Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Release Date: Oct. 18, 2011
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Series: Covenant #1
Pages: 304
Buy: Amazon / Book Depository / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
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 picked up Half Blood at BEA last year and not by accident.  I made a beeline for it as I’d heard a lot about it but then I got caught up with review books and this one got pushed to the side where it sat by my bed for many months.  I knew I would love it even before I read it (sometimes you just know, right?!) and thankfully, I was not mistaken.  When I eventually picked this book up, I could not put it down and read it in one sitting.

Forbidden love stories are always going to float my boat and this is one is no different.  There’s something inherently sexy about a guy and a girl who are slaves to duty yet constantly trying to stave off their desire for the one thing they cannot have.  But, it’s not all about the romance as there is actually a plot here.  Alex is the feisty protagonist of the story – a half blood, the offspring of a mortal father and a hematoi (pure blood) mother.  She’s a tough cookie who is less than perfect but I admire her strength and her bravery.  She’s smart and witty sure but she doesn’t always think before speaking or acting and let’s not forget that she’s a teenager and can be downright irresponsible at times.   Her mother took her away from the covenant for mysterious reasons she failed to divulge and they’ve been on the run for the past three years but when tragedy strikes, Alex has nowhere else to turn but the covenant.  Alex feels a lot safer behind the covenant walls training to fight daimon’s who threaten their very existence but is she so safe after all?

Thank goodness Aiden is around then.  He is the very hot yet sensible, pure blood instructor who volunteers to train Alex.  He isn’t that much older than her and really I’m not sure he knew what he was getting into when he offered to train her but guess what – sparks fly AND THEN SET THE ROOM ON FIRE.  Ok, not literally but they might as well have!  I think Alex and Aiden complement each other nicely as he helps her to tone it down a notch and she helps him to loosen up.  Sadly though, any official relationship between them is forbidden and the stakes are high. 

Alex’s best friend is Caleb and it was refreshing to see that their relationship was purely platonic. With Seth on the other hand, it gets a little bit more complicated.   It’s not an out and out love triangle but more “what’s expected” from them and their heritage makes it a fascinating sub plot to watch.  I have no idea where this part of the story is going to go and that makes it more exciting for me as a reader. 

As for the daimon’s?  They reminded me of zombies and it was an interesting mix to see this in a story featuring Greek mythology.  I have to say that I’m massively intrigued by the idea that the Gods are voyeuristic observers in all of this and have not yet intervened even though their offspring are being killed or turned into daimons.  It leaves me wondering what it will take for them to do something or if they will do anything at all despite what happens?

Overall, I loved this book like WOAH and I am now a 100% Jennifer Armentrout fan.  I ate up the mythology and I adored the characters.  Half Blood was a fast paced adventure that had my heart racing enough to pre-order the next book entitled Pure as soon it became available and I CANNOT WAIT to read it.