BOOK: Half-Blood #1
AUTHOR: Jennifer L. Armentrout
SERIES: Covenant #1
PUBLISHER: Spencer Hills Press
PAGES: 281 (Paperback/ARC version)
SYNOPSIS
Before I start, I would just like to thank the author Jennifer Armentrout and the folks over at Spencer Hills Press for providing me with an ARC of Half-Blood. I am extremely grateful you allowed me to read this wonderful book pre-release, and readers of this should no that no monetary concerns affected this review, any comments are my thoughts and my thoughts alone.
Alrighty, now that that’s out the way, lets get to the good stuff. I know most of you are aware of all the Greek god/Myth themed novels coming out this year eg. The Goddess Test, Starcrossed, Abandon blah blah blah…but I can guarantee you have never read anything quite like Ms. Armentrout’s Half-Blood. It has everything: fantasy, horror, action, humour, and some swoon-worthy romance (and may I just say, I don’t swoon very often).
I’m really bad at writing synopsis’s, so you can just look it up on Goodreads or Amazon. It may sound a little bit like a Greek version of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments, but trust me, this book may as well be set on a whole new planet. It has a completely new breed of monsters, gods, and hunters. From the very first page you are dropped into the action and the pace never lets up, I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time, laughing at Alex’s wit half the time and biting my nails (my poor, poor nails) the rest. Alex is one hell of a character, she’s smart, funny, sassy, and able to hold her own against anyone and everyone. I loved how she was tough, but she knew when to back down, show some humility and accept her mistakes.
Aiden was a bit of a surprise, I had imagined a blonde golden-boy who was around the same age as Alex. Instead he turned out to be a dark-haired, sweet, kind instructor who I realised I much prefer. The tension between those two was obvious, and when it did come to those kissing scenes…lets just say you have to read it to understand. The cast of secondary characters were also very real, not card board cut outs used solely as a device to pad out the story. Whilst he may have been a bit of an ass, I found myself warming to Seth, especially in the last few chapters. He kind of has one of those ‘me Tarzan, you Jane’ complexes, but if you looked around that as Alex did you could see that he was actually a decent guy.
The plot of Half-Blood is absolutely packed, and I never got bored. The author cleverly manages to weave in sub-plots and major themes that set up for the next novel Pure whilst still being relevant to the events in the current book. The writing style she uses is also unique, the plot completely original and something I have never read about before. It kind of gets old when you know exactly how the story goes and how it’s going to end (see the masses of Hades-Persephone books readily available) but Half-Blood constantly managed to surprise me.
Half-Blood is nothing short of an absolutely amazing read from debut novelist Jennifer Armentrout, when I finished I was actually disappointed I didn’t have Pure right next to me, and I can only hope lightening will strike twice and I will blessed with an ARC of that too. I cannot wait to see what Ms. Armentrout will come up with in the future, and I can strongly recommend each and every one of you buy a copy of her fantabulous novel as soon as it come out in October. You will soon know, as I do, that this book is AMAZEBALLS :D
this is one of the book that I really want to read but I doubt it will be available here in Philippines. You are lucky you got yours from before the release date.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading this on the Adobe Digital Reader/Iphone, which was a little annoying (wished for an ARC), but it was totally worth it because this book was AWESOME/Great. I could probably physically hug this book if I actually did that a copy in my hands.
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