Halo

I just. I cannot with this book.

To be honest, I read Halo when it came out in 2010. It was amazing and I remember loving it a lot. I re-read it because I bought the whole series a little over a month ago and I didn't remember much about it.. because its been four years. I enjoyed learning about the author, Alexandra Adornetto, because her writing was so wonderful for someone her age. I remember thinking in high school that I wanted to be 18 with my own book. She is just wonderful.

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto is a beautiful book with beautiful words inside it. I personally love the main character, Bethany, she is so pure and is learning so much about the human world. It is a journey going with her through this time in her mission because so many things are happening. She wants to keep true to the mission but human things are getting in the way! Especially someone named Xavier Woods.

[ WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS ]

Bethany and Xavier hit is off pretty much immediately. She doesn't for the most part reject their connection.. she just knows that it is not the reason she was sent to Earth. Oh well! They are cute together and Xavier is very sweet to her. They are spending time together and already love each other. Once she realizes that, she knows she has to tell him the truth.. that she is in fact an angel. It was really funny in that scene because Xavier is all concerned about her being too high and wonders how she got there. Then she shows him and it is really sweet. I loved the part where he gracefully touches her wing.

Hands down my favorite part of the book is when Bethany goes to the nursing home to visit Alice. It was so loving how Alice knew who she was and could only see Bethany's light. She asked her what Heaven was like and if God would forgive her sins. That was a part of the book I shed a tear. It was so nice to hear and lovely to see Alice's soul as it goes to Heaven when she passes.

Of course there is a villain! Jake is supposedly an exchange student from England. The readers can obviously tell something is up by him. I pretty much knew he was a demon the second I read about his personality and then his dialogue. Bethany doesn't know though and she just thinks she needs to help him out through a hard time. He is a smooth guy and seems to get a lot of the ladies but this is him recruiting people for his side.

Xavier gets into an accident when he was in a game and ended up hurting his angle and got a concussion. Jake offers himself to take Bethany to the prom since Xav cannot... oddly he says it is okay RIGHT AWAY. That was sort of annoying. You'd think he wouldn't want anyone going with her but he is against it being Jake. So they go to the dance and Jake tells her that he wants her then tries to kiss her. Someone takes a picture of them and Xav sees it thinking she pretty much left him.

When Bethany rejected Jake, he pretty much put it out there that he was a demon and he wanted her gone. This is a threat that she tells Gabriel and Ivy. They try to come up with something to get rid of him.

Overall, wonderful book. I loved reading it again and I am going to dive into book two next!

I feel I must begin with how impressed I am that Alexandra was only 17 when she wrote this book. The writing in this book is so beautiful, so lyrical, that it literally sparkles off the page. Creative writing classes would do well to take notes ib how Alexandra writes, because her words not only speak to the reader, but seep into their mind. I found myself with a vivid picture of what I was reading in my head. I am not exaggerating when I say that I was blow away from the first line that I read. Impressed might not even be a strong enough word!

However, my love affair with the writing in this book simply wasn't enough to keep me invested. I did enjoy the characters, but I never felt that I got to know them well enough to really fall in love with them. Bethany especially I had a hard time with, not because of her naivety but because of her inability to cope. It was difficult for me to bond with her because she was so lovesick the majority of the story, and her relationship with Xavier did not feel real to me. I know I've said it before, but if romance is to be a centerpiece in a book I really feel it needs to be done carefully. Xavier and Bethany somehow just fell head over heels in love, with little or no growth or explanation.

The other thing that made this a difficult read for me was the pacing. Although the writing was beautiful, there were portions of the book that simply dragged. I almost felt as though 450+ pages was a little excessive for the story being told, because there were pages of nothing but descriptions of people and places. Also I was a little disappointed with the climactic action in this book. When the action finally came to a head, it was over so quickly and so unsatisfactorily, that I felt let down. With Angels as the main characters I was not expecting much bloodshed or anything of that nature, but I did hope for a little more of an epic climax.

Overall I did enjoy the story line in the book, but I will admit that I did a lot of page skimming for details near the middle. As I said before, the writing is absolutely stunning, but in my eyes it simply did not mask the slow development of the plot. If you are interested in Angels as main characters, and love lyrical writing, I would definitely give this book a chance. There is a lot to love, and you may find yourself much more drawn in than I was.