Half-Blood

Half-Blood (Covenant #1)
Jennifer L. Armentrout

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.

I can't figure out exactly how I held off on buying this book for so long. I mean, I love Jennifer Armentrout's writing style from Obsidian, why on Earth wouldn't I like her other series?! Anyways, I'm insanely glad I finally got it, because this book was great. It starts off with Alex fighting for her life against some daimons (evil bad guys). They've already killed her mom. After one of the daimons bites her, and you think "Dear God, this book is going to start off by killing the heroin?!" Aiden St. Delphi (sexiness incarnate; pure-blood) and some other Sentinels (good guys) show up. They fight off the daimons, and rescue Alex. From there, the book is largely about Alex training back at the school for the half bloods and pures, the Covenant. And then there's some romance and some crazy plot twists and it's all very good. 


There were definitely some similarities between Half-Blood and Vampire Academy. The heroine was snarky with a general disrespect for any and all authority. The hero was older and an instructor. Both heroines had left school and had to get caught up. Both were incredibly reckless. However, while there were a lot of similarities, they were not the same at all. 


With that out of the way, I wanted to say I absolutely adored Alex. I loved how sarcastic she was! Holy crap, it was like she could never say anything seriously. She challenged those above her, and she never, ever backed down from a challenge. She also liked to fight. A lot. She fought dirty, too. I was kind of jealous of her fighting skills, actually. And she had a complete disregard for almost every rule. I loved it. And then there was Aiden. He was patient and smart and kind of zen. I liked him from the very beginning. He was caring and a little too serious all the time. I really loved the way he and Alex interacted. She really got under his skin, and I think they both kind of enjoyed that.


I give it 4 stars, because, while I loved it, it wasn't quite as good as Obsidian. And that's kind of what I was comparing it too the whole time. I loved the characters and the world that they lived in. It was a very good read, and I do recommend it to anyone who likes sarcastic heroines. I will most definitely be reading Pure next! 


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