Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Here is our very first review! Enjoy!

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Dani’s rating: 5 stars Steph’s rating: 4.5 stars Overall rating: 4.75 stars

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

     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.

Dani's review:

I recently discovered Jennifer L. Armentrout about a few months ago, and I have to say, she is a wonderful storyteller. Half-Blood had the perfect amount of action, romance, and humor. Many YA books that I have read contain cliche action, sappy romance, and confusing or idiotic humor that makes no sense at all. The whole Covenant series is centered around Greek Mythology, but it isn’t as Greek-themed as Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. The gods are mentioned as either revered beings or the people up there who enjoy messing around on Earth. Some characters revere the gods, and others, such as Alex, ridicule them and doubt their existence.

    Alex, the main character in this book, is infatuated with Aiden, her longtime crush from when she was first at the Covenant. But this is not your typical love triangle. Aiden is a sentinel, someone trained to fight daimons. Daimons prey on the aether in both purebloods and halfbloods.  Aether is the “god substance” that gives halfbloods and purebloods  the abilities which separate them from humans, rendering them stronger and faster than average humans. Aether even gives purebloods power over one or more of the elements. Alex is a fiery, stubborn, and hot-headed half-blood teenager who always has hilarious comebacks on hand, even in serious situations. As an untrained half-blood fighter, she managed to take down two daimons. Aiden describes her actions as “stupid, but reckless”. In summary, she is a total badass.

    I said that this was a love triangle, and you’re probably wondering what happened to the second guy. Well, the second guy is a total hottie named Seth. He doesn’t come in until the end of the story, but he is definitely my favorite character! Read this and you’ll understand....

“I didn’t walk to look at him, but I couldn’t look away. My stomach lurched when our gazes met. His eyes—they were the strangest color I’d ever seen, and as he got closer, I realized it wasn’t my imagination. His eyes were the color of amber, nearly iridescent. While he continued to stare at me, something happened…”

-Alex sees Seth for the first time

And then there’s the other guy also known as Aiden...

“Aiden’s dark brown waves continually fell over his forehead, brushing against equally dark brows. The lines of his face were nearly perfect, the curve of his jaw strong, and he had the most expressive lips I’d ever seen. But it was those thundercloud eyes I find beautiful. No one had those eyes.”

-Alex’s take on Aiden

You should also know that Aiden is 4 years older than Alex. So, Alex was crushing on Aiden when she was a tween and Aiden was...a man. Don’t we all have these kinds of crushes? :) Seth is only a year older than Alex.

While this may seem like an ever so shallow book, Alex definitely gets her fair share of hurt and shock. She really does face the threat of being turned into a daimon, and even worse, by someone she doesn’t expect at all. I feel like Mrs. Armentrout really wants to make her characters suffer a bit before anything good happens to them, but the conclusion to this book leaves you with a bittersweet feeling.

I think that you should definitely put this book on your “to read” list because once you read it, you’ll want to stay in the Covenant world forever. You’ll obsess about Aiden or Seth (hopefully Seth :D) and force your friends to read it!

The only issue I had with this book was its possible lack of originality. It simply shared too many characteristics with Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series. Stubborn, hot-headed girl falls for the unattainable, older guy, and is in a training school to fight some kind of monster. (In Vampire Academy, the monsters are Strigoi, and in Covenant, daimons) This is probably a coincidence because those are the only similarities it shares with Vampire Academy.  But if you’ve read the Vampire Academy series and are starting to read this series, you will be surprised by how alike the two series are.

~Dani