Book Review: Crescendo

Crescendo

Warning!: This review contains some spoilers.

"Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. A mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever (if that's possible) and what's worse, he seems to be spending time with Nora's archenemy, Marcie Millar.

Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Patch hadn't been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude, Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feelings that he is hiding something.

If that weren't enough, Nora is haunted by images of her murdered father, and comes to question whether her Nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death. Desperate to figure out what happened, she puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations to get the answer. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts."

Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Year of Release: 2010
Genre: Fantasy; Paranormal
Sequel(s): Silence & Finale
What motivated you to read this book?: I wanted to see what would happen to Patch & Nora. I really enjoyed Hush, Hush so I wanted to read the sequel!
Book Version: Hardback
Where did you get the book?: Local Library
Favorite Character: Vee Sky or Patch Cipriano
Least Favorite Character: There are many that I don't like, but none stands out as my least favorite
Thoughts on Cover: Pretty cool. Went along with the cover of Hush, Hush except with Nora on the cover instead of Patch. It's a good cover. I'm not sure if I like the font used though.
Recommended to: Paranormal fans
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Review: I actually liked this one a lot better than Hush, Hush even though Nora & Patch weren't together for 85% of the book which I didn't like very much at first. I really enjoyed the plot twists and turns. I believed certain things about some characters & then ended up being totally surprised in both good and bad ways. I also enjoyed the plot a lot better in this book. It seemed to flow better and was more fast moving. Like in Hush, Hush, I had many unanswered questions and as more and more events occurred, more questions were forming. However, I wasn't annoyed with not having the answers to the questions the way I was when reading Hush, Hush. I also liked Vee a lot better in this book than in the first book. Vee was very hilarious and always seemed to have Nora's back. She's definitely the type of friend I want.

Although I liked this book a lot more than Hush, Hush, Nora got on my nerves a lot more. Nora is extremely selfish. I didn't mind at first when she and Patch were fighting and broke up. I actually really liked it. It made the story more interesting. However, I didn't like how Nora tried to hurt Patch just to "get back at him". I also didn't like how she pretty much obsessed over him when she thought he was with Marcie. I mean seriously? Get over it! I would have understood if they dated for 2 years, but they had only been together for two months! I also didn't like how Nora made decisions like sneaking into other people's houses without really thinking it over. She was like "Okay, I really want to learn more about this, so I'll just break into their house while they're not there. No big deal." I'm pretty sure she snooped around in three people's houses/apartments.

There were some other parts of the plot that I didn't like because they never got resolved or because they were mentioned once and were never mentioned again. One example was when Nora got a speeding ticket. What was the point of that? She never paid it off!! She got a job to pay it off and her job was only mentioned once or twice. After that, it was as if the problem magically went away.

The weirdest part of the plot that I didn't like was how Scott went from hating and wanting to hurt her because she took the Black Hand's ring to "I'm so sorry Nora! It's my fault your father is dead. Please forgive me!" The ring issue never got resolved and she never returned it to him or anything. So strange. Then at the end of the book he randomly decided to buy her a car. What the heck?!? I also didn't like how Patch still kept things from Nora like the fact that he was Marcie's guardian angel. Didn't make much sense. Other than that, I really liked this book. I liked the ending and how it left me hanging wanting to find out what happens next!