JLA Blog Tour: Review of Half-Blood (Covenant #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Half-Blood

Series: Covenant #1

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Genre: YA, Greek mythology, paranormal

Publication date: October 2011

Published by: Spencer Hill Press

Source: Own e-book

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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.

My rating: ★★★★☆
I don't know how many times I've said this, and I don't get tired of saying it, but I LOVE mythology! And my fave, of course, is Greek!

This was a very different yet interesting take on Greek mythology. I especially liked these creatures, the daimons. Nowhere in my research of Greek mythology have I come across creatures like this. Now, because I like my mythology to be super accurate, this would normally bother me. But not in this case! I really liked how the author took these Greek myths and made them her own...very unique! :)

The story itself though...

I had read a few reviews before I actually started reading the book that said that Half-Blood was very similar to Vampire Academy (by Richelle Mead). I don't like comparing one book to another because it seems unfair to me, so I was really hoping that there weren't a lot of similarities. But once I started reading (mostly in the 1st half of the book)...well, if you have read VA it will be very hard NOT to notice those similarities. That's one thing that bothered me a bit...I do like to read books with a completely unique story line.

I also thought there were some parts of the book that were a bit predictable. Believe it or not, I like guessing and NOT being right! I like being surprised! You know, unexpected twists!

The characters:

Seth irked me. Don't know why, but he seemed more than a bit annoying and somewhat creepy.

Alex is a very strong character, stubborn, but strong, lol. And her outbursts made me burst out laughing, hehe.

Aiden was a bit too serious but TOTALLY swoon-worthy! Once he opened up to Alex he was super sweet!

And the supporting characters were...ehh, alright, I suppose.

Overall: I wish I could say that I loved the book, it being about mythology and all, but I can't. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the read! But the similarities between it and VA were to obvious to ignore.

Ugh, this review sounds totally ranty! And that was not what I intended! I really did like the book.

Anyway, unintentional rants aside, I do plan to read the rest of the series...to see how things unravel. And I admit, I want more Aiden ;)

If you are looking for a good mythology book to read, I say give this one a try!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a comment! :)