Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy/Mythology, Romance Publication Date: September 20th 2011
POV: Female - First-person, Past tense
My Rating: 4 out of 5
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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.
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Wow, this book was... intense. What stands out most to me, besides the incredibly interesting world it created, was the fact that the love was forbidden. Not just difficult or risky, but truly forbidden. Being together could be as dangerous as any of the other obstacles Alex was forced to face throughout the book.
There were so many great characters in this book. But mainly Alex. Gosh, I have never seen a YA heroine like her before! With the courage and determination of Tris and the mouth and spunk of Kelsey. She was pretty amazing. And of course Aiden was awesome too. I love the part where Alex is working out and he is reading a huge book, and she keeps trying to distract him with jokes and poking fun at him, but he just keeps reading but cant always hide his smile. So cute. And then there was the scene. The scene. Within the first few chapters Alex's narration already mentioned three times that she was a virgin. I thought they were making a big deal out of it because she was not gonna be by the end of the book. But damn Leon! Why did you have to knock on the door just then?! Oh well, its still good that something happened at least. Who knows how long they would have pretended nothing was going on if it hadnt.
And then there is Seth. *sigh* This is the second book in a row where I am strangely drawn to the secondary guy. That has never happened before! I am normally a main guy only kinda of girl. Not that Seth was really presented as a love interest, but after reading the plot summary for Pure, "Alex faces a choice between love that is fated... and love that is forbidden." I think it is referring to Seth. I dont know if I will feel the same way after I get to know him better in the next book, but as it stands now, I actually wouldnt mind if Alex ditched Aiden for Seth. Even though I prefer Aiden, Seth would just make things so much easier for her. And they havent reached that Romeo and Juliet/Jace and Clary point in their relationship yet. I think they could face the truth and move on if they tried. But Alex is so damn stubborn I cant see her even trying. And of course that wouldnt make for as good YA storytelling. So, I look forward to more Seth in the next book.
And finally, the world of Half-Blood. At first I was very confused by all the different breeds and titles. But eventually I caught on and its all pretty awesome. I love mythology even though I dont know a lot about it. I always enjoy it when mythology is incorporated into a story, even a little bit. But in this its a lot. Even though it is set in North Carolina, it felt like another world. I really need to read some Rick Riordan already! And you should really read Daimon first. I feels like the first few chapters were just cut off. Its a little awkward without reading Daimon.
“Hey,” I reached out and tapped the hand that rested next to my left leg. “you are--”
The hand that I tapped reached up and clasped mine. I froze as he threaded his finders through mine. “I’m what?”
Beautiful. Kind. Patient. Perfect. I said none of those things.
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