Review: Half-Blood

Title:  Half-Blood
Series:  Covenant #1
Author:  Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher:  Spencer Hill Press
Pages:  281
Format:  eBook

Thank you to Nikki at Take Me Away  for letting me borrow this awesome book!  

Summary:  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.  

My Review:  So it's official.  Jennifer L. Armentrout is now my favorite author.  Everything I've read of hers has not only held my interest the entire time I've read it, its held my interest even after I've finished.  Really, I find myself going back through her books to reread my favorite parts or remember a really funny line.  Its happened before but doing that with other books has always gotten a little boring.  But I don't think I'll ever get tired of her books.  

Half-Blood was no exception.  Actually, I was pretty surprised I liked it as much as I did.  Having only read the books and shorts from her Lux Series, I didn't think I'd enjoy  anything as much as I enjoyed that series.  I was a bit afraid I'd be comparing the books so much that I wouldn't be able to just sit back and enjoy the story.  

I was completely wrong.  

Half-Blood was so different from The Lux Series that I really didn't see any similarities, other than the entertaining writing style.  

The plot was amazing.  everything was so tied together and well thought out.  The things the character did  was so natural and flowed so well.  I really appreciate this in a book and give props to Jennifer for pulling it off.  Normally, books are either more plot driven or more character driven but this book was a nice balance of both.   

The thing I most enjoyed in this book though, was the characters.  Every single one of them have their own individual personality and characteristics.  None of them were flat, they all stood out in their own way, even the ones that didn't have much of a part in the book.  

I especially enjoyed Alex in this book.  I connected and sympathized a lot with her in this.  That's one thing that makes me love Jennifer's books - no matter what kind of crazy situation the main characters are going through, I can always connect with them and understand how they're feeling and why they're feeling it.

  

And, of course, the romance in this book was drool worthy.  Aiden is so freaking amazing.  He has that bad-boy look but he's not the average "bad boy" love interest.  In fact, he's actually a real sweet heart.  He's been taking care of the ones he loves since he was just a kid and when Alex wiggles her way past his defenses, its just SO CUTE.  

But then, of course, Seth shows up.  I sensed a love triangle forming from the second we met him.  And though nothing really happened between them yet, when I found out what exactly he was to Alex I was just like 

I sense some trouble ahead between the three of them.  But, even though I'm already totally in love with Aiden. . . what happened at the end between Seth and Alex changed my perspective of Seth.  He was no longer that guy I was all suspicious of.  Now, he's more of a mystery to me.  Is he a jerk and a "bad boy" like it seems or is he actually sweet and a softie? 

 My only complaint was just how reckless Alex was.  Some of the decisions she made had me wishing I could go into the jump and slap some sense into her.  Of course, if I did that, I'd probably get my butt kicked.  But I did understand why Alex did those things.  It's just part of who she is.  She's a risk taker!  

Either way, this is book is definitely going down as one of my favorites.  The plot, the action, and romance, and the characters were all well thought out perfectly done.  I can't wait to begin reading the second book in her series, Pure.  

Five Feathers