Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout

Book Description from the ARC:

ARC, 283 pages

October 18, 2011, Spencer Hill Press

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of the 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 # 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 from 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.

Source: Kate from Spencer Hill Press (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:

Half-Blood started with action. Alex was fighting daimons. She and her mother had left Covenant three years ago, knowingly left the safety and protection of the island behind.

Pures and Halfs were targets of daimons. They were like vampires but instead of needing blood, they needed aether. Daimons had broken into their house and drained her mother’s aether, her life essence. Alex fled after seeing her mom’s drained body. Now, Alex was left alone to defend herself.

She returned to Covenant after being saved by Sentinels from daimons. She hadn’t been in there for three years. She was left behind in the training classes. But with Aiden as her trainer, she was relieved and excited. Pures and halfs were not supposed to have any kind of romantic relationship but that doesn’t mean that she couldn’t crush on Aiden. He was adorable, thoughtful and kind. He wasn’t like the other pures who were always looking down on half-bloods. He treated her as his equal and Alex was grateful for that. As the trainings went on, Alex found herself getting to know Aiden and vice versa. Their trainee-trainer relationship had an underlying current of attraction and risk.

Life at the covenant was made up of four elements: parties, gossip, hooking up and training. It really reminded me of Vampire Academy. Only in Half-Blood, the students were tamer. In terms of training, everyone was being schooled on how to defend themselves and kill daimons as Sentinels. For half-bloods, it was the highest possible rank. But there was always a chance that when break the rules, they could end in servitude, with their free will taken away.

Lucian, Alex’s stepfather, was now a Minister. He was strangely concerned and sweet to her now that she’s come back. But that never happened in the past – he always regarded her with disdain. But that’s not the only thing that she’s thinking about. Grandma Piperi, the oracle, had rattled off half-crazy stuff about her future and her life. The Apollyon, Seth, was with Lucian. And he always seemed to be trailing after her, popping up where she was. Seth had good humour, laced with a little bit of sarcasm and he exuded confidence with his powers. His conversations with Alex were fun to read. I would love to know more about his character in the sequel.

With her mother’s death, Alex was fueled to become a Sentinel more than ever. She was eager to learn. Although she was stubborn and sometimes recklessly brave, she never let those get in the way of moving on with her training. But with fate and the council, things were not always what they seemed. Could Alex deal with more life-changing surprises?

Half-Blood had romance that can turn girls to jelly, action, and enough twists and turns to shock readers. Aiden and Alex are such endearing characters. Seth added kickassness, spice and humour to the story. I recommend this to paranormal readers and greek-mythology fanatics. Readers of the Vampire Academy might like this.

Rating: