Half-Blood
(Covenant, #1)
By: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Spencerhill Press
Published: Oct. 20, 2011
Genre: YA
Rating:
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.
Not sure how to rate this book. Was I entertained, yes, but only because it gave me my Vampire Academy fix that I’ve been in need of since the series ended. There is no originality in this story, it’s a retelling or plagiarism (depending on how you want to view it) of Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Scenes are similar, circumstances are similar, even characters personalities are similar to their counterparts. The author should’ve just called Alex-Violet and Aiden-Pyotr (get it because of Rose and Dimitri?). I mean if you’re going to go for it… GO FOR IT!
Alex is a half-blood. As a half blood she has two choices, become a Sentinel or Guard of pure bloods or become a slave to the pure bloods. She was in school to become a sentinel, the highest of protectors, that is until her mother and her ran away for reasons unknown to Alex. Three years later sentinels find Alex not long after her mother’s killed by daemons. She’s brought back to the school by the baddest sentinel of all, Aiden, and a couple of other Sentinels, where the dean is reluctant to have her back. In fact the dean (who is her uncle) is ready to take away her free will and turn her over to a pure blood as a slave. However, Aiden and one of his co-sentinel’s speak up and convince the dean to give her another shot. Aiden soon finds himself as her training instructor even though his job is to fight daemons. Pretty soon the sparks start flying between the two of them but their love is forbidden amongst their society. While fighting their attraction, Alex learns that her mother wasn’t killed but in fact turned into a daemon and is now hunting her, she has a special bond with a guy named Seth and he can sense her feelings and even though Aiden has feelings for, they must remain as student and teacher.
The only reason why this isn’t getting a flat out 1 star is because, and I hate to admit this, I was entertained. Not that anything was original but because I miss Rose and Dimitri so much that I felt like I was reading their story through anothers eyes. Had I not read Vampire Academy before this, I would have loved it. I really wish something from this was original but sadly even the conflict girl in the story Lea, is just like Mia! She causes problems for Alex, spreads stories about her and then when her parents are killed by a daemon attack, her and Alex sort of call a truce. Ugh…
Should I even touch the scene where Alex almost gives her virginity over to Aiden only to be snapped out of the trance at the last very second? Or when Alex is attacked by a daemon who she knew, and when she’s unable to beat the daemon, Aiden comes storming in and saves the day? *Shakes head*
I miss Rose and Dimitri (ー_ー)
“I know that there are some pure-bloods who break the rule, but they do it because they don’t care about what happens to the other person, and I care about what happens to you. I care about you more than I should and that’s why I’m not going to put you in that situation and jeopardize your future.” -Aiden
Oh wow now that is a damn shame. I love VA too and man yeah it sounds practically identical. Had heard really good things about Armentrout too. Glad you were entertained at least a little bit along the way but man that would have annoyed the heck outta me.