Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout

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

Published: 18th October 2011

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Rating: 5/5

Goodreads description:

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.

My thoughts:

The first thing that struck me about this novel was its similarity to the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It’s fairly similar on several counts; the three species, all separated from general humankind and existing within a hierarchy (Pures, Halfs, Daimons); the main character, Alex bore a resemblance to Rose Hathaway; her trainer Aiden, a younger, non-Russian Dimitri Belikov;  the school where the pures and halfs were taught side by side being the main ones. Not to say that’s a bad thing, I’d personally rather an author took inspiration from such an amazing series over ones more readily used.

I found the concept really interesting, the idea of the descendents of the demi-gods  still existing and still obeying their long-absent gods. In fact, this is definitely my favourite mythology-based book to date.  It wasn’t too overly reliant on any particular myth yet it exploited the nature of the mythology perfectly, and built on it to create a believable and realistic world.

I found Alex kind of annoying initially-the first thing she does when she gets back to the Covenant is start a fight despite being threatened with servitude-something she claims to fear yet is constantly on the brink of as a result of her behaviour.  Her overconfidence in her abilities was also really irritating- but like all similar characters she quickly became someone you loved and rooted for. Alex’s relationship with Aiden developed nicely, again reminiscent of Rose and Dimitri’s relationship. I’m always a fan of the exploitation of the tension that arises from physical activity between a couple who had an instant attraction-I think it’s a very believable way to develop a romantic plotline, along with the fondness and inevitable closeness that comes from a mentor mentee bond. Aiden and Alex were very much the stars of the show, the other characters felt underdeveloped in comparison, though I would like to see more of Deacon in the later books.

The romantic plotline was clearly central to the book, but I really enjoyed the non-romantic side of it. Aside from some overly-obvious foreshadowing which gave away a key plot point I found the rest to be interesting and attention grabbing and I was desperately reading this to find out what happened. There was a great sense of tension and anticipation that resulted from reading this book, which, despite the flaws mentioned, made it a gripping read. It’s hard to write that level of suspense into a book and Ms. Armentrout did it spectacularly. The plot itself was satisfying, plenty happened, it definitely didn’t suffer from first book syndrome and yet it’s clear to see where the rest of the series will go, without it being too predictable.

If you’re a fan of the Vampire Academy series, you with either love or hate this this book as a result of its obvious similarities-even though I did notice them (which is probably just down to my familiarity with what is one of my favourite series’) it definitely didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book at all.
I definitely give this 5/5 and I cannot wait for the next instalment, Pure. 

To celebrate the release of this fantastic book, I have a set of SIGNED bookmarks to give away! The winner will get a Half-Blood, Daimon AND Pure bookmark, as well as a bookmark for Jennifer's 2012 release CURSED.

Giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and will close on 24th October! To enter, simply leave a meaningful comment about this review along will an email address/twitter username to contact you on if you win!

Sunday Summary: My Internship week two

Another week over! Sorry I've been so inactive this week...as you'll see I've been pretty busy. Next week I promise I'll be commenting more, I feel like I'm missing out on a lot in the blogosphere!

On Monday I headed over to Transworld, a division of Random House based out in Ealing. I had a really great day in which I got to go to meetings and give my opinion on a sample of a manuscript (how awesome is that!) and I had a super yummy lunch at a Thai place. But because now everyone at RH knows how much I love YA, they also arranged for me to go to Random House Children's Books for an hour!! I got to talk to one of the editorial assistants about all the stuff they publish,including being shown exactly how picture books are put together which was really really interesting. It was a dream come true really, to spend time in a major children's publishers and find out how everything works. I also got BOOKS!! RHCB gave me a copy of IF I STAY which I have yet to read, and also a book called LONG LANKIN:

(Pic goes to Goodreads page)

How creepy is that cover?? But the book sounds awesome, vaguely Near-Witch esque, and it's based in England too! It came out in January and it's definitely worth a read. Simon, one of the Transworld editors also gave me a book called BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP which has been a HUGE bestseller and is kinda like an adult Forgotten.

