Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Published by: Hodder and Stroughton
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Maddie read Obsidian earlier in the year and said that it was basically Twilight with aliens. In Half-Blood‘s case, it’s basically Vampire Academy with gods. Is this author able to come up with something completely original? If you have a favourite book by her, then please recommend it! Especially if it’s unlike anything you’ve read before.

Honestly, I felt like I’d read this book already. And that’s because I had, so like Maddie, I’ll break the similarities down for you:

1. The main character.

Alex is exactly like Rose in the sense that she’s a ‘kick-ass’ girl who’s been out of her usual training for a while, is then captured and brought back to the ‘academy’ which is called the Covenant. Although Alex is similar to Rose, unfortunately, she doesn’t have the same wit. She is, however, highly sought after by the male population and finds it easier to be friends with guys.

2. The love interest.

Aiden is basically Demitri. He’s a super tough older guy who’s joined the academy/covenant specifically so her can train the main character. Obviously, the two fall in love, but it’s forbidden in this case because Aiden is a pure and Alex is a half-blood.

3. The wold.

Armentrout may have tried to create something new here, but it’s the same three types of people: the Hemantoi (the bad guys), the Pures (like the Moroi) and the Half-Bloods (like the dhampirs they’re there to protect the Moroi) This one might be a slightly unfair critique, especially if I don’t mention the fact that Armentrout has included another type of being –  the Apollyon, who are the most powerful. The initial world building was quite laborious, full of exposition that just slowed the pace down.

So basic plot-wise, this story seems pretty familiar and I can only hope that in the late books the story starts to diverge. There’s some serious potential for this to be awesome, it’s just Half-Blood spent so long trying to set up the world and explain why things were happening that it had a lot of pacing issues. However, the plot that has finally been established by the end of the book is probably where the whole series should have picked up, so I think I will continue if I can get my hands on the next book. Overall, I would give Half-Blood 2 stars for lack of originality, but hope for the future!