Crescendo | by: Becca Fitzpatrick

I just finished up with Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush and couldn't wait for to read the sequal, Crescendo!

Nora may have momentarily believed that her life is absolutely great, but things are falling apart just as quickly. Something's going on with her boyfriend, Patch, who happens to be an angel. He's so distant, and he's hanging around Marcie Millar, who's been an enemy of Nora's ever since elementary school.

But, Nora's curiosity doesn't stop there. She's attempting to uncover the secrets she believes a family friend is desperate to keep quiet, for one thing. On top of that, there's another mystery eating at her, one that could be the most important of all, though it's a newly-emerged concept: Did Nephilims kill her father? What about fallen angels? Did they take any part in her father's death? Nora does everything she can think of to get her answers, no matter how dangerous. She needs to know what happened to her father. She needs to know if she'd been betrayed.

From past experience, I've learned not to expect too much from sequals, since sometimes the books in a series can go completely downhill. Crescendo isn't the case. It's darker than Hush, Hush, and the mystery itself crescendos throughout. Twists and turns come out of nowhere! I had so many theories building, but in the end, they all crumbled, because this book is definately not predictable.

However, in the beginning, I wasn't so sure how I'd feel about it. I kept getting nervous throughout the first half, and that's mainly because Nora was starting to scare me. In Hush, Hush, I could always see myself in her, mainly in her dialogue. But this wasn't happening at first. She got under my skin, because she kept acting irrationally. Whenever she was waiting for Patch to call her, I could practically scream "CALL HIM!" as I read. I couldn't understand why she was so mad at him anyway, when I felt she started it, and that she should stop treating it like a normal relationship. Honey, he's an angel... this relationship will never be typical. But then Patch started irritating me as well. It broke my heart each time Nora saw him around Marcie. Eventually, I didn't know who to side with or what to expect. Patch and Nora's relationship put me in a whirlwind of anxiety.

In addition to the romance portion (which I babbled on about too much to do the bulk of the book justice, if you ask me), Becca Fitzpatrick has created a plotline that's entertaining at all times. I flew through this novel at great speeds, because she paced the story so perfectly and made it interesting to read throughout each page (a lesson some YA authors need to learn). Like I said before, this is a mystery that'll keep you tied in. The writing seems even better than what was in Hush, Hush, but maybe that's just me. Characters never lost their depth and everything felt real (much like in Hush, Hush).

But what I really loved about his novel is the sense of paranormal illusion. I've never read a book that could get that sort of thing right, but movies are always spot on, since you usually need a visual to be confused as to what's real and what's not. Becca Fitzpatrick writes the correct way, enabling her to do this. She shows us the illusion.

Of course, Becca *had* to end the book with a huge cliffhanger that might make me go crazy. I'm going to have to pick up the third book right on the release date in my anticipation of what happens next! I cannot wait!

Crescendo is the farthest thing from a disappointing sequal, being even creepier and better than Hush, Hush.

4.5/5 Stars