question from a different perspective. I had never before considered that the angels might also be asking "the glorious king" (I love their name for God so much!) why he allows evil. It's a tremendous theological dilemma that we don't even consider because we are so selfishly focused on why evil happens to us, to our kind, to our world. But angels were created first. And they were created similarly to us. And at least some of those that chose to continue following God have the task of helping us to do so as well. So while many people continue to be deceived or lost in service to the evil one, the angels must continue to do battle. And sometimes that battle must seem futile while they know, even more clearly than we do, that the glorious king has the power to immediately put thing to right and end the reign of the imposter Satan. So why doesn't he?

The story itself was interesting, fairly predictable, interesting ideas about the nature of angels, although Gilbert introduced that at the beginning, asking us to read with an open mind. Thankfully, there were no weird angel-human romantic relationships (that irks me on a theological level). I am looking forward to seeing how the story continues and what questions will be brought up in the sequel.

The narrator, Reuben Corbett, did an outstanding job.

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the author and have reviewed it willingly.

Easy 5 Stars!!

Where to start? I loved pretty much everything about this story! Characters were fun and the Guardian Angel aspect was handled really well! Narration was fantastic, loved it!