What do you think?
Rate this book
Hush, Hush #2
Crescendo
Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn’t pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. But Patch has been acting anything but angelic lately. 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’s moved back to town, if Patch hadn’t 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 bloodlines has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly dangerous situations as she searches for answers. But some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything – and everyone – she trusts.
Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who’s moved back to town, if Patch hadn’t 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 bloodlines has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly dangerous situations as she searches for answers. But some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything – and everyone – she trusts.
427 pages, Paperback
First published October 19, 2010
4386 people are currently reading
95284 people want to read
About the author
Becca Fitzpatrick
24 books32.8k followersBecca Fitzpatrick grew up reading Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden with a flashlight under the covers. She graduated college with a degree in health, which she promptly abandoned for storytelling. When not writing, she's most likely prowling sale racks for reject shoes, running, or watching crime dramas on TV. She is the author of the bestselling HUSH, HUSH Saga. Her new book BLACK ICE arrives in bookstores everywhere October 7, 2014.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 13,465 reviews
May 23, 2012
Hey. Hey, Patch?
Yeah, you. Right there. Patch Cipriano? Hey there. Hi.
Listen.
Yeah.
I will not read any more of this garbage.
Yeah, you. Right there. Patch Cipriano? Hey there. Hi.
Listen.
Yeah.
I will not read any more of this garbage.
December 5, 2013
EDIT: 16/9/2012
I edited this review just a bit. It's an old review but I think I could have worded some things a little better.
There were many Paranormal YA series where I couldn't possibly continue reading after the first book, but the Hush, Hush series is special. Despite the fact that yes, it is merely another abuse-glorifying panty-wetter, the unintentional hilarity just makes the books so much fun to read (in a twisted masochistic kinda way).
Crescendo is like a bright shining star of heaven compared to Hush, hush, because Crescendo gave me a favourite character, who is none other than Marcie Miller, the bitch who's out to get Nora. And anyone who's out to get Nora is a pal of mine. I also give Crescendo props for giving me an ending that assured some much needed ass kicking of Nora and Patch. I mean come on, apparently Patch doesn't screw Nora up enough, we may as well give them a run for their money big time, right? After dragging myself through that bullshit of a book, that ending actually made me very, very happy.
But other than that, this book was still pretty freaking bad. Though not as unbearable to read as the first 'book', it was still a flaming piece of shit.
I will give everyone a big piece of advice, and I must insist that you take it: DO NOT GET LOVE ADVICE FROM THIS BOOK.
Crescendo teaches girls that if their boyfriend doesn't have a 24/7 arousal in his meat-sword as soon as he catches sight of her, it OBVIOUSLY must mean that he doesn't love her. Nora dumps Patch for this reason. I kid you not. Nora breaks up with Patch because she claims 'he doesn't feel it when she kisses him' even though Patch says it affects him emotionally (also he kinda can't 'feel it' because lust is a sin according to God, so it would get him in big doggy doo). But that apparently isn't enough for her so in a matter of ten seconds she conveniently compiles a list of all the things that she can't do with Patch around and dumps him (a list of differences which are never brought up again later in the story).
Not too bad so far, right? I mean yeah, she's a twat who's missing at least three quarters of her brain, but at least she's rid of that douche bag, right? RIGHT?
Not really. He's still there. We still have to read about him.
A lot.
After she dumps him she spends 80% having a tantrum about the break-up and oh how she misses him and oh how she hates him, but misses him, but hates him, and so on. And of course, like any moron missing most of their brain, she claims she should NEVUR have broken up with Patch because he's just so... darn... special. Well my darling dearest, if you don't want to dump him, then STOP dumping him! Just save us the pain from being dragged around your angst for 100 fucking pages and run on back to your potential rapist. See if we care if you end up dead in the forest with a cactus in your anus.
