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11.30.2010

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Paranormal: Angel
Purchase:  Amazon.com | BookDepository.com
Stalk the Author: Facebook | Goodreads
Review copy received from publicist. 

PJVs QUICKIE POV:
This review is going to start like many reviews I've read recently regarding this book --- I loved the cover, was dying to read this one and once I started reading I was horribly disappointed.

REVIEW:
Dark forces are running rampant in the world, so to combat the forces of evil God sends three angels to a tiny little town called Venus Cove. The angels are siblings, the oldest Gabriel is wise and fierce, the middle is Ivy who is a healer and the youngest is Bethany who is barely an adult.

The angels must work undercover amongst the humans to right the wrongs of evil, so what better way to immerse yourself in human life - go to high school. Bethany enrolls and Gabriel becomes a music teacher. Ivy - well we really don't know what Ivy does.

They make it about one day in high school before Bethany is smitten with a jock and ready to throw everything away for the boy. The romance is interrupted though, when the angels are faced with evil - who has his eye on Bethany.

The book was really quite bad in my opinion, and I hate giving these terrible reviews, but I couldn't get into it at all. The characters were just off, these Angels, sent by God acted like imbeciles, petty, childish and just off. Between the spurious interaction between the angels and the INSTANT love connection between Bethany and Xavier, I felt the author severely left out a good bit of emotional connection between the characters. It seemed her main focus was on descriptions and scene settings which could have been glossed over - I would much rather read great dialogue than about the mundane setting.

In a whole, everything was just very flat and uninspiring. Even the bad guy was reminiscent of a cartoon character. Really the only thing I liked about this book was the cover.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
I do not recommend this book.









20 comments:

Avery said...

Darn deceiving covers!
I couldn't really stand the book either...
:/

Chapter Chicks said...

Wow, thank you so much for this honest review. I have been dying to get this book because this is one of the most gorgeous covers in the YA bookosphere right now.

I'm so glad I read this review so now I can get actual good books and not just books that I judged by the covers. YAY PARAJUNKEE! :)

Tales of Whimsy said...

Thanks for your honesty. BTW LOVE the new yuletide header. Who doesn't love a purple Christmas tree?

Danny said...

This was a strange book for me. First I liked it but the more I thought about it the more I didn't like it.

What also bothered me to no end was the constant church references and connections....

Ailsa said...

I hate when covers are exciting and then the story disappoints.

Just reading this bit: "Dark forces are running rampant in the world, so to combat the forces of evil God sends three angels to a tiny little town called Venus Cove" puts me off - to combat forces of evil in the world, 3 angels are sent to one tiny town? Yeah, sure. Because that's going to make a huge difference.
Shame it was disappointing, thanks for the honesty!
~Ailsa

Adriana said...

I actually liked all the description even though it ended up sounding like a thesaurus at times. I just thought it was an okay read, it's definitely not for everyone.

Unknown said...

Well that's not shocking. I heard this book was written by a sixteen year old. Now I don't want to sound stereotypical but the cover screams teenage Halloween costume.

Missie, The Unread Reader said...

WOW PJ! I'm totally surprised. I bought the book because I had seen cover everywhere, but I still haven't read it.

To be honest, I haven't read many review for it yet, but this is the first review I read that isn't glowing. I'm very glad to know your thoughts on this one.

Ashley said...

I think this cover is beautiful too. I had decided to read it before I discovered that I'm definitely not a lover of the angel stories... I think I'm probably still going to read this one, but my hopes aren't very high... Good to know what you thought of it.

Lucy D'Andrea said...

Thank you for that review Parajunkee! I'm so glad I read this because I was just thinking of going to buy this really soon and I was debating whether I should.. I've read so many reviews and I've weighed all the pros and cons.. sure the cover is great but you can't judge a book by its cover right?

Celine said...

Too bad so many people find this book so disappointing.. It does seem really promising.

justpeachy36 said...

I have actually heard this same sentiment from several bloggers about Halo. I'm not sure I'd like it, but I'm willing to give any book a chance. It's hard when you hear a lot of bad reviews though....

Anonymous said...

I agree totally with your review and for the same reasons. Quite frankly it was boring and the Christian stuff was stereotypical, shallow and a bit like sunday school.

I'll never buy a book just because it has a beautiful cover again. But I'll make sure mine has a stunning one when it comes out. I know a lot of people bought this book because of the cover.

My 17 yr old daughter stopped reading after ch 1, as soon as she discovered the 'goody goody' flat characters and that they went to a small town to combat the evil in the world. 'That just doesn't wash,' she said. 'God must be stupid.'

I stopped reading about 3/4 of the way through - the bad guy had only just turned up - and what a stereotype he was.

Don't let it put you off angels though. Laura Kreitzers, Shadow of the Sun has brilliant gutsy angels, not wimps like these guys.

June G said...

This book has been getting very mixed reviews and this one is the most negative I've read yet. I loved the book...LOL...go figure. I did note that she wrote a lot of description and I knew that was going to cause people problems, but again, I liked it. I'm not a fan of description usually, but I like this kind of beachy, coastal setting, so I enjoyed reading how it looked.

As far as the romance, yeah, it probably did take off too fast, but I read it more as a fantasy. I work with teens and they're very unrealistic about boys and love, so I didn't find the quick love connection too far fetched for the age group. Plus it was just plain fun to me. Xavier sounds like the fantasy boyfriend, the "love-at-first-sight" syndrome.

I'm surprised by how annoyed some people are by the references to church and the like...people, it is a book about ANGELS...they're spiritual, religious entities. Folks shouldn't be so afraid of mentions of religion. It's okay to talk about anything else, pretty much, but something church-related gets a lot of folks dander up. Anyway, I interviewed Alexandra and religion factors into her life, so she utilized it in her writing.

Heavens! This post has gotten out of hand...LOL...anyway guys, I respect all opinions and I did love the book and can't wait to read the next one--Hades...Toodles!

ParaJunkee said...

Frankly in reply to a lot of these comments, I have to say, I saw nothing wrong with the religious mentions and Church affiliation stuff, it is like June said...the book is about Angels. There should be a lot of God in it, right? I think my religious expectations actually dropped the books estimation in my opinion actually, because as a Christian myself I did not want MY ANGELS acting in this petty of a fashion.

You see I have no problem with the UF angels that kick butt and maybe fall in love, but these angels were portrayed more of do-gooders and agents that spread love and God's good works and stuff - so their petty actions were just more transparent and unrealistic to me.

I think in all in was just that the characters lacked depth and I expected more, so my disappointment led to a more negative review than I even expected.

Unknown said...

First of all, I love the holiday layout!

I've heard a lot of bad reviews for this one. Darn deceiving covers :\

Lola said...

I've heard a lot of not-so-great things regarding this book. I wonder if I can get a refund?

Unknown said...

Haha! Please do me a favour and read my review on Halo at bookaholic-worm.blogspot.com. I should actually say Snap!

Casey (The Bookish Type) said...

Like one of the other commenters, I started out liking it, but by the end (and the more I thought about it) the more I really DIDN'T like it. However, I don't think it's just because she's 16. Kody Keplinger was 17 and The DUFF is INCREDIBLE. Thank you for the honest review.

ParaJunkee said...

@Sonette I'm on my way

@Casey I haven't read DUFF - I'll have to check it out. I don't think it is about age either. I really did like Paolini's first and second book and he was quite young when he wrote them.

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