Review: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Patch and Nora's

story continues...

Nora should have known her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described as anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away, and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home. The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch, or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

The first book in this series Hush, Hush was interesting and had mystery but some of characters actions made me crazy. Strange occurrences in a new house and the teen daughter stays there alone... repeatedly! Those kinds of things were frustrating but I was curious about the rest of the story and I kept reading.

I did like this book better than the first one. The story was more developed and the writing more mature. It was good to get some answers to the mysteries of Patch and Nora's past. I think I've been more interested in that than their present relationship. I'm sure part of that has to do with the fact that I'm not a teenager and I don't relate as well (although I do remember!) to some of the behavior. There was so much drama that kept things on edge but was so unnecessary. Of course Nora would be jealous if Patch seemed interested in Marcie but there were many times that I wondered why she didn't just ask him herself. And when they know there are life and death decisions involved it seems like they would try to have much better communication to avoid misunderstandings. Teen love is already hard but they were making it so much harder. It was an interesting storyline, it just felt drawn out to me.

The characters are becoming more developed and interesting now that we are learning their backgrounds. New characters were introduced including the villain with the unknown identity, the Black Hand. The mysteries are more complex and as we peel back the layers we start to get some answers, but only some. Nora is learning more about her Nephilim (that word was used way too much) bloodline and she knows there is more to the death of her father. She feels she may be responsible in some way and has no idea who she can trust anymore, even Patch. Of course, there is another cliff hanger ending so be prepared! I look forward to the next installment in the series Tempest coming in 2011.

These covers have always grabbed my attention and I think they are very striking. There is interesting information on the author's blog about how they were made and outtakes from the photo shoots. The first cover came from a photo of a model jumping on a trampoline - clever!

Thank you to Teen Simon & Schuster for an arc to review.

Hush, Hush (book 1) available now
Tempest (book 3) is due out Fall 2011.

Author - beccafitzpatrick.com

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release date: 10/19/10
Pages: 427
Price/format: $18.99/hardcover
Type: teen fiction

Review: hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

A sacred oath,
a fallen angel,
a forbidden love.

Nora Grey is a responsible, independent teenager who lives alone with her widowed mother in Maine. When she is unexpectedly paired up with the transfer student, Patch, in Biology class she is unhappy to be stuck with someone so sullen and annoying. He is also quite mysterious and very handsome, a bad combination. Although she tries to keep her distance he always seems to be around. He becomes a favorite topic of conversation for Nora and her best friend Vee. Eventually she acknowledges her growing attraction to him and realizes he is linked to many strange occurrences. As she starts to dig deeper into Patch's past she must determine where the true dangers lie and to what extremes she will go to uncover the secrets.

The first thing that drew me to this book was the dramatic black and white cover. I really liked it and I had to know what this book was about. My first impression was that it started very similar to Twilight and there have been many comparisons. In a First Look online bookclub at Barnes & Noble the author explained the background of her book. She told how the inspiration for this story came from her own 10th grade Biology class and she wrote the two chapters of classroom scenes in 2003 before Twilight was published. This book took her over five years to write and when it was submitted to publishers the title was Eclipse. (I like the final title much better!) From 2003-06 no agents mentioned any similarities to the Twilight series. It wasn't until 2007 when it was mentioned that it was too similar and was rejected. It's a tried and true formula that's used often in YA stories and hardly a secret. Teenagers spend much of their life in the classroom and most of their relationships develop there. It works for this story as well. As Nora becomes more interested in Patch her friend Vee seems to feel the opposite. But she has developed feelings for her new friend Elliot and it would be so convenient if Nora could be paired off with his friend Jules. The friction increases between the girls as their lives are pulled in different directions and when Nora finds herself in increasingly dangerous situations she turns to Patch for help. This could be the very person she is threatened by but she is drawn to him and he is the only person who understands these strange events. And it seems the events aren't random and her very life is at stake.

I found this to be fast paced and easy to read. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept me turning pages to solve the mysteries. The story was interesting and I liked the mythology of fallen angels. There were elements that bothered me and some were probably more noticeable as a parent of teens than if I were a teen myself. Nora is mature and independent but she was left alone too often even after threats and attacks and some of her decisions made no sense to me. I also realized that I was curious about these characters but I didn't find them very likable and I'm not sure why. Some were annoying but were suppose to be. Miss Greene, the new school counselor, really got on my nerves with her strange questions. I realize she had motives but they seemed so obvious to me. I'm not sure what was going on with Nora's iron pills but they were mentioned a lot. I expect this will have more of a role in the future as well.

Even with the parts I didn't care for I still want to know what comes next. I thought there was chemistry between Nora and Patch and imagine that it will only get stronger in the future. The ending in the finished copy is different than the ARC version. It's only a few paragraphs but it's on the last page but it does make some changes in the storyline. I like both versions. Since this was the author's debut novel I'm sure the stories will get better and better. I look forward to reading more from Becca Fitzpatrick.

The sequel, Crescendo, will be released in October, 2010.

Thank you to TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com for an ARC of this book.

author website - BeccaFitzpatrick.com

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release date: 10/13/09
Pages: 400
Price/format: $17.99/hardcover
Type: YA
Age: 14 and up