I also couldn't help but notice that Becca Fitzpatrick seems to have had a change of heart about how she was going to write Patch in this book. Because for most of it she made Patch out to look like the top bastard of the bastard-Mafia and we should all feel sorry for Nora because she's being 'used and cheated on'. Well, where in the name of buggery was all of this in the first fucking book, when Patch really was the bastard of Scumville who sexually harassed her, intimidated her, emotionally and mentally AND sexually abused her? But in Becca-Fitzpatrickland, the worst thing Patch ever did to Nora was kissing Marcie. This is why no one takes you seriously, Fitzpatrick. Absolutely no one.
You thought Edward Cullen was a creep, watching Bella sleep? Patch invades Nora's dreams when they've broken up for the fifteenth time to make-out with her. What a swell guy, amirite? Even Nora found it wrong. That's gotta say something. If Nora, and I do stress that I am talking about NORA, finds Patch's behaviour alarming, THAT'S ONE FUCK OF AN INDICATOR THAT THERE IS SOMETHING NOT RIGHT. He also purposely walks in on a make-out session between her and Scott -cough- or Jacob -cough cough- and punches the poor bastard square in the face despite Nora screaming at the top of her lungs. Also, keeping her 'father's' ring when she asked for it back after the breakup? Not cool. She may have broken up with you for stupid reasons, but you don't keep her dead father's ring when you're not the person she is closest to anymore.
As mentioned before, I liked Marcie. Marcie was the only thing keeping me sane throughout the whole book. As I said in my review of Hush, hush, I support anyone tormenting Nora. I thought she was quite a badass, though it did piss me off that she was called a 'ho'. Just because she isn't afraid to express her sexuality, it doesn't make her a 'ho'. But that's another story.
I didn't care much for Scott. He was obviously the typical third-wheel Jacob of this New moon copy, the guy who the girl uses to get back at the guy she is actually in love with. Though he had some interesting aspects to him, the fact that he was just the typical third wheel love interest prevented him from achieving both uniqueness and greatness. Also he just seemed like a recycled Elliot from the first book.
Nora just wont stop being whiny and stupid. Plus, she stalks another guy. And she breaks into other people's homes and steals other people's stuff. How she is not already in a straight-jacket is beyond me. And as usual, she is also a hypocrite and one hell of a parasite. She uses Scott to get back at Patch and dares to preach how she is committed to a relationship when she is the one running from a relationship at the first signs of trouble. She manages to avoid serious jail time, and also somehow gets guys left, right and centre. Oh what a strange universe this is.
But whatever, I honestly didn't care about her and Patch breaking up. The two are terrible for each other anyway. Nora can't live with him or without him, and Patch is psycho when she's around and when she isn't. Just move one to a different planet from the other and let them find someone else. If Nora had to end up with someone, it should have been Vee. Though Vee isn't that much smarter than Nora, the two mirror each other perfectly. They share the same insanity, interests, and stupidity. Together, they could make history. Plus that would have been hilarious to see.
I would also like to point out that the archangels are stupid. Okay, like I said before, love and lust are totally mixed up in this book. It makes no sense that angels get sent to hell for falling in love with humans. 'Consorting with mortals' does not mean falling in love with mortals, it means wanting to have sex with mortals. I don't believe in God or Jesus or even angels, but I don't expect either of them to think of love as being a sin (if you're straight). I know lust is, apparently, and okay. Let's consider that. I mean, technically the archangels in this book consider lust a sin and something you get sent to hell for. Yet there are so many moments that they don't seem to notice. Patch gets away with making out with Nora, sexually harassing her in the first book, and even getting hit on by Marcie. But the archangels still continue to sit up there, twiddling their thumbs, act all threatening and 'wait for Patch to slip up'. Please. If Patch can get away with shit like that, he wouldn't have a problem with getting it on with Nora, therefore he wouldn't even have a problem and they can both live happily ever after, bla bla bla.
