Half-Blood(Covenant 1)Author: Jennifer L. ArmentroutPublisher: Spencer Hill Press, 2011
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:
I’d like to take this first small paragraph to quickly dismiss the rants I’ve seen going around, about how Half-Blood is practically the Greek Mythology equivalent of Vampire Academy. I tell you now it is not. The stories do have a similar basic formula, but let’s face it, what book nowadays doesn’t? Don’t people still go around claiming everything – and I do mean everything – is like Twilight even though the stories don’t have anything whatsoever in common? Just that basic little formula. And it’s up to the writer to take it, work it, own it and feed it back to us in a new form. In my opinion, an awesome form in the case of Half-Blood. So…similarities? Yes. The same old boring stuff? Hell no.
Moving on.
Alexandria finds herself dragged back to the Covenant’s island after her mother’s brutal death at the hands of daimons. With the threat of becoming a half-blood servant, Alex will have to prove she is capable of catching up to training standards. For this she will have to train under the hardest, most badass, and most incredibly sexy Sentinel in residence. Aiden St. Delphi, Alex’s all time crush. Training is hard, but Alexandria gives it her best, not letting herself be distracted (not even by ripped arms, and intense silver eyes). But when shocking news rock her soul, Alex will have to choose between following the rules, or breaking them. And hell, what is one more little rule to break when it means doing what feels right.
My uncontrolled excitement, some might even say obsession, for this book began after reading Daimon (the prequel). And it is with great pleasure and equal or more excitement that I report I was not disappointed by Half-Blood in ANY way. The story was captivating, the mythology was subdued but nonetheless fascinating, and getting to know the characters (yes, even with similarities) was just splendid. Alexandria is fun to read. She is so strong trying to keep it together every single second, and also very intuitive though a bit reckless. I have a very strong feeling she will fight her fate no matter what. Aiden was a-ma-ZING (that’s the electric zap you’ll get every time he appears) He is so very patient with Alex, and then so caring and sweet and careful and…I could just go on all night long. Other characters that I liked include Caleb and Seth. Yes, Alex’s world is filled with men. Men everywhere, Ah~. Anyways, Caleb is her best friend, her main support and confidant. Seth starts off as an irritating little prick, but soon warmed up to my good side. It’ll be very interesting to see how his relationship to Alex grows in the next book. I smell fights and confrontations [insert evil laugh].
Full of exciting dialogue and action, amazing characters and mythology, Half-Blood will shine with purple awesomeness on the shelves of your bookshelves or the top of your book piles. A book like this, demands to be remembered because it stands out among others. I will no doubt re-read the whole thing gain once Pure comes out next year, and I’m sure I’ll be re-reading it for years to come.
Favorite Quotes:
“Did you think he was just some lazy pure-blood who needed protection?” His voice dripped sarcasm.
“Well he looks like on! How was I supposed to know he was secretly Rambo in Dockers?”
~
The grin increased to a full smile. And…oh, man. He had dimples. The air in my lungs died. “I remember you, too.”
~
“Okay. I’m ready to move onto something else, like practicing with knives or defense against the dark arts. Cool things.”
“Did you just quote Harry Potter?”
~
Seth glanced back over his shoulder at the door. “Alex, you’re starting to worry me. Insult me… or something.”
