Halo (Halo, #1)

by Alexandra Adornetto

[Stephanie]

Bethany Church is part of an angelic mission to bring Venus Cove back to religion and all things good. For her older brother Gabriel, archangel and older sister Ivy this trip is old hat. This is Bethany's first time and she wants to experience everything human. She finds each experience interesting and if she doesn't like something she's grateful for the opportunity to try it anyway.

Gabriel will be teaching at the school that Bethany will be attending. Their mission is simple: lead by example. Bethany assimilates herself into school life. At first she finds the other young people surrounding her vapid and shallow if not harmless. Then she meets Xavier Woods and Bethany finally understands. Xavier becomes her life. She actually has physical symptoms of distress when they are separated for too long. Bethany starts to loose interest in her mission and can only focus on her relationship.

Gabriel and Ivy are able to stay focused and both do a lot of good for the community. Neither one understands Bethany and how she feels human emotions so much more deeply than themselves. When things get serious between Xavier and Bethany Gabriel worries it will effect their purpose and cloud Bethany's judgement. The angels are about to learn their purpose in Venus Cove. The situation is about to get a lot worse and Xavier is the least of their problems.

I really am struggling with the rating I want to give this book. To be honest, I didn't care one way or the other. It had it's positives and it had it's negatives and they pretty much equal each other. I liked the angel/darkness story line but I really could have done without the over dramatic and over the top love story, more on that in a bit. I read the author interview questions and answers at the back of the book and found out that Ms. Adornetto was a senior in high school when she wrote Halo. This made the story line a little easier to swallow. I also enjoyed the way the story flowed. Ms. Adornetto took her time unfolding her story and I really found that helpful. It didn't feel rushed.

My biggest problem with Halo was that it had a Twilight feel for me and I couldn't shake it throughout the book. Girl comes to new school, falls instantly in love with most attractive most unavailable boy, they can't be together because their relationship can't possibly work (due to supernatural elements), and a triangle is introduced with a guy named Jake who is the complete opposite of the first love interest. My second problem was that I just didn't understand Xavier and Bethany. I mean their love is all consuming. Literally nothing else matters outside of each other. It got stale after a bit.

Halo would be a great read for someone looking for a young adult novel that has a strong relationship between the two main characters and a paranormal story line that is good versus evil. It just wasn't for me.