Review: Crescendo

By: Becca Fitzpatrick
Published: October 2010 by Simon & Schuster
Format: Hardback, 427 pages
First Reviewed: March 2011
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Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect.

Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but atleast 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 and even worse, he's started spending time with Nora's arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.

Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Path hadnt been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feeling that he's hiding something.

Haunted by images of her murdered father, and questioning whether her nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly in dangerous situations as she desperatly searches for answers. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.

Rating: 3/5

Sequel to Hush, Hush. Again, shoot me, but I like this series quite a bit. I have a bit more criticism for this book than I did for the first one, but I still enjoyed it and love the cliffhanger it ended with. Can't help it, y'all, it's a guilty pleasure book.

Starting this one, I wasn't sure how I was going to like it. I didn't feel as though the narration and voice of Nora was the same. She actually kind of annoyed me a bit in this one, mainly with all of her questioning that made her seem kind of dumb at times. Also, I felt like she was a pretty crappy friend to Vee a lot of the time, and took advantage of her. But she got better as I read and came back to being the Nora I liked from Hush, Hush.

Anyway, Crescendo steered in a different, newer direction with added characters and a brand new plot that did have me guessing quite a bit. The few parts that bothered me lied within more of the characterization this time, when that was one of the strongest parts of Hush, Hush (besides the writing), I thought. I already mentioned Nora, but there was another character I felt went from minor in Hush, Hush to semi-major way too quickly. That doesn't make much sense when I read what I just wrote, but what I mean is that she immediately was thrust into this stuff in the very beginning of this book and I think I would have liked a hint from the first book or more of an ease into it with this book.

The writing, I felt, was actually a bit stronger in the first book. I think with this, Fitzpatrick got sucked into the "overly commercial" writing, as I like to call it. With all the rhetorical questioning Nora does and some of the dialogue wasn't as strong as it was in the first book. But, I still think she has a strong writing style and I hope she continues to grow and gets away from the cheesy "He wouldn't do this, right?" types of narratives.

As for the plot, I really enjoyed the mystery of this one, I think almost a little better than Hush, Hush in general, though one aspect was too predictable for me. Then again, maybe I'm just a good mystery-solver. Anyway, I was thoroughly engrossed in this book. I know a lot of people don't like this series, but I can't help it. Fitzpatrick sends me away to a different world when I read and that's just not something I get a lot of when reading now-a-days. Still hope the next one gets better, but overall, I like this.