Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Title: Halo
Author: Alexandra Adornetto
Blurb:
An angel is sent to Earth on a mission.

But falling in love is not part of the plan.


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 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?

Links:
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
 
 Kala's Review:
This book was so terrible I couldn't finish. I made it through about 200 pages, so I think I gave it a good try! Between the juvenile characters/writing, completely nonsensical plot, and the author constantly breaking her own rules, I just couldn't do it.

Xavier and Bethany are so wooden and terrible and boring. Bethany is supposed to be an ANGEL who has SPOKEN TO GOD. Like, to his face. I'm an atheist, but I don't mind reading about religious type things in novels. There are some great angel novels out there, but this is NOT one of them. I digress. Bethany is awful. She and her angel friends are supposedly on a mission to battle evil forces by doing good deeds. Gabriel tells her she is not to make friends or get too close to humans, but apparently part of Bethany's mission is to go to high school. I have no idea why, because we're told that the evil forces are doing things like killing hundreds of people in the Middle East... and God sends Bethany to high school in what is described by the author as a 'sleepy' small town?

Bethany of course, instantly starts making friends, going to parties (WHERE SHE GETS DRUNK), having sleepovers, going to the mall, whatever. Basically acting like a normal teenager. Apparently teenage angels are the same as teenage people. I guess I would expect more from a minion of God who is on Earth to battle evil. Bethany instantly falls in love with Xavier, but I don't really get why. After a couple meetings, she just decides to reveal her big secret. Xavier then is all "OMG MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN ANGEL!"

...

That's about where I quit, because I just couldn't take it anymore. For an angel supposedly on Earth on a MISSION FROM GOD, Bethany is surprisingly selfish. She also did NOTHING to further her mission. From what I gather, her entire mission is to do good deeds and so far, she hasn't done even one.

I can't remember all the instances of the author breaking her own rules, but the one that sticks out is where she makes sure to mention how angels don't get tired. They could run marathons without breaking a sweat or breathing hard. But Bethany decides to run over to Xavier and starts talking "between breaths" like she's winded. Literally a handful of pages later!

Ugh, absolutely terrible. I'd rather read Breaking Dawn again than read any more of this tripe.
 
1 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/504885563

Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

 Title: Finale
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Blurb:
Fates unfurl in the gripping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Hush, Hush saga.

Nora is more certain than ever that she is in love with Patch. Fallen angel or no, he is the one for her. Her heritage and destiny may mean they are fated to be enemies, but there is no turning her back on him. Now Nora and Patch must gather their strength to face one last, perilous trial. Old enemies return, new enemies are made, and a friend's ultimate betrayal threatens the peace Patch and Nora so desperately want. The battle lines are drawn—but which sides are they on? And in the end, are there some obstacles even love can't conquer?

Links:
Finale on Goodreads

Finale on Amazon

Becca Fitzpatrick's Website

 Kala's Review:

SIGH

BECCA FITZPATRICK!  WHY??

This book suffers the exact same "unnecessary fourth book syndrome" as Breaking Dawn, in all the wrong ways.

I enjoyed the first three books of this series.  They weren't the best written stories ever, but I got attached to Nora and Patch and Vee and Scott.  Then came Finale.  As a side note, this book also might earn the "Worst Title Ever" award.

Reasons why this book sucked:

(SPOILER ALERT FRIENDS)

1) Nora gets everything she ever wanted.  The same thing happened in Breaking Dawn where Bella basically gets it all, no matter how impossible it should have been. See rest of this list for details.

2) Vee has been Nephilim this whole time, she just didn't know it.  What?  Seriously?  This is so beyond stupid and completely ruined Vee's character.

3) Patch gets to "feel" forever.  Apparently Detective Basso was an archangel in disguise!  Because Patch has been such an awesome fallen angel, he lets him stay immortal AND he gets to "feel" now! WOO.  Sorry, but this is dumb. 

4) Patch turns against his own people.  He and Nora talk another angel into gathering every fallen angel feather so that every single fallen angel will be chained in hell forever and ever.  He does this because he is so in loooove with Nora that he will destroy the lives of all of his friends.  Apparently he is the only "good" fallen angel out there.

5) Dabria and Patch and cheating allegations.  Again.  Nora, being the immature and overly jealous teenage girl that she is, thinks Patch might be cheating on her.  Again.  Haven't we been through this before?

6) An immature teenage girl is the leader of an army of Nephilim.  This might be the #1 most ridiculous part of this story.  Their former leader was an imposing older man.  He went completely bonkers and did a blood transfusion to turn Nora Nephilim so he could make her leader of his army.  What army is going to follow a high school girl in to war?  Seriously?  Nora attends her high school classes (sporadically), and then goes to war meetings after school.  It's so beyond dumb.

7) Nora's training sessions.  She does 15-mile sprints before school every day!  Does this girl ever sleep?  The training sessions are boring as hell.  And so overdone in these YA Paranormal books.  Every YA Paranormal these days has tons of "training" sessions and they're almost all boring.  She also spends one day learning swordfighting with Patch and suddenly becomes a samurai ninja girl.  Nice.

8) The epilogue.  There's a hint of a relationship starting between Scott and Vee during this book.  But then Scott gets killed (boohoo).  Then we get this epilogue of Nora at Vee's wedding, where she's marrying some character we've never met and for some strange reason I DON'T CARE. 

So basically, Nora gets Patch.  Patch gets to feel.  All the fallen angels are dead so Nora doesn't have to swear fealty, ever.  Vee is Nephilim, so Nora doesn't have to keep hiding stuff.  Vee gets married to her true love (some guy named Gavin that we never meet).  Everyone lives happily ever after (except Scott who died, but he was barely a blip in this book anyways so I didn't even care).

All this is wrapped up in hundreds of pages of terribly boring dialogue, boring training sessions, even more boring dialogue, and a scant few action scenes (that aren't particularly well done).

To say I'm disappointed in Finale would be an understatement.

1 out of 5 stars.


Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/223161867