21 March 2013

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Covenant #1
Release Date: October 18, 2011
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Source: Bought
Goodreads Stars: 3
Rating: Enjoyable

Buy the Book: Amazon UK

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.

As a huge fan of the Lux series - also by Ms. Armentrout - when I first bought this I had high expectations. After reading some reviews, those expectations were drastically lowered, and I think that is one of the reasons I ended up enjoying this. I wasn't too disappointed, because I wasn't expected it to blow my mind the way the Lux series admittedly did.

Half-Blood is a lot like Vampire Academy, even more than Obsidian is a lot like Twilight. I am not sure how to feel about this, because this is two series wherein Ms. Armentrout has taken the basic structures or themes and used them to start a series. I'm a HUGE fan of Vampire Academy, and so reading this at first was a little disconcerting. Honestly, I don't know how to feel. I do feel very confused, and a little let down.

I didn't feel much for any of the main characters, although Caleb is a sweetheart. Alex, the main female protagonist, is okay. I think comparing the plot to Vampire Academy made me compare Alex to her counterpart, Rose, and so of course she wasn't all that amazing.

I didn't feel much chemistry between Alex and Aiden, her trainer. I know, I'm probably comparing their relationship to that of Daemon and Katy, and also Rose and Dimitri, but I guess it was inevitable. They just don't have that spark. Nevertheless, I do quite like them together, and Aiden is actually pretty cool. And he looks like Dylan O'Brien in my mind. (Every hot love interest looks like Dylan O'Brien to me.)

There is another character called Seth who turns up part way through the book. Is he going to be part of a love triangle? He's annoying and rude and I don't like him.

Deacon, Aiden's brother, is also annoying. Just thought I'd point that out, and I'm covering my bases when it comes to guys and potential love interests. Just in case.

Now, what I DID love was the Greek mythology aspect. GREEK GODS JDFLSJHGLDHGDHG *HEARTS* I've been obsessed with Greek mythology ever since I was little, and it is still so, so interesting to me. I love how Ms. Armentrout adapted it, and I love that the characters all know that the gods are real in this! EEP!

In conclusion, Half-Blood really bloody confused me. How am I supposed to feel when this book's base is the same as that of my favourite series? Especially since I loved the Lux series so much. Ugh. Anyway, this is enjoyable, I liked it, although it lacked substance. The characters were nothing amazing. BUT GREEK GODS.

12 comments:

  1. Like you know, I was disappointed with the similarities to Twilight in Obsidian. But this one too?! It's not like I care about Twilight (anymore) so that was fine with me, but VAMPIRE ACADEMY. I don't think I will read this one because that would just be too much for me.

    But I LOVE GREEK MYTHOLOGY. It was the only thing that made ancient Greek and Latin classes in high school worthwile XD (How's it going with reading Percy Jackson? HAVE YOU READ BOOK 4 YET?)

    And I love that you're covering your bases for potential love triangles. It's stupid that you'd have to though, because LOVE TRIANGLES EVERYWHERE. Also I googled Dylan O'Brien. No I have not seen Teen Wolf. But HELLO!!!

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    1. Haha I definitely wouldn't recommend reading it so soon after VA. I read VA two years ago and it was still too much for me. *faints*

      I HAVE NOT READ BOOK FOUR! I am a failure. Completely and utterly.

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  2. I loved this book. I have to say it's not the best so far in the series, Deity is my top at this point, although Apollyon was good. I am interested to see where it ends.

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    1. I'm definitely curious to see where the rest of the series goes!

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  3. But what about Jason Dohring

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  4. Whoa. I totally hate books that steal plot skeletons like that. Ugh. Especially from Twilight. Ugh-er.

    The only thing I am interested in is the Greek mythology. That would really hook me onto this one.

    Oh, and about Seth - I'd be shocked if he was not a part of some love triangle. Hopefully, if one of those unveils itself, it is not a silly "I must leave you because I am dangerous" or "I cannot breathe another moment without you" types.

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    1. Hahaha, I'm not holding my breath for Seth to be excluded. I'm pretty sure I've seen him mentioned in relation to the romance. YAY. >.<

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  5. I don't like books that are very similar to other books and the characters doesn't sound that good. I do love Greek mythology though, a lot! :D So that might be the reason for me to pick this one up.

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  6. I'm right there with you, Amber. I felt Half-Blood was just all right. And the relationship between Aiden and Alex was borderline boringgg. So Pure needs to step it up a notch to get me excited, but I have been assured that it is better. So we'll see. Seth is part of the triangle btw ;) but yeah, in this first one I felt nothing for him. Overall this book was just too short to make me care.

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    1. Haha I look forward to seeing what you think of Pure, since I agree with everything you said about HB. That's a point, I wonder why this book wasn't longer? It might have been able to be fleshed out more if it was given another 50 pages!

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