Amber
Written on Mar 9, 2013
Full review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2013/03/half-blood-by-jennifer-l-armentrout.html
HALF-BLOOD is the unputdownable first book in the acclaimed Covenant series from #1 New York Times bestselling Jennifer L. Armentrout.
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.
- ISBN10 0983157200
- ISBN13 9780983157205
- Publish Date 15 October 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Spencer Hill Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 304
- Language English
Reviews
Full review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2013/03/half-blood-by-jennifer-l-armentrout.html
Kelly
Written on Mar 2, 2013
3.5 Stars
I've been a fan of Jennifer L. Armentrout since reading Obsidian, she has a way with words, but I enjoyed the Lux Series far more. Both series' are supernatural in nature, with attractive male main characters, a dime a dozen villains willing to fight to the death, and one of the main characters with a sarcastic and cheeky attitude, but the Lux Series is far superior.
It didn't feel original and reminded me of a cross between Divergent, Hex Hall and The Vampire Academy. It was entertaining, but I'm hoping Half Blood was a basic introduction to the series and that it can only get better from here. Alex is a spunky heroine and on the bad girl side. She constantly fighting her own inner demons and already by the end of Half Blood, there is realistic character development.
And Aiden? Oh yes. Enough said.
Romance Schmomance
Written on Jan 24, 2013
We have Alexandria, 17 years young, independent, strong, AMAZINGLY sarcastic, seriously, I wish I had her sarcasm skills. Oh, don't let me forget to throw in that she's well a half-blood of sorts. Greek mythology, something I'm obsessed with reading about, so I knew it wouldn't take me long to love this one. Armentrout made a character that's so easy to admire. I've never been a fan of the lady leads that just whine about every little thing. For Alex, her life hasn't been the easiet and only time can tell with all things she'll have to face in the future.
And lets just throw Aiden into the mix! #TeamAiden, guys, like hardcore! He's quite the swoon-worthy male that you'll just love from the get go. However this is a bit of an issue between Alex and Aiden. Aiden's a pure, and any potential relationship between them can never happen. Ah, the whole forbidden fruit aspect, it'll be interesting to see what comes of all that. Aiden's a strong guy and a bit serious, but underneath all of that, he's quite the sweet guy. The scenes with Alex and Aiden are quite hilarious; I'm sure you can tell who I'm rooting for. #TeamAiden. While Aiden lives the line of the straight and narrow, Alex beats to her own drum and she strongly desires to build her own future. It'll be interesting to see what these two will bring out of each other.
The supporting characters are definitely ones that you'll quickly love. Like Alex's best friend, Caleb. He's seriously the best friend anyone could have.
And well there's one other character that gets thrown into the mix, who can be a complete game-changer for Alex. Or can it? We'll just have to wait and see!
Let's start with the fact that Jennifer is the reason why I love the paranormal genre so much. When I finally got back into my reading obsession back in 2012, she was one of the authors work I've ventured towards after reading Nora Roberts work. And I have never strayed since. Armentrout does a phenomenal job with creating each of her characters. Not just her characters, but the way she has developed this world is so complete, you won't be left confused at all.
Armentrout, I'm a huge fan of your work! Terribly sorry for the late review!
Ashley
Written on Jan 9, 2013
BookNook — Young Adult book reviews
3.5 Stars
I guess it might be worth noting right off the bat that I have not read Vampire Academy. Everyone always compares these books but I can't since I haven't read VA. :P There, I've said it. Moving on.
Overall, I really liked Half-Blood. It had a really interesting story, I love the whole half blood/pure/Apollyon thing, I like the training and kickass Covenant bit, and the romance was pretty cool. But for me, I think this book was missing the x-factor. It just didn't wow me and I wasn't Z0MG SOOO EXCITED to be reading it. It was an enjoyable book, but I think I was hoping for better.
I think my biggest problem with Half-Blood was that I wasn't crazy about Alex. I felt like I was supposed to relate to her and totally be on her side, but for the most part I just saw her as a reckless girl who makes a lot of stupid decisions. Rather than finding myself agreeing with her and going along with her little rebellions/"I have to take matters into my own hands", I found myself agreeing with the authority figures who were telling her not to do anything stupid. She was seventeen but sometimes—during her immature moments—I felt like she acted a little younger.