On Tuesday I started my week in publicity and was given my own book to devise a publicity plan for, which was then looked through and discussed with me and that definitely taught me a lot about scheduling radio shows and newspaper articles and tv appearances etc. I was also asked to consult on running a blog tour for a new crime novel which was really exciting. I've also been coming up with ideas for podcasts and writing press releases! It's great to think my input is valuable to people who do this professionally! I've been really enjoying the publicity challenge, it's really creative. I think if I were doing the practicalities of it I'd probably feel slightly differently but they've been really good in giving me fun things to do.

I've been to lots of meetings again this week,there was one about Amazon and the impact they're having on publishing, as well as more editorial meetings including the really big full Vintage publishing meeting. On Thursday I got to go to the sales conference, which is where the new books for the first half of next year get presented to booksellers and the sales teams!

Then on Thursday night it was the big Vintage 21st birthday party! I was really excited for this having enjoyed the launch party I went to last week and I wasn't disappointed! The event was HUGE and lots of really famous authors attended. My glass was NEVER empty, which I definitely regretted the morning after. I need to learn to hold back on the free wine.The party was in the Polish Club in south Kennsington and whilst it was all very sophisticated downstairs, upstairs there was a mad disco with some very questionable dancing going on (you know who you are).  There was a hectic part of the night because the cloakroom had become absolute CHAOS but a few of us got behind there and got it all sorted to the point it was running with almost military precision. 

So that's been my week! Right now I'm in Liverpool enjoying some time with my boyfriend who has just taken me out for a very nice meal. I've really enjoyed my time in publicity and I'm looking forward to what I'll be upto next week!

Sunday Summary: My Internship week one

As many of you know (I hope so anyway, I've gone on about it enough!) I started my publishing internship this week. The move down to London has been really exciting, the only downside I've found so far is that the guy in the room next to mine has an alarm that goes off at exactly 6:32am EVERY morning and wakes me up EVERY morning. But fortunately we moved on Saturday, so I will no longer have to put up with that.

So Monday morning I was anxiously waiting in the reception of Random House as Kay, the editor who organised this, was coming down to meet me. She's a lovely person and has been very, very welcoming (I'm going to her house for dinner next week!) I got to meet loads of the people who work here which was really nice as they were all really excited to meet me (and a bit daunting too, actually). Everyone has been really supportive and happy to answer my questions for me, usually over lunch which means they don't get to eat much....the office itself is really friendly and has a quite relaxed feel and there's books EVERYWHERE!

So far this week I've done proofreading, written a book blurb, picture research, read unsolicited manuscripts and sent out rejection letters, attended allllll kinds of meetings (editiorial, publicity, jacket meetings, production meetings) all of which have furthered my understanding and knowledge of publishing. Everything I've done has been exciting and new and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself. I even got to go to the pre-publication meeting for The Night Circus (see my review here) which was ridiculously cool and so, so illuminating to hear them talk of sales, and how many orders has been placed and options for the second run etc.

But by far the most exciting thing I've done this week is attend a launch party for Misha Glenny who wrote a really cool book on cybercrime. Misha knew exactly who I was when I walked through the door which was amazing and I got to talk to loads of people I'd met briefly but not really spoken to much. I also had a cool talk with an agent which was great as I've been offered a second internship at a big literary agency if I want it. There was lots of wine and really awesome canapes (I adored the canapes!) and I generally had a really great time.

Oh, I lie, there was another totally exciting thing that happened. Just before we went to the launch party we were having a few drinks for one of the guys who's leaving for another job and Kay introduced me to someone who she told me was a YA author. I said that was really cool, and asked what she'd written and she very casually said she was the author of A Witch in Winter.

That's right, THIS A Witch in Winter:

How exciting right? So I had a bit of a fangirl moment because OMG! This book has been on my wishlist since I first heard about it! I'm going to try and convince Ruth that she really wants to let me read it...hahah.

So that's all from me for this week. but I'm having a great time (I even love the tube, though I doubt that will last) and I can't wait to see what other cool things I'll be able to do in the weeks to come!

Be sure to enter my current giveaway here!