Halo

Title: Halo
Author: Alexandra Adornetto
Read: November 16, 2013
Series: Halo #1

Summary: Three angels – Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, the youngest and most human – are sent by Heaven to bring good to a world falling under the influence of darkness. They work hard to conceal their luminous glow, superhuman powers, and, most dangerous of all, their wings, all the while avoiding all human attachments.

Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them. Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong.

The angel’s mission is urgent, and dark forces are threatening. Will love ruin Bethany or save her? goodreads

Review: When I went to Goodreads to get the summary info for this review, the first thing I noticed was that all of the reviews gave this book a 1 out of 5. All of them. What? How the hell did this book end up on my nook with reviews like that? The only options are: I downloaded it for free when I first got my nook and was non-discriminatory about free books (now I know better...) OR it made it's way onto Listopia and I just blindly downloaded based on that. Either way, I'm ashamed for having this in my possession.

The book started out okay. I'm open to the idea of angels on earth and the battle between good and evil. I really enjoyed Lauren Kate's Fallen series which has a similar premise. Unfortunately, this book does not hold a candle to the Fallen series. I strongly disliked Bethany (or Beth to her human friends.) She was overly naive even though she was well versed in all academic subjects. She made stupid decisions that should not have been possible if she was really the type of angel they made her out to be. Then, lo and behold, her stupid decisions affect everyone and screw everything up.

The two highlights as far as characterizations go were Jake and the Woods family. Jake is obviously evil incarnate but he is fun and interesting and much more dreamy than the over-protective, obsessive, goody two-shoes Xavier. In all seriousness though, Xavier's family was the highlight of the book for me. I loved the description of this family with 6 kids and a dinner with them. The mom is surrounded by chaos but manages it and stays calm throughout, just like any mom with a lot of kids has to learn to do. I enjoyed the descriptions of the children who were all at different ages and stages but forced to interact with each other. I loved it all! Best part of the book. I will give honorable mention to the cover though. It's pretty and ethereal.

This book was just lacking for me. I didn't hate it but I sure didn't enjoy it. I didn't care what happened to any of the characters and it felt like the story just drifted along. There were a lot of inconsistencies as far as story line goes. Like she is an angel but she sins like a human? I feel like that was random and convenient. There is at least one more book in this series that I will not be reading. If you are really into the angel/demon thing, check out Kate's Fallen from above.