My other problem is with the romance. Don't get me wrong, Aiden is pretty hot and definitely the strong (so strong) silent type.. but the problem is that their relationship is forbidden... so it never really develops. It makes sense from a plot standpoint, but as a romance addict I was a little disappointed. I wanted to see things get hot and heavy and dangerous and "fuck the rules"—and they almost did—but then everything really pulled back and left me kind of disappointed. In Half-Blood the relationship always remains in the "we can't do this—it's not allowed" zone. I'm sure there is a lot more romance to come, so I'll hang in there, but I wanted more.
But I really loved the overall story. I'm a complete and total sucker for Greek mythology. Also, I feel like such a retard because I thought this book was all about vampires and I had no idea Greek mythology was involved. So that was a hugely pleasant surprise for me! The struggle between pures and half-bloods was pretty awesome (and sad). There are a lot of conflicts and tension and that made for an interesting read. There's also a big political side to this book, with the Council, decrees, and laws regarding pures/half-blood relationships.. not to mention communication with the gods! I'm definitely curious to see how this develops in later books!
I have heard from a few people that the series gets even better as it goes on, so I will be sticking with it, despite the fact that Half-Blood didn't quite do it for me. It was still enjoyable and I'm glad I read it, I just thought I'd love it more than I did!
Jordon
Written on Jan 1, 2013
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Half-Blood happens to be a book I liked; after I finished reading it.
Half-Blood is very much like the Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, I knew this before I started reading this book so this fact didn't really bother me. Except that I liked Vampire Academy way more for various reasons.
I found the first half of this book hard to read because I didn’t like Alex much, I thought she was annoying, self-centred, and acted like the world revolved around her. In fact as a reader I felt like the world did revolve around her, meaning that when she was in a bad situation I didn’t bother to worry for her because I knew she would end up okay and things would go her way… That’s saying something.
I found the description of the world lacking, it never really painted a picture in my mind so the surroundings always seemed to be blank when I tried to imagine them. The romance pre-empted its self, it was obvious Aidan liked Alex right from the start so I found the romance rather boring and too easy instead of exciting; although there were quite a few steamy scenes which are always fun to read. And I really just did not think the stakes were high enough for Alex, they were tragic stakes about her mum and all but I felt like there needed to be something else on the line, something that made her think about other people instead of just herself. Nearly every decision she made in this book was because she wanted to do it; she never thought how her actions would impact on other people. And that’s the main thing that annoyed me about this plot and annoyed me about her. She was very self-centred.
Although I did feel all of the above I also have to say that overall I enjoyed reading this book. It was fun, light, pulled me in and now I really want to read the next book. It’s odd that I find I still liked this book even though a lot of it annoyed me.
The ending of this book left me wondering what will happen in book two. I have to say that Seth is my favourite character, even though he acted like a stuck up ass for most of this book I still loved him more than everyone else. Mainly because he was honest about how he felt and I’m find him pretty interesting. And mysteriously sexy. Aidan’s a nice guy and all but I didn’t really connect with him, he felt like a bit of a mess (Hot mess?), and rather boring. So I have to say that by the end of this book I was totally gunning for Seth and Alex to get together!
Overall, there were a lot of things about Half-Blood that irked me. But I still somehow enjoyed it a lot for what it was; light, fun, cute, and interesting. I can’t wait to learn more about daimons, the gods and the Apollyon.
Miss J
x
journalingirl
Written on Sep 23, 2012
Where do you find this?
Nvm. Found it.
Merged review:
I liked this book a lot, but I have to say it reminded me a ton of the vampire academy series. I'm not saying it wasn't good in its own right, but there were many similarities.
Kelsenator
Written on Sep 18, 2012
For more reviews make sure to visit my blog Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf!
I was recommended this by another blogger a little while back. I had already fallen for the author’s other book Obsidian, so I knew I had to see what all the fuss over this one was about. And oh my I am hooked on another awesome series!
