REVIEW: Half-Blood (Covenant #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Covenant #1
Published by Hodder & Stoughton on 14th August 2014
Pages: 383
Source: *Received from the publisher in exchange of an honest review*

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi - pure-bloods - have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals - well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:

Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.

Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem - staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck. 

Fierce and addictive, from the first page you will not be able to stop reading till the very end. I like these new covers for the UK editions, in comparison to the old US editions; I especially love the colour!

Alex has been on the run with her mother from the Covenant for the past three years, and yet she never knew why. Then she witnesses a daimon kill her mother before her. But whilst fighting off three daimons Alex is caught and hauled back to the Covenant having the summer to get her training back to the standard it should be with the help of pure-blood Aiden. Whilst her long-time feelings develop, she must try to understand why her mother left in the first place; and whether the Covenant is really the safest place for her.

Alex was a fierce and dangerous protagonist, being witty and spontaneous, she hated to be the weakling. I think what caused me to lower the rating to a four for this novel, was my frustration with Alex concerning her following the rules. Her rebellious nature constantly placed her in the firing line and it was frustrating to see her always rebel and never think about the consequences, even though she really wanted to stay at the Covenant. However, as always Armentrout gives us a protagonist with fire, and I guess this novel would not be as addictive as it was without Alex's rebellious nature.

The romance in this novel, like all Armentrout's novels was full of angst and forbidden love. Aiden was a great love interest and you could not help but root for him. I am excited to see how their forbidden love blossoms in the future novels.

Likewise, Armentrout always creates amazing secondary characters. Caleb was the amazing and helpful best friend, and I was pleased to see it was not a best-friend romance novel. We also had the apollyon Seth who was mysterious and intriguing, so I cannot wait to learn more about him; from which I suspect in the next novel may cause a love triangle, just a suspicion.

The plot of Half-Blood was action-packed, dangerous and heartbreaking at the same time. To witness Alex's struggle over the death of her mother was upsetting but we see her strengthen as a character to witness the Alex who everyone loves and fears. Though the plot was predictable, you cannot help but be sucked into their world and feel as though you are watching them; incredibly addictive and fun.

Therefore I am very excited to read the sequel, Pure.