Book BFF Melissa: {Review} Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Half-Blood

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Number of Pgs. 281 (Paperback)

Publication date: October 18, 2011
Publisher: Spencer Press Hill
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy

How I got the copy: bought

From 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.

I've been using a new way of reviewing that I saw over at Making the Grade. It breaks the book down and makes it easier to rate. The way it works is each category gets a score out of ten points. Then you add them all up + 50 (50% automatically for each book) and that's your score out of 100.

Plot 6/10: If you go to read this series I suggest you read the prequel. I'm really glad I did because it set up this new world for the first book. While there are some cool aspects like these creepy creatures called Daimons. There were so many things that reminded me of Vampire Academy (Hot guy takes girl back to campus after being gone for awhile and volunteers to train her so she doesn't get kicked out of school. Creatures higher up in society can control power of fire, air, etc. One of the characters is drunk all the time. Having to kill someone you love. Fortune tellers). But once I got past those similarities I realized I didn't really care if they were similar because the writing was just that good. There is a good old lesson about equality tucked in there nicely, along with a really sweet growing romance. No insta-love here, yet it was very different from the Lux series which I was glad. J.L.A really knows how to develop a romance! I was also glad there was no huge cliffhanger, but lucky for me I already bought the next two books so I can start them right away!

Characters 9/10: Whenever I read a book with a kick ass heroine, I wish I could be just like them. Alex acts impulsively, but she's really brave and so strong. And sometimes I wish I could be more like that because these bold characters do not lead boring lives at all. Aiden comes in a very close second to Daemon. And I mean close. He's mature, strong, patient, funny, smart, and kind. His character is a major reason I'm excited to continue the series. Caleb is Alex's friend and it was nice to see a friendship that didn't lead to a love triangle for once. I kept picturing Seth as live version of an Oscar all gold and perfectly chiseled, but then I realized he just looked like a normal person...more like a young Matthew Mcconaughey minus the ridiculous accent.

Setting 9/10: I liked that it started where the prequel ended at her house in the mortal world. There was a lot of different scenery which always makes me happy.

Pacing 9/10: J.L.A's books are always page turners. I get to the end of a chapter and something big happens so I have to continue to find out how it will turn out.

Style 10/10: I love Alex's voice and thoughts. She makes me laugh and is easy to relate to. The only thing that bothered me about the writing was the use of "oh my gods" instead of singular because the world Alex lives in has multiple greek gods. My mind kept getting caught up on that because it's usually singular.

Final Thoughts: I'm pretty sure I still like the Lux series more, but this series is definitely realllllly good! If you haven't read any of J.L.A's books you really need to get on that.

Total: 93/100