Finale | by: Becca Fitzpatrick

*Don't read this review unless you've read the other books in Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush Saga. This will probably contain spoilers for those who haven't, but there won't be spoilers for those who have read the previous three but not this one.

The Hush, Hush Saga is one of my favorite YA paranormal romance series, but it has reached its end with Finale, a roller-coaster of an ending that kept me turning the pages and fearing the outcome. Though the other three books in the series held so much action and surprise, none of them match up to Finale in that department.

But I wasn't so excited to get through this one at first. I knew that Nora and Patch were in a (rather complicated) pickle, and I wasn't so sure how they'd manage. Nora has become the leader of the Nephilim army and must fulfill her oath to the Black Hand, but in order to do so, the Nephilim are going to have to believe in her, whether she has the self-confidence or not. She must undergo training along the way, gaining the strength she needs to defend herself, and she can't let the Nephilim realize that her boyfriend is Patch, who they'd automatically consider an enemy since he's a fallen angel.

While dealing with these dilemmas amid training, Nora discovers something that will make her even stronger... and upon this discovery, I started getting irritated with Nora. I just had that feeling one gets when reading and the character does something stupid, and then the reader sits there rolling his/her eyes thinking "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" In the past few books, I've felt relatively connected with Nora, but between her decisions with devilcraft broke this connection along with her new, unnatural dialogue. I just couldn't relate to her or understand her.

Thankfully, any negativity towards this book ends there. (At least for the most part.) Characters like Vee, Scott, and of course, Patch, still stood their ground as fabulous characters while Nora was starting to falter. I mean, what more could I ask for? Patch is one of my favorite love interests while Vee and Scott are two of my favorite BFFs.

But all in all, the best elements of Finale are the moments of action that are often followed by unsuspected twists and turns. There were a few times when I wondered if some of Fitzpatrick's twists were even plausible due to their seemingly random appearances, but that's not the case. Fitzpatrick is just so sneaky! I don't know how she keeps everything so well-hidden; I don't think I've ever been so surprised while reading before! The second half of this novel is magnificent!

Now, I'm not saying I'm in love with every single aspect of this book, either. As I previously mentioned, I had some issues with Nora, and Fitzpatrick's general writing style didn't impress me that much. But my goodness, Finale has perhaps the most explosive ending out of every book I've ever read. It's such an adrenaline rush, and it even started to tug at my heart strings. As far as how the plot progressed and came to a close, this was the perfect ending to this series. People keeping secrets, traitors, jealousy, violence, the brink of war, Nephilim officials in cloaks... Yep, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A lot of the series I've been keeping up with are coming to a close, and though I'll miss them, I must admit, I've gotten an amazing ending out of the Hush, Hush Saga. It's been such a fun series, and the crazy/amazing ending surpassed my expectations for this anticipated Finale.

4/5 Stars

Silence | by: Becca Fitzpatrick

Silence is the newest installment in Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush Saga, an addictive, action-packed series that I just can't seem to stay away from. I warn that the summary (the following paragraph) may contain spoilers if you haven't read the first two books in the series, Hush, Hush and Crescendo.

Nora Grey has been missing for multiple weeks, but now she has returned to the life she left behind. However, she can't remember anything about what has happened during her time away from home, nor can she remember anything from the couple of months before her disappearance. She struggles to find the truth of all she's forgotton as well as return to her normal, ordinary life. But she's coming to find that what she can't remember of her life was anything but ordinary, and that her captor is closer to home than she ever anticipated. With plenty of deja vu and discoveries, Nora finds that some memories may not have been so bad...

There is something special about this series. Maybe it's the mystery. Maybe it's the way that the paranormal suspense makes me feel like I'm watching a movie.Maybe it's that the action makes me never want to put it down. Or, maybe it's just Patch. Either way, this series exceeds the cliche standard of paranormal romance, and Silence merely emphasized this point.
Like the other books in this series, Silence begins with action right away, catching my interest. But then, lo and behold, my eye-rolling began. Nora. Lost. Her. Memory? I figured right off the bat that this would lay out a long, irritating road of Nora being clueless while I'd be understanding everything that happens, making me want to scream at her everything she needs to know. But, I was pleasantly surprised that this didn't really happen. This element wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and Becca Fitzpatrick actually made it work in a way that didn't tick me off. The plot moves along pretty quickly, actually.

Silence is also like the previous books in the series in the sense that it's creepy and full of mystery, but now the story has taken a darker turn. Everything seemed to get a little more serious, dangerous, and perilous now that we know more about the Black Hand and his intentions. This book seemed to have the most action and suspense of the series because of it, helping make it possibly my favorite of the series. Honestly, I don't really have any complaints about this book in terms of plot. Nor do I have complaints about the writing. Becca Fitzpatrick may not be my favorite writer or anything close to that, but the writing was efficient. Nothing wonderful, but nothing great, like with the other books.

As I probably mentioned in my reviews of the first two books, there never seems to be enough Patch. This doesn't bother me very much in other paranormal romance novels because I usually don't like the main guy THIS much. However, I'm so happy that there was actually a sufficient amount of Patch in this novel! But, we do get more from antagonists. Even though this makes the action skyrocket, the primary antagonist of this novel really got under my skin. You know, the stuff an antagonist is supposed to do.

