Finished reading on 27th November 2015

Title: Half-Blood

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout (otherwise known as J. Lynn)

Series Status: The 1st in the Covenant series

Publisher: (UK) Hodder & Stoughton (US) Spencer Hill Press

Number of Pages: 307 + my copy had a bonus novella

(Found on 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.

Now, since I don’t usually like reading stories based mostly around a relationship, the synopsis made me hesitant to read this. Just judging from the synopsis makes me cringe slightly – it just sounds so cheesy to me. But I’ve read one of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s books before that was actually a love story, and I really enjoyed it, so I was more interested from that.  It’s been on my shelves for over a year, but I finally picked it up.

Ok the first thing I have to mention is the cover…LOOK HOW NICE IT IS! This series does have different editions – one with white backgrounds and flower designs (like the one seen in the photo above) and one that is the same design, but a coloured background. Both look stunning. PLUS there’s even a pronunciation guide in the front of the book, just to help you out. We’re off to a good start!

The actual book was a fun and easy read. The love story aspect wasn’t cheesy at all, but instead seemed to develop naturally and realistically. The fantasy plot line wasn’t overwhelmed by the relationship, which I was glad to see. I enjoyed seeing how the story was based on mythology – but this wasn’t mentioned much considering. It’s nothing like the Percy Jackson series.

The main character – Alexandria – seemed to be a lot like the stereotypical teenage girl. She worried about what people thought of her (but not too much, thankfully). She would argue with people and have petty fights. Sometimes she needed to sort out her priorities, but even she acknowledged that. It was all pretty evenly balanced out by her determined tough side that would lead the fantasy aspect of the story into chaos, with the events she has to go through.

Speaking of events – they were all quite dramatic. Something would go wrong, and before that is sorted…another bit of information would be uncovered that just makes it ten times worse. I enjoyed this, but I did have a problem with predictability. While reading the book I did manage to predict nearly all of the main events before they happened. I think this is because a small snippet of random information would just appear somewhere and I’d think “Why is that here? Something’s going to happen.”

The overall story was fast paced and quick to read, with it being just over 300 pages. I did like seeing how Jennifer L Armentrout handles fantasy writing, and I believe it was carried out well. The ending was definitely satisfying, with there being a hint to so much more yet to come, making me want to get the 2nd book 😀

Rated 3.5//5 stars

With how much I enjoyed it, I was originally going to rate it 4//5 stars, but I feel like the predictability brought the rating down slightly.

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Let me know what you think!

Have you read any Jennifer L Armentrout books?

Which would you recommend?

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