Title: Halo
Author: Alexandra Adornetto
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
Part of a Series?: First in series
Goodreads Summary:
Three angels – Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, the youngest and most human – are sent by Heaven to bring good to a world falling under the influence of darkness. They must work hard to conceal their luminous glow, superhuman powers, and, most dangerous of all, their wings, all the while avoiding all human attachments.
Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them. Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong.
The angel’s mission is urgent, and dark forces are threatening. Will love ruin Bethany or save her?
Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them. Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong.
The angel’s mission is urgent, and dark forces are threatening. Will love ruin Bethany or save her?
Review:
God (pun half-intended), I tried so hard to finish this book. But for the love of God (again, pun half-intended), it's 500 pages, and I kid you not, nothing happened. For a book about angels vs. demons and good vs. evil, there was not a whole lot of mythical sky battles with flaming swords and God vs. Satan death matches.
I give props to Adornetto for simply being a teen writer who got the chance to get published. And I'll be honest; her writing is not that bad. It's pretty but not pretentiously wordy (*cough* Maggie Stiefvater *cough*). In general, I think Adornetto should be congratulated for being able to write 500 rather harmless --while still flawed-pages. And because of all this, I'm technically rating this 1.5 stars.
But as I got further and further into this story, the more I started to realize that it was probably easy for Adornetto to write this book because every page was taken straight from every other YA book I've read. There was literally nothing original about this story, and even worse, things just made no sense whatsoever.
First off, I just want to rant about Bethany. I can't believe that female authors keep writing these weak, whiney girl protagonists so blindly in love with the brooding mystery man. It's sickening because I think girls who read books like these get the idea that love is so easy and the first guy who treats them nicely will end up being their soul mate. Also, I just don't like the idea that Bethany fell so madly in lust with Xavier when she hadn't even learned his name yet! She acted completely human from the moment she opened her mouth. I had to keep reminding myself of the gorgeous book cover because if I hadn't been told that Bethany was an angel, I would've forgotten by the second chapter.
And Xavier is no better! He is interchangeable with all the other guy protagonists I've read from other YA romance. He's hot. He's smart. He's athletic. And he has that dark, tormented past that makes him so sexy it hurts.
Xavier needs to die. Kay, thanks.
As for the content, here are just some of my many complaints:
1) Why is Jake, the British demon guy, introduced literally halfway into the story? Adornetto must've forgotten that Ivy's community service flyers weren't going to alleviate the global economic crisis.
2) How did Bethany not realize Jake was a creep? Is she attracted to jerks on bikes? C'mon, now. I didn't even finish the book, and I knew he was bad news.
3) I don't get the wing concept. I just read Unearthly by Cynthia Hand, and the angels' wings in that book sort of evaporate/exist on a separate plane while not in use. But for Adornetto's angels, the wings are simply folded underneath the angels' clothes. She defines them as paper thin, so #sarcasm obviously, they're invisible to the human eye. I have to wonder if Bethany walked around with a humpback because if I stuffed huge pieces of paper down the back of my shirt, someone would notice those swollen masses on my shoulder blades.
4) If God's plan was for His angels to hide out inconspicuously on Earth, He did a crap job. You'd think the omnipotent creator could give his messengers some homelier human bodies if he wanted them to blend in. The people at Venus Cove thought the Churchs (and I assume Adornetto intended for that pun) were incognito movie stars!
So yeah....not a good book. I was bored by the lack of plot development and originality. C'mon Adornetto, you can use your skills for the production of "OMG-must-have" books or you can use your skills for the "not-worth-my-time" books.
I give props to Adornetto for simply being a teen writer who got the chance to get published. And I'll be honest; her writing is not that bad. It's pretty but not pretentiously wordy (*cough* Maggie Stiefvater *cough*). In general, I think Adornetto should be congratulated for being able to write 500 rather harmless --while still flawed-pages. And because of all this, I'm technically rating this 1.5 stars.
But as I got further and further into this story, the more I started to realize that it was probably easy for Adornetto to write this book because every page was taken straight from every other YA book I've read. There was literally nothing original about this story, and even worse, things just made no sense whatsoever.
First off, I just want to rant about Bethany. I can't believe that female authors keep writing these weak, whiney girl protagonists so blindly in love with the brooding mystery man. It's sickening because I think girls who read books like these get the idea that love is so easy and the first guy who treats them nicely will end up being their soul mate. Also, I just don't like the idea that Bethany fell so madly in lust with Xavier when she hadn't even learned his name yet! She acted completely human from the moment she opened her mouth. I had to keep reminding myself of the gorgeous book cover because if I hadn't been told that Bethany was an angel, I would've forgotten by the second chapter.
And Xavier is no better! He is interchangeable with all the other guy protagonists I've read from other YA romance. He's hot. He's smart. He's athletic. And he has that dark, tormented past that makes him so sexy it hurts.
Xavier needs to die. Kay, thanks.
As for the content, here are just some of my many complaints:
1) Why is Jake, the British demon guy, introduced literally halfway into the story? Adornetto must've forgotten that Ivy's community service flyers weren't going to alleviate the global economic crisis.
2) How did Bethany not realize Jake was a creep? Is she attracted to jerks on bikes? C'mon, now. I didn't even finish the book, and I knew he was bad news.
3) I don't get the wing concept. I just read Unearthly by Cynthia Hand, and the angels' wings in that book sort of evaporate/exist on a separate plane while not in use. But for Adornetto's angels, the wings are simply folded underneath the angels' clothes. She defines them as paper thin, so #sarcasm obviously, they're invisible to the human eye. I have to wonder if Bethany walked around with a humpback because if I stuffed huge pieces of paper down the back of my shirt, someone would notice those swollen masses on my shoulder blades.
4) If God's plan was for His angels to hide out inconspicuously on Earth, He did a crap job. You'd think the omnipotent creator could give his messengers some homelier human bodies if he wanted them to blend in. The people at Venus Cove thought the Churchs (and I assume Adornetto intended for that pun) were incognito movie stars!
So yeah....not a good book. I was bored by the lack of plot development and originality. C'mon Adornetto, you can use your skills for the production of "OMG-must-have" books or you can use your skills for the "not-worth-my-time" books.
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