What Kind Of Review Can You Expect?


If I could describe what kind of reader I am, I would hands down say I was an emotional one. When I read I want to fully experience the book, from the emotions coursing through the characters to reacting to the twist and turns of the storyline. I'm looking for those books that fire up my imagination and leave me breathless when it's over. It's for this reason why the reviews I write aren't so much what I think and are more on how I feel. My hopes in sharing my review in this way is that something will spark an interest and have you wanting to have the same experiences. This isn't to say I don't have issues with grammar, word choices etc. Trust me I do and most times all it takes is waiting for the story to grab hold for it not to matter. When I do include things about what I thought about the book (for example I've included comments about word choices and being too descriptive), I only do so because it directly affected how I felt. I hope this helps. Enjoy!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Crescendo, by Becca Fitzpatrick

Official Blurb:
Feisty teen Nora Grey somehow survived the crises of Hush, Hush!, but dangers just as frightening loom in this standalone sequel. Patch, her guardian angel and love interest, appears to have a dark side and a wandering eye. Worse yet, he seems intent on obstructing Nora as she hunts for the truth behind her father's mysterious death.

What I thought:
Let me first start out by saying that I was craving this book from the get go because I fell hook, line, and sinker, for Patch in Hush, Hush, one of my favorite all time novels.  I ran right out and bought this book when it came out and happened to have all of my excitement fizzle when I passed an unfortunate comment on another blog.  That blogger had said that it was "too bad that Patch was hardly in the book."

I was devastated.

How could a sequel to Hush, Hush, not have the macho, deliciously brooding, bad boy front and center in its sequel?  I sat the book on the shelf and picked up one of the other new releases I was excited for instead.  I have to say I ended up reading multiple books before one day I was finally seized upon with the desire to find out what was in this one again.  So I picked it up off the shelf and curled up into my pillows and the rest was history.  I was captivated.

While Patch wasn't as physically present as he had been in Hush, Hush, every time he did appear he positively oozed the sex appeal all over the pages.  I found my heart racing in the spots in which he appeared, proving he is the true HUNK of this series.  No other male comes close to him in these books.

I liked the introduction of Scott.  He always made me feel off kilter.  I never really could tell if he was good or evil, sorta good or sorta evil, perhaps crazy, misunderstood.  Of course, I'm not going to tell you what he was, but his character was interesting and well written and he occasionally pulled off a little hot steam of his own.  He was a nice tension creator between Patch and Nora, which was fun as well.

Marcie was a witch, in a nasty and biting sense, but there was always something missing and off about her too.  She was just a mean girl and as we come to understand why that was, the chips suddenly started falling into place.  Very good twists there.

And then there was Nora.  Dear, sweet, adorable, made-me-want-to-bash-her-stupid-head-into-the-wall-for-virtually-every-second-of-the-book, Nora.  I don't know what happened here, but Nora suddenly became dumber than a pile of bricks, questioning and freaking out about every little thing.  She was extremely prideful, never giving Patch a chance to explain anything!  It was no wonder the guy clammed up around her...he couldn't get a word in edge wise.  Every time Nora would ask him a question in her search for the truth, she would answer it herself, the way she thought was right and then ended up throwing him out.  Patch should have been nominated for sainthood by the end of the book just for putting up with her.  (Ladies, sometimes you need to shut up and listen to your man.  One good conversation could have saved Nora this whole book!  Yes, I know, that defeats the purpose of the book, but Nora was just darn irritating.)

The premise of this tale was good though.  The story never lagged at all and I turned page after page in indulgence, eating up every word of the delicious plot.  When the story ended, I actually growled and flung the book down in frustration at the cliffhanger ending, hopping right up to log onto Goodreads to find out the information about the third book in the series, Tempest, which is due out October of 2011.  Yes, dear reader, I will be in line for that one at release time too.

So, I struggled with how to rate this book.  Based on the lack of Patch, who is my favorite character, I would give the book a four.  Based on the aggravation and moaning in frustration that Nora caused me, I would also give a four. BUT, the story was good and these circumstances were crucial to the telling of it.  If I had half stars or quarter stars I would probably rate this a 4.75.  But we don't, so I'm going to over look my personal tastes and rate the book on straight writing and storytelling merit.  I will round up and give it a five out of five.  It's a great book!

My Rating:




(Well...almost....LOL!)
Lacey Weathrford
Author - Reviewer




4 comments:

BLHmistress said...

I haven't read this series believe it or not , I heard such great things about Patch too.

Jen (@ Jens Book Closet) said...

I don't know if I'm feeling the next in the series. Patch, while I liked him in the first book, was kind of a jerk. I know, I know, that was his character and he turned out better in the end, but I don't know. I think what is putting me off is that I've read so many *not good* angel books. It put a bad taste in my mouth, but you make this one sound so good. I think I'll see if the library has it.

Jen
In the Closet With a Bibliophile

Lacey Weatherford said...

I did like this book though honestly parts of it drove me completely insane. It all makes sense in the end though, so that's why I relented rating wise. And I agree...there are lots of not so great angel stories going on, but this is still probably one of my favorites. Hopefully it will stay that way!

Book Lover said...

I have to say I LOVED this book!