I fell for the characters first. Alex is very stubborn, determined and strong on so many ways. Even with the death of her mother, she manages to survive on her own and fight the daimon that chase her. She also tended to be a bit cocky at times and have some anger issues, but who wouldn’t if other people started saying stuff about your dead mother. She is a half-blood, and before her mother took her out of school, for reasons unknown, she was actually doing really well in her training. There are many things that happen in this book that would have most people breaking down, but she always seems to try her nest not to try or give in.
Aiden is a Pure, and the one tasked to train Alex back into shape before the next school year starts (or she’ll be kicked out and possibly turned a slave). Alex starts to get a crush on him as they train and spend time together, which is of course forbidden, but I was rooting for them the whole time anyway! Aiden is a strong Sentinel, who cares very much for his brother, and although he’s tough when it comes to training and fighting, he does have a soft and kind spot.
One of the things that I liked the most about this, was the mention of the Greek Gods and how they tied in to the Pures. As you know I love mythology, and even though there was just a little, I really liked how the author took that and spun this awesome story. The back story, on the relationships/society places of the Pures and the Half-bloods was explained really well, and I actually wasn’t confused which was great. I loved the little island of a world that this took place on as well, how secluded they were from the real world and just living their lives training to hunt daimons or be servants.
There is so much more going on in this book plus a bunch of twists and turns and it was so fun to read. There were funny moments, action, romance and even sad parts to keep you entertained.
I definitely fell for this book, with all it’s slight ties to mythology to the awesome characters. Highly recommended for paranormal fans as well as fans of the author’s other works!
Mackenzie
Written on Sep 8, 2012
Full review coming soon.
kimbacaffeinate
Written on May 16, 2012
The characters Armentrout created are well fleshed out and my emotions ranged from despise to adore. Our protagonist Alex is snarky, hot tempered, fiercely loyal and stubborn. At times I wanted to just slap her and tell her to grow up and the next minute I wanted to hug her. I kept trying to remind myself how old she is, what she has been through and what she will become. Alex is determined to become a Sentinel and seek revenge for her mother’s death. Her step-father and Uncle seem to detest her. Aiden is a pure and also a Sentinel. He is under a tremendous amount of pressure; trying to raise his younger brother, and prove himself worthy. He is very serious about everything he does. It becomes completely apparent from the beginning that he harbors feelings for Alex. Because he is a pure, Alex thinks the attraction she feels is all her. She has crushed on Aiden since her days in the academy; before her mother took her and fled the coven. Then there is Seth who is a very unique and gifted half-blood. He’s opinionate, a stalker, arrogant and uber hot. He seems almost infatuated with Alex. He keeps asking her what she is. The romance between Aiden and Alex is bittersweet. It's filled with stolen moments that could totally get Alex killed. Thankfully the tale was free of insta-love, but I fear a love triangle is in our future. Other characters add to the tale, giving it believability and depth.
Armentrout’s world-building truly makes this character driven tale come to life. Living amongst us in locations all over the world are Hematoi. They descend from the union of gods and mortals. Children born of two Hematoi are called pure-bloods and have godlike powers. Those born from a Hematoi and a mortal are called half-bloods. Half-bloods have two options in life; become trained hunters of daimon called Sentinels or spend a lifetime in servitude to the pure. There are complex rules and a hierarchy within the covenants. Half-bloods cannot have children, and a relationship is forbidden with a pure. A pure is mated in an arranged marriage with another pure to sustain their lifeline. Sadly, if caught a half-blood is put to death or kicked out and a pure goes virtually unpunished. Armentrout weaves a suspenseful tale, as we learn more about Alex, and key players reveal information. We learn of discontent within the younger pure and half-bloods and talks of demanding changes to some of the rules governing them. As with any society where one type is oppressed, we see prejudice, entitlement and support. I love how she took Greek mythology and made it her own. Her writing style, pacing and imagination left me wanting more. I am looking forward to diving into the next book.
liz089
Written on Jan 26, 2012