Friday, January 25, 2013

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout [REVIEW]


TITLE: Half-Blood (Covenant #1)
AUTHOR: Jennifer L. Armentrout
PUBLISHER: Spencer Hill Press
PUB DATE: Sep 20 2011
Summary from Goodreads:

"The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck."

Rating:


I’ve prolonged reading Half-Blood for quite some time now. I think I did so because the moment I got a copy of this, I was having a bit of a fantasy-genre overload. That time, I’ve been reading YA Fantasy books back to back and I kind of got weary about them that nothing seemed surprising anymore. So I thought I’d set this aside for a better time in the future. And I think I read it at just the right moment, because I enjoyed this book so much that I immediately ordered the next two books in the series online.

I relished every minute of reading Half-Blood; I finished it in just about less than 6 hours. There are still a few interruptions in between reading such as texting, bathroom breaks, snack time, etc. Plus, I had to sleep and go to work the following day so, 3 hours before bedtime then the remaining was from the next day after work. Anyway, it was really gripping that I just had to read on, and it pained me to put it down to do other things.

I love Alex’s smart mouth. She’s a little (make that a LOT) hot-headed, and her temper always gets her into trouble, but I still love her either way. There’s just something about witty characters, although they can be annoying sometimes, that makes me adore them. So sue me!

As for Aiden, well he’s kind of the typical leading man/hero. But if you would ask me who I’d choose between Aiden and Seth, I’d go with Aiden. I don’t know, but there is something off about Seth, I just can’t figure it out yet. I still like him though, but I have a bad feeling about him, I have yet to see what his role is in all this with the coming books.

I’ve read several reviews about this book saying that it was a rip-off of Vampire Diaries, but since I haven’t read that book (I don’t think I ever would, I’m a little fed up with Vampire books so...) it didn’t bother me. Half-Blood is a fast paced, witty book that any mythology-fan might come to enjoy. Although I have to admit, it’s not a very original story. It has those standard rudiments incorporated in a typical YA novel: female heroine, forbidden love, a love triangle, and an otherworldly dilemma – nothing special, BUT IT WORKS. Only the brightest authors can actually pull off basic elements and still come out strong and stand out from all the other ones out there. Is that the power of Jennifer L. Armentrout? So you might have guessed that I will be watching out for the next books.