Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Half-Blood
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Publish Date: October 18, 2011
Genre: YA, mythology
Pages: 281
Source: From publisher for review
Series: Covenant
Daimon (prequel)
1. Half-Blood
2. Pure (April 2, 2012)
3. Deity (November 6, 2012)
4. Untitled (expected pub 2013)

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.

From Goodreads

First and foremost, I’d recommend you read the prequel DAIMON before even thinking of starting HALF-BLOOD. It gives you the full perspective of how Alex got to where she is at the beginning of HALF-BLOOD. It is also a great introduction to Alex as a character. Check out my review here.

Now onto HALF-BLOOD. It really starts out great. That much action in the first few pages is enough to catch my attention, for sure! After that, life gets pretty tough for Alex as she deals with what happened to her mother, how close she is to being kicked out of the Covenant, and returning to the Covenant campus after being gone for 3 years. I think because I read the prequel, I connected a bit better with Alex. From page 1, I already knew what she was going through and I felt for her. That sentiment only continued as the story went on and she had to deal with more and more crap.

I liked a lot of the characters. I love how Alex fell right back into step with Caleb, her best friend from before she left the Covenant. Whenever he was around, it seemed like Alex could relax a bit and have some fun. He also proved to be the most loyal best friend a girl could have. I love him for that, and everything else. Then of course, there was Aiden. I don’t even know what to say about him. He was really tough on Alex overall, but I know he was just making sure she’d be ready to attend the Covenant in the Fall. He was looking out for her and doing what he thought was best for her. Although I liked him, I have to say I didn’t fall as in love with him as I would have liked. He was a really great love interest in this story. And then, Seth. He seemed like an ass in the beginning, but really he was just brutally honest. Ok, he was sometimes an ass, too. But he really developed as a character throughout the story, and I’m excited to see more of him in the next book.

The storyline is exciting to start out, then gets pretty subdued for the first half of the book, until we start getting lots of info and surprises thrown out at us. Then Alex sulks for a while as some other stuff happens, before she does some dumb stuff, and there’s an exciting climax. Vague, I know but necessary. Looking back, the book is laid out nicely, in terms of pacing, but when I was reading it seemed like there wasn’t much happening. I think it’s because Alex doesn’t do anything until the end, except train and attend parties. But when stuff starts going down at the end, it just keeps going and I didn’t want to stop reading.

HALF-BLOOD has a great set of characters that grow throughout the story. Although I had some issues with the pacing, the story is perfect for the beginning of a series, allowing room for the characters and storyline to grow. Jennifer L. Armentrout is a promising debut author that I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on in the future.

Thanks so much to Spencer Hill Press for the ebook review copy!