Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This is the 32nd book I've read this year.

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.

Christian beliefs: Nope.

Other belief systems: They're the decedents of the Greek gods. Well...mostly, the REAL demigods are gone, and these people don't have as much power, they don't even know which god is related to them. There are the Pure bloods, and the half-bloods, the Pure bloods are the first class people, if the boat was sinking, they would be in the lifeboats first. The half-bloods technically do all the dirty work for the Pure bloods, and if a half and a pure are caught dating and such, the half would be in HUGE trouble, but the Pure would be let off easy. I know...totally not fair.

Language: The usual list of words....the D word, the H word, the A word. It seems like Jennifer's books always have a lot of words. And instead of using the LORD's name in vain, they use GodS.

Romance: This is another book that has a girl who's pretty much willing to give up her virginity...Alex talks about how she's irritated that she's the only virgin at the Convent. (who does that??!!)  And Alex "almost" loses her virginity, and she's very upset about it: "I was seconds away from losing my virginity, FREAKING seconds." There's also kissing, and hugging, and a lot of guys like Alex, and some use her as ways to get their girlfriend to be jealous. Of course, Alex doesn't let those kind of guys touch her, which I'm proud of her for that. 

Any other bad things: There are these things called daimons. (pronouced, DEA-MON) And they kill mortals for fun, and drain half-bloods of there blood, which has aether in it, which is what they like to eat, and they can turn pure bloods into daimons if they wanted. It's a very sad process. 

People die, and Alex and other people get tagged, which is where a daimon bites you, and leaves a scar.

Comments:

Good points:

I like reading Jennifer's books. They have cool and new ideas. Half-Blood was better written than Obsidian was. And it was also a very quick read, it didn't take me long to finish this book. (2 days) and I loved the new twist on the Greek myths and such. (but Percy Jackson will always be my fave.)

Alex is cool, she has a kick butt tude, she doesn't care what comes out of her mouth. Aiden was SUPER cool, I'm Team Aiden all the way, and I'm usually not the calm sensitive boy team. But Aiden was kind and nice, and you could really tell that he cared about Alex, and did what was best for her. (most of the time...)

Seth didn't come in for awhile, but when he did, I loved him right away. Alex and him insult each other, even though he's the Apollyon. Who has mad power and all that really cool stuff. (but I'm still rooting for Aiden.)

Since Alex was pulled out of the Convent by her mom for 3 years. (then her mother died. :() Alex has to start her training over, with the help of Aiden. Some of the other half and pure bloods are mean and rude to her, and since Alex isn't afraid to say anything, or hit anything, they get on her nerves alot, and Alex almost gets expelled, and sent to be a servant, at her step father's home. So most of the story is about her trying to finish training, and get back on track before school starts, and not getting kicked out of school.

Negative points:

I don't like all the language they use, what are the chances that every single person at the Convent swears? And of course, the adults don't. And the fact that people can just throw the word virginity around like it's nothing drives me nuts. Some people don't understand that your not supposed to 'loose' it before you actually get married. It was sad to how Alex think like she wanted it gone.

But, all in all, I liked this book, and I will be ordering Pure here soon. ;D

Rating: 4 out of  5 stars.

-Maddi