ARC Review: Half-Blood
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.First Sentence (ARC Edition...subject to changes and whatnot):
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 eyes snapped open as the freakish sixth sense kicked my fight or flight response into overdrive.
After reading so many glowing reviews of Half-Blood and people consistently talking it up on Twitter, I just had to know what it was all about. My biggest fear though was that it would not live up to all the hype that seemed to surround it; rest assured fellow readers Half-Blood was simply amazing (and I only read an ARC of it).
I loved how Half-Blood starts off with a bang and that it threw Alex right into the thick of battle for her life, and how the book had such a quick pace.
One of the things I liked best about Half-Blood was the world that Ms. Armentrout created and the back story for it. I really liked all the little details that she added into the story because it just made that much better and gave it more depth.
There's this one part of the book where things began to get extremely complicated for Alex because who/what she is, and man I just loved how it it totally made things so much harder for her (I know, I mean to characters). I liked that bit because it gives you a little look into what will be happening in book two (Pure), and also that I had kinda of guessed but was thinking to myself that that couldn't possibly be so and then it was.
I generally liked the main character, Alex, in Half-Blood, and for once didn't feel like she was a character that needed some sense knocked into her. The reason I liked her so much was that she was such an interesting, strong character; plus I liked that fact that she could could take care of herself in a fight.
As for the Daimons, oh my gosh, that has to be one of best things in the book. How they became that way and what they do to those of the Hematoi was just brilliantly done...even if it was slightly creepy, but still oh so good.
What really makes Half-Blood so hard to put down is the writing and how with each successive chapter you find that there is so much more to the story then what you read in the synopsis.
What I really liked best about Half-Blood was that Alex, the main character, wasn't a total pushover. I liked how she was a strong character and wasn't about to go along with what everybody had planned for her future. I thought that she was a pretty well rounded character who had just the right mixture of bravado and vulnerability.
While I loved reading Half-Blood there's just one minor detail that derailed my absolute love for this book.
That would be the non-relationship relationship between Alex and Aiden (she's a half-blood, he's a pure you do the math), now before you all go getting your feathers ruffled hear me out. What I didn't like about it was how they very nearly wound up sleeping together it just didn't really seem to fit the moment. While that one instance nearly made me quite disgusted with both of them, especially with Aiden because he seemed like a nice guy; although he kind of redeemed himself at the end of the book. I won't tell you how I went from feeling kind of meh about him to thinking better of him (it would give entirely too much away).
Content (may have spoilers, highlight to see): Some underage drinking (at a party), one instant where Alex and Aiden nearly end up having sex, and if I'm remembering correctly there is some swearing..
Final Verdict: Half-Blood an absolute page-turner.
Half-Blood earns 5 out of 5 pineapples.
Great review!
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