Book Lover Recommends: Half-blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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.

My thoughts

Jennifer L. Armentrout has become one of my favourite authors and she sure didn't disappoint me with Half-blood. It was funny, interesting, thrilling, steamy and excitting. JLA writes amazingly, and I was imediately sucked into the story, and wasn't released until the last page was turned. The story was very good, and I really liked the world JLA built with the Convenant, the differences and rules between the halfs and pures, and how it was all linked to the Greek Mythology. It was interesting and believable. And then I just like anything that has to do with Greek Mythology.
I have to admit that I sort of guessed some of the major plot lines quickly, so I wasn't always very surprised. But it didn't really matter much, as I was so consumed in the way everything was revealed, and mostly how Alex reacted to things, 'cause that really wasn't predictable.
Half-blood did remind me a bit about Vampire Academy in the beginning, but as it progressed it definitely became a book of it's own. Besides, I liked Alex a lot better than Rose.

Actually, I liked Alex a great deal, though she did has some issues with her temper a times. She was stubborn, reckless and often acted before thinking, and that pretty much always got her into some compromising situations. But I really like how devoted she was, and even though she really had a rough time she just kept going. Even better, she could take of herself. She didn't someone to always come safe her, and she always fought back. She stood her ground, and didn't let anybody push her around. I always admire these qualities. I did think Alex was a bit quick on the fighting back part, and sometimes wished she would give a little thought to her actions. But then again, that was just part of who she is, and I liked that.

I loved Aiden. He was just such a sweet and strong character, and he was always there for Alex and seemed to know her. Like really know who she was deep down. And there was some real chemistry going on between the two. And then he was just absolutely swoon-worthy. I loved, loved the way he were introduced to the story:

"In front of me, he walked right through the flames, looking every bit like a daimon hunter should. The fire did not singe his pants nor dirty his shirt. Not a single dark hair was touched by the blaze. Those cool, storm-cloud-colored eyes fixed on me.

It was him—Aiden St. Delphi."

I kind of got a feeling like watching a movie when everything goes slow motion, and then Aiden appeared and the picture was momentarily freezed, so you could just look a him and be completely mesmerized. Okay, so I might be fangirling a little bit, and I might or might not have a goofy smile whenever Aiden was mentioned in the book, but he is an un-freaking-belivable character. ~~I seriouly think Daemon has some competition.~~

Moving on...

This review cannot be done without mentioning Seth. I don't really know what to think of him yet, but there's something almost alluring about him. But I think we'll get to see a lot more to him in Pure and the rest of the series, and I'm quite looking forward to that.

Overall, I really liked Half-blood, and it has certainly become one of my favourite books.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Remember to go check out the extra chapters from Aiden's pov on JLA's homepage.