After the scariest cliff-hanger in the world at the end of Crescendo, I was afraid that Silence would do the same. Although it's easy to tell that there's still more to Patch and Nora's story, readers should be satisfied with the degree of closure given.

Silence proved to be an amazing installment in this awesome series. Despite that it's probably quintessential paranormal romance, this book (and the rest of the series) is darker and quite mysterious. It has suspense in its quickly-paced plot, and I love it.

4/5 Stars


Fitzpatrick, Becca. Silence
New York: Simon & Schuster
2011

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

Hush, Hush | by: Becca Fitzpatrick

As soon as Nora meets the mysterious new student, Patch, her whole life seems to shake and spin out of control. Strange, unexplainable things are happening left and right beginning on the first day that they meet at her high school. Of course, that could all be a coincidence. But there is at least one thing she can be absolutely positive of: She is very drawn to Patch, even though she believes he's a threat she should stay away from. Even though she's sure that his past is filled with dark secrets.

Books about angels tend to make me happy, espcially when the author knows what he/she is talking about when referencing older stories (or facts, if you believe in them). However, I've had a bit of an adventure with this novel.

The first time I read Hush, Hush was almost exactly a year ago, and I liked it. Well, sorta. It seemed to be an okay book, but I wasn't exactly a fan. If I'd been blogging at the time, I would have given it a 3.5/5 star rating.

I just finished reading it for the second time, so I'd has everything fresh in my mind for Crescendo, the sequal. And let me tell you that my opinion has changed.

I couldn't put this book down. The story intrigued me, AND it was completely entertaining, and moved at a nearly perfect pace. Funny thing... when I first read this, I thought it went too slowly and that nothing happened. (I think I was stressed out when I first read it, so my opinion wasn't reasonable.) I found it completely interesting, and kinda beautiful in some way. There were even bits of humor in there that made me smile.

Another big surprise for me is that I really did not like Becca's writing the first time around for whatever reason, but this time, I found a very small amount of problems with it. In fact, I liked it. Her writing is effective, and she gets to the point. She created a number of strange events that could seem randomized if she didn't do it right, but she did. All in all, it's not bad writing, but it's not the most amazing writing I've ever seen.

One of the reasons why I loved Hush, Hush so much is I relate to Nora. Most of the time, the things she'd say to people, whether reasoning with Vee, attempting to reason with herself, or trying to act smart toward Patch, sound like exactly like what I'd say. She's constantly finding herself pulled Patch, but she fights herself all the time, trying to get that idea out of her head, and replacing it with one that screams "STAY AWAY FROM THAT CREEP." This sounds like me. I fight my emotions a lot. And yet, this very thing is what irritated me most about Nora - she was so slow to like and trust Patch.

Speaking of Patch... I'm just gonna come right out and say it... He's sexy, okay? In all of his mysterious-ness and bad boy-ness. I think he's my favorite out of all the hot guys I've read about in books, in his personality and appearance. In fact, this also sort of brings a downside, since because I love him so much, I want him to be in the book with Nora more! Usually she's avoiding him or sneaking around trying to find info about him, and I can't stand it! I want more Patch! And I want my questions about him answered. (What is his real name? Where has he been all these years? When did he fall? Is he going to live forever while Nora has to die eventually, or how does this situation work?)

I'm having issues with getting this book out of my mind. Every half hour, it pops into my mind. I don't really understand how my opinion completely changed after one year and a reread. All of a sudden, I'm just in love with the story and the characters (espcially Patch). It has this creepy and dark edge to it, where you're not so sure what's happening because nothing makes sense. If you ask me, Becca's running it more like a movie than a book. Either way, the story in general makes me so nervous for the characters and anxious for what will happen next! I just crave and crave for more!

Seriously, I'm worried about reading Crescendo. Not because I don't think it'll be good (I'm sure it will be), but because if I have such a I-can't-stop-reading-because-I'm-too-scared-to-stop rush during a reread of this one, I can't imagine the stress Crescendo could possibly bring. I'm so excited to read it, though!

Hush, Hush is an eerie and addictive read, and it gives readers some healthy doses of mystery, romance, angels, and events filled with paranormality.

4.5/5 Stars

Waiting... waiting...

I enjoyed Becca Fitzpatric's book: Hush, Hush. It had a bit too many similarities to other typical young adult novels, and I'm not a fan of the way Becca writes, but it was overall an enjoyable book that I could keep my interest in.

So, naturally, I was determined to watch the live streaming cover reveal to the sequal, Crescendo... maybe this was a bad idea.

Here's my story:
I get to the Fallen Archangle website many minutes early and browse at other websites as I await ten o'clock. When it's coming close, I start to refresh the page. I know that the site said around ten o'clock in the morning, but I wanted to get there early, you know, just in case. In the end, it didn't start until 10:07(am).

And I've been watching this thing ever since. Though I am finally watching, I am STILL waiting. Because all this video contains is footage of some lady under a tent that's kind of far from the camera. She (heck, a he for all I know) is on the floor working on something. Painting, perhaps? Is that what she's doing? Thirty minutes later and it's still all the same.

I kept this page up for about an hour and twenty minutes. Then I gave up.

Later on I checked on it, to find a picture of the cover... and I love it! Very beautiful indeed!

If you want to see it, go here:
www.fallenarchangel.com