What his motivations were beyond, 'hey I'm evil, let's cause some chaos,' I'm not sure. The story is all about Bethany being in love with Xavier, until about three quarters of the way through a threat turns up in the shape of the most overly foreshadowed, 'so obvious to everyone but the character it's actually painful to read' bad guy I've had the displeasure of reading in a long time. Then there's the rather major issue of the plot being a near direct echo of Twilight. Surely she'd know the effects of alcohol? For a superpowered angel, Beth was at best vulnerable and in need of a knight in shining armour, at worst a pathetic sap about as endearing as a mouldy potato.

Swooning can't sustain 400+ pages.īethany's innocence, intended to be cute, I think, got annoying very rapidly – especially as she's an angel and supposed to know everything in human knowledge. Now, a bit of boy swooning is fine, but Halo is a chunky book. Instead, Beth spends her time swooning over Xavier, while her friends swoon over Gabriel. The fact that she wasn't targeting vulnerable, impressionable teenagers for a bit of the goodwill treatment made the whole situation ridiculous. Why would an angel go to high school? It's never really explained beyond 'fitting in' and Beth seems to be as unclear on her purpose as I was reading it, which didn't help matters either. However, when the story (and I say 'story' in the loosest sense of the word) kicked in, Halo went from intriguing to banal in about three lines.

I loved this bit of the story – it was well observed, well written and spoke of great promise for the rest of the book. Halo starts with newly incarnate angel Bethany getting used to her life on Earth. This book is a clear example of why we have the saying 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' The cover is exquisite. Falling in love was not part of the holy mission, and Gabriel and Ivy fear Bethany won't be in the position to save anybody if she continues down the path she's on. A fascination that leads to a dangerous attraction to human boy, Xavier.

She's overwhelmed by human life, fascinated by all the experiences available to her in human form. They have to conceal their true nature – hiding the glow of their skin, their wings – a task not easy for Bethany, the least experienced of the trio. When three angels – Gabriel, Ivy and Bethany – arrive in a quiet town, their mission is to bring good to a world in danger of falling into darkness. With a plot near identical to Twilight, there's nothing original or entertaining enough to sustain the story over 400+ pages. A promising start that descends into fairly vapid boy-swooning. Summary: A lesson in not judging a book by its cover.

Halo by alexandra adornetto series