Half Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout Series: Covenant #1
Published by Spencer Hill Press (10.18.2011)
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Paperback, 281 pages
Source: Library
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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 thoughts
I don’t really have much to say about this book, sadly. I liked the premise, I liked the characters, I just wasn’t wowed by it. Alex was a pretty cool lead, but I didn’t really feel a connection with her. I didn’t have any complaints about her, though. She was strong yet still had moments of weakness.
I did like Aiden, even if I didn’t quite feel the swoon factor. But of course, it was hard not to like him.
Aiden was…hotness incarnate. I alternated between staring at those ripped arms and being envious of how he moved with such fluid grace, but it was more that just his ability to make me drool on myself. Never in my life had I met someone so patient and tolerant of me. Gods know I’m annoying as hell, but Aiden treated me as if I were his equal. No pures really did that.
What’s not to like? He was almost too perfect.
The romance was wonderful. There wasn’t too much of it, and it happened slowly and naturally. There were moments of irritation between Aiden and Alex, and that conflict made it much better. Plus the forbidden love aspect always appeals to me. :)
I liked the mythology factor, but I would have liked to see a little more. It seemed like a bit of an info dump at the beginning to explain everything (it took me a while to catch up), and then it sort of disappeared. The idea of Apollyons was interesting, albeit a bit predictable. I did like the twist regarding Rachelle, though. Didn’t see that one coming! But even still, I felt a little detached.
Things were decently explained with the Hematoi and the Covenant, but I want to know more about the daimons (it took me the entire book to pronounce that as ‘demon’). Sure, they feed on Aether, but where do they go when they’re not feeding? Do they just wander the streets? I had trouble getting a handle on their intelligence level, too. At first I thought they were just mindless zombie-like creatures, living only for another fix. But towards the end, it seemed like more than that. I just would have like a bit more background.
I glanced down at the dumbbell and pictured it flying across the room – at his face. But it was such a nice face, and I’d hate to ruin it.
I am sorry for you that you feel a little disappointed about this book. But it still sounds good.
And I think you review is also very good :D
Mariska
Hmm, I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about this one but haven’t gotten to read it yet myself. Glad to see that you mostly enjoyed it though, I’ll have to read it soon. Thanks for the review! :)
Pure is so much better. I´m interested if you read Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead? I liked Half-Bloods, but similarity with Richelle Mead´s writing is obvious.
I have not read Vampire Academy, although I own some of them and I really want to! I’m hoping to get to them before the year is over. :)