Release Date: October 18th 2011
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Source: Bought
Genre: Paranormal/fantasy
My rating:
Synopsis:
"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."
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2 words: TEAM AIDEN! <3
As much as I want to give this 5 stars I found it lacked that "wow-factor" that makes me instantly know a book is a fiver.
I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I just kept comparing Half-Blood to Vampire Academy. There were way too many similarities despite VA obviously being about vampires and Covenant about Greek gods. But alas the similarities were there and Half-Blood paled in comparison to Vampire Academy. I still remember the first page of Vampire Academy and how it sucked me in immediately, and kept me hanging on to every word until the last page. I didn't feel that rush with Half-Blood... as much.
Alex's character pissed me off A LOT. She was annoying at times and all I kept thinking was "how stupid does a 17 year old have to be that she doesn't know when to shut up and that her future/life is on the life?". Alex is strong mentally, emotionally and physically and also extremely stubborn. She reminded me a lot of Rose, but for some reason Rose seemed a lot more mature and her attitude wasn't AS reckless (Rose was still reckless) as Alex... and my reckless I mean like a 7 year old who thinks they can fly if they jump off a roof because they have superpowers. Alex could be THAT stupid at times - especially with her mouth. Rose always talked back but it was just the WAY Alex said things.
I quite liked Aiden and Seth, their characters were really nice and I would definitely like to see more of them, especially Aiden. I liked how mature he was and how much he cares for Alex, so much so that he'll put his feelings aside to ensure her future.
Despite Alex's dislike of Marcus, I actually really really liked him. Unlike Lucian who has a hidden agenda I got a feeling that Marcus is/was so hard on Alex because he doesn't want her to fail but succeed in being a Sentinel.
Now the story itself, I love Greek mythology so I definitely excited. However, the daimon addition was really weird. They're just basically vampires to me and I thought it was weird to mix descendants of Greek gods/demigods with vampires... It was like "you should stick to one or the other". There were heaps of other abominations that could be the result of stealing a Pure's aether rather than vampire-like creatures. Heck some soul sucking thing would have been better. I found that it ruined the whole Greek gods thing.
All my negative opinions aside, this was very well written as is customary for Armentrout. She adds the right amount of (sexual) tension here (although this was definitely a lot more downplayed due to the caste system, compared to Lux) and as with all her works, written in quite a sophisticated manner. I love the touches of humour she gives to scenes and the conflicting sides of characters like Aiden. I still like the Greek god thing and how furies were brought in - the Greek gods aren't just something of the past, they're still in action which has me anticipating some "godly" ass-kicking hehe!
Onto Pure now!
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