Review: Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Halo  

by Alexandra Adornetto

Published: August 2010

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Available: Amazon

Blurb:

Three angels – Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, the youngest and most human – are sent by Heaven to bring good to a world falling under the influence of darkness. They must work hard to conceal their luminous glow, superhuman powers, and, most dangerous of all, their wings, all the while avoiding all human attachments.

Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them. Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong. Then comes the brooding and popular new transfer, Jake Thorn... who just so happens to be in Bethany's class. Something about Jake seems to be hiding something darker, something more powerful than expected. That thing, and Xavier, distracts Bethany to a point that Gabriel and Ivy are concerned.
The angel’s mission is urgent, and dark forces are threatening. Will love ruin Bethany or save her?

Review:

wow. And no, I didn't forget to capitalize that. This book was so underwhelming. When I first picked it up, I was so excited. I loved the cover and it was going to be my first read of a female angel lead. I wish I'd skipped it.

Let me start off by saying that I actually liked the opening. There were some absolutely beautiful descriptions, but as the book progressed it seemed like Adornetto was more focused on continuing that writing style than actually writing a story that progressed in any interesting way.

The characters started off interesting, but quickly became cardboard cutouts. Bethany is sooo angelic, we constantly hear about how beautiful she is, how fair and blond and slender she is. Which is made even stranger by the fact that the book is told in first person. She's supposed to be on a mission to save this sleepy little seaside town from evil, but once she meets Xavier a pretty boring guy, who of course is the hottest and most unavailable guy at school, she completely forgets about doing anything other than experiencing romantic love. She whines about pretty much anything, she ignores orders from her superiors, lies to and manipulates her fellow angels and yet we're supposed to believe she's this perfect angel.

The whole reasoning behind these three angels being there is stupid. There's no other way to describe it. there are horrible, tragic events happening all over the world, within our own country, and these angels are sent to a sleepy, small town with zero crime and only a suspicious fire and some recreational drug and alcohol use by the teens. Please. No wonder the three angels seemed completely oblivious to everyone. the only angelic thing that did was go to church, Ivy does some work at a Senior center, and apparently Gabriel taught some hymns to his public school students (Yeah, no way would that happen), Wow, how earth shattering amazing are their actions, definitely needing the power of angels to do. 


Jake, the villain, doesn't even show up until about page 200! And then it's just plain ridiculous. Bethany, gets burned by his touch, in annoyed by him, gets a bad feeling around him, but in a nauseating display of folding to the pressures of stereotypical YA, Adornetto makes Jake attractive to Bethany. I mean really, going to prom with him, and the being kissed by him? By this point I wanted to tear the pages of the book out. Frankly, by the end of the book, I was just plain confused by what the point of it was. On Goodreads, I gave this three stars simply because I enjoyed the opening chapters. Everything else would have garnered a two. This book just dragged on and on and on.