The plot was mostly about Nora bitching about not being with Patch while some random drama occurs. The plot twists felt very soap opera-ish to me. Therefore they didn't affect me at all. They were more funny than shocking. But the again Becca fails at shock value and plot twists. In fact she fails at drawing any emotion out of the reader. Her writing is very noobish, with weird descriptions to over dramatic expressions of sorrow and love. They made me want to gag. Like Hush, hush, this book tried but failed to make me feel anything for it other than disgust and the occasional laughs (and not the good kind). I didn't care for anything that happened in this book.
I edited this review just a bit. It's an old review but I think I could have worded some things a little better.
There were many Paranormal YA series where I couldn't possibly continue reading after the first book, but the Hush, Hush series is special. Despite the fact that yes, it is merely another abuse-glorifying panty-wetter, the unintentional hilarity just makes the books so much fun to read (in a twisted masochistic kinda way).
Crescendo is like a bright shining star of heaven compared to Hush, hush, because Crescendo gave me a favourite character, who is none other than Marcie Miller, the bitch who's out to get Nora. And anyone who's out to get Nora is a pal of mine. I also give Crescendo props for giving me an ending that assured some much needed ass kicking of Nora and Patch. I mean come on, apparently Patch doesn't screw Nora up enough, we may as well give them a run for their money big time, right? After dragging myself through that bullshit of a book, that ending actually made me very, very happy.
But other than that, this book was still pretty freaking bad. Though not as unbearable to read as the first 'book', it was still a flaming piece of shit.
I will give everyone a big piece of advice, and I must insist that you take it: DO NOT GET LOVE ADVICE FROM THIS BOOK.
Crescendo teaches girls that if their boyfriend doesn't have a 24/7 arousal in his meat-sword as soon as he catches sight of her, it OBVIOUSLY must mean that he doesn't love her. Nora dumps Patch for this reason. I kid you not. Nora breaks up with Patch because she claims 'he doesn't feel it when she kisses him' even though Patch says it affects him emotionally (also he kinda can't 'feel it' because lust is a sin according to God, so it would get him in big doggy doo). But that apparently isn't enough for her so in a matter of ten seconds she conveniently compiles a list of all the things that she can't do with Patch around and dumps him (a list of differences which are never brought up again later in the story).
Not too bad so far, right? I mean yeah, she's a twat who's missing at least three quarters of her brain, but at least she's rid of that douche bag, right? RIGHT?
Not really. He's still there. We still have to read about him.
A lot.
After she dumps him she spends 80% having a tantrum about the break-up and oh how she misses him and oh how she hates him, but misses him, but hates him, and so on. And of course, like any moron missing most of their brain, she claims she should NEVUR have broken up with Patch because he's just so... darn... special. Well my darling dearest, if you don't want to dump him, then STOP dumping him! Just save us the pain from being dragged around your angst for 100 fucking pages and run on back to your potential rapist. See if we care if you end up dead in the forest with a cactus in your anus.
I also couldn't help but notice that Becca Fitzpatrick seems to have had a change of heart about how she was going to write Patch in this book. Because for most of it she made Patch out to look like the top bastard of the bastard-Mafia and we should all feel sorry for Nora because she's being 'used and cheated on'. Well, where in the name of buggery was all of this in the first fucking book, when Patch really was the bastard of Scumville who sexually harassed her, intimidated her, emotionally and mentally AND sexually abused her? But in Becca-Fitzpatrickland, the worst thing Patch ever did to Nora was kissing Marcie. This is why no one takes you seriously, Fitzpatrick. Absolutely no one.
You thought Edward Cullen was a creep, watching Bella sleep? Patch invades Nora's dreams when they've broken up for the fifteenth time to make-out with her. What a swell guy, amirite? Even Nora found it wrong. That's gotta say something. If Nora, and I do stress that I am talking about NORA, finds Patch's behaviour alarming, THAT'S ONE FUCK OF AN INDICATOR THAT THERE IS SOMETHING NOT RIGHT. He also purposely walks in on a make-out session between her and Scott -cough- or Jacob -cough cough- and punches the poor bastard square in the face despite Nora screaming at the top of her lungs. Also, keeