Book Blog #49: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Crescendo
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
# of Pages: 427 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Angels, Fantasy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. A mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever (if that's possible) and what's worse, he seems to be spending time with Nora's archenemy, Marcie Millar.

Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Patch hadn't been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude, Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feelings that he is hiding something.

If that weren't enough, Nora is haunted by images of her murdered father, and comes to question whether her Nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death. Desperate to figure out what happened, she puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations to get the answer. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.(less)
Review: I found this book to be very confusing. I'm not sure if its because it took me longer than usual to read it (I was watching anime and reading manga 24/7 busy!), but I don't think that I was the definition of five star quality, let alone four stars. The story was all of the place. Throughout the story, I was puzzling over what it was actually about.

Now, I'm not sure why, but I just can't shake the feeling that it's similar to the Twilight Saga. Because its not. Not really. I kept trying and trying to pull out bits of the story line and proclaiming it a replica of the hot vampire romance novel. But then something later on in the story would counteract it. It was a very frustrating process. If you've read m review of the first book, then you know that I tried (and failed) to conducted this comparison. But I'm going to try again anyway.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

1) Scott is introduced into the story. He doesn't get along with Patch's kind, just like Meyer's werewolves and vampires don't get along. Scott's part of this group, like Jacob is part of a pack. In the beginning of the story, Bella Nora sees Jacob Scott as a potential boyfriend.

2) Nora's weak. She's your average girl, just let Bella if you ignore Nora's bloodline and Bella's mind-power-thingy. And this point is actually one factor that dragged down the star rating. I realized that she's not a kick-butt protagonists I like to read about. She's just a girl who the guys want. Like Bella.

I stil think that the two points of made a weak (I can counter them myself, but I won't. It would make me look bad in my own review), but it's the best I've got for now. I hope at least my points are valid; it's been a while since I have set eyes on anything Twilight.

SPOILERS END!

I do think that this book deserves a reread, not because it's good, but because I think I've forgotten part of the beginning of the book since it took me practically a week to read and because I was busy fan girling over Nastu, Naruto, and Kyo. But based on this first reading, I'd advise you to read the first one and stop. It's a bit of a let down, this one it.

Book Blog #45: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Hush, Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
# of Pages: 391 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: A SACRED OATH
A FALLEN ANGEL
A FORBIDDEN LOVE

Romance was not part of Nora Grey's plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

Review: Some points I would like to cover:

1. How I feel about the cover/first impressions
2. My feelings of Nora, Patch, and Elliot (will contain SPOILERS)
3. It's likeness to Twilight (will contain SPOILERS)
4. Overall feelings

What I'm going to do for this review is go point by point and elaborate on them. Points two and three WILL contain spoilers.

1) If I hadn't heard of this book before, I would never have read it in the first place. The cover just didn't appeal to me. It's dark, and there's a dude looking like he's in pain (For some reason I decided to ignore the fact that he had wings. But I was pleasantly surprised when I read the prologue. It had a mysterious tone that I just LOVED!!! Honestly, I thought that this book was going to be like A House of Night series, not good. But I was dead wrong.

2) SPOILERS!!! I'm so glad that Nora didn't suck as a protagonist. She was awesome enough to meet my approval. And Patch, despite his slight cliché appearance, was hilarious What I really loved was the relationship between Nora and Patch. What I think sets their relationship apart from other relationships in other books is that Nora had this resistance from Patch. She wasn't going to give into him easily like so many other characters in different books.  Patch was the flirt, of course. He was kind of a mystery throughout the whole book (not so much the fact that he was a fallen angel, I guess that. But more the fact that he actually wanted to kill her was a shock), which made him even MORE attractive. 

Now, Elliot, on the other hand, was no good at all. I hated him the moment he was introduced into the book. What really tipped me off was when he helped Nora bat. Gross. I thought he was kind of a creep. I'm not exactly sure what was going through my mind, but I totally suspected that Elliot was a killer. His friend (I forgot his name...) didn't even cross my mind; he was such a minor character. So that was a surprise. But I still don't like Elliot; after all, he was still involved in the badness...

3) Still spoilers. I didn't realize this until near the ending of the book, but there seems to be a likeness to Twilight. And, I know what you're thinking. Nothing seems to be original anymore. But I thought that I would bring it up anyway. So Patch would kind of be like Edward, the hot, supernatural dude. And Nora would be the (much improved version) of Bella. Nora/Bella tried to figure out who Patch/Edward really is, and end up finding useful information on the Internet (such as how dangerous vampires/fallen angels are). At the end part, there's that big fight where Nora jumps off the rafters. She brushes with death, but ends up okay, kind of like Bella (not the rafter part, the brush with death part). And, um, I had thought up some other similes, but I kinda forget them. So it's KIND OF like Twilight, but maybe I'm just looking too deep into it.

4) No spoilers. So, yes, overall I loved it. It did really surprise me too, on just how well it was written. Of course, it helped that I read a particularly bad book before, but I give most of the credit to the author. I like how it's not just romance, but also a bit of mystery. Recommended!