Friday, August 17, 2012

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


Half-Blood (Covenant, #1)
Title: Half-Blood

Series: Covenant #1

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publication date: October 2011

Published by: Spencer Hill Press

Source: Own e-book

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Buy it: Amazon| Book Depository

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! :)

25 comments:

  1. I've never read the Vampire Academy series, so I probably won't have that problem! :D Looking forward to reading this!

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    1. VA is really good! I've only read half the series though, lol

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  2. I loved VA so much! I really need to get start onto this series!

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    1. VA is awesome, and this book wasn't so bad either.

      Happy reading!

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  3. I definitely agree that there're some similarities between VA and Half-Blood. For me, that's a plus since VA is one of my favorite series of all time, instantly giving Half-blood some extra points :)

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    1. I guess to each their own, right? ;) For me it was just TOO many similarities...a few are okay, but this book was just too alike VA. Not that either are bad books though ;)

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  4. I love greek mythology too! I have this series on my wishlist. I just havent gotten around to getting it yet. I will definitely have to move it up and read them! I started her Lux series and thats really good. Thanks for the review! :)
    -Amber

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    1. Great! Let me know what you think of it! And I actually have been wanting to start that series for the longest time now! I've heard it's pretty amazing.

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  5. I've never read the Vampire Academy Series either so maybe thats why I loved this book so much. Hope you can read the Lux Series too. It's very good!

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    1. Oh I'll definitely read Lux...I just haven't gotten around to it yet. But I am so happy you liked it because that just makes me more excited to read it!

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  6. The unions of gods and mortals always leads to interesting things!

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  7. I think this author must write well if her characters brought out so many emotions in you. This sounds amazing as I haven't read the comparison book you mentioned.

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  8. I love all of her books and I especially love the cover on this one!!!

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    1. This is the only of her books I've read actually. I need to read more of them lol.

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  9. I love her books they always so good! I cant wait to read this one!

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    1. I keep hearing that, but this is the only one of hers that I've read 😅 lol

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  10. I love this author, but I have not read this. She has so many that I would love to read. So hard to them all the good authors~~~~

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    1. Tell me about it! So many books, so little time. Lol.

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  11. Love her books, they are so good! Great review!

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    1. Thank you! I hope to one day read more of her books. Lol

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  12. Incredible review! I've never read a JLA book before but I'm hoping to read one of hers this year! From Blood and Ash is quite famous on bookstagram so I hope to start with that one haha. Have you read it?

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    1. Oh yes, JLA in general is pretty popular! But I actually have not read anything else by her besides this. Maybe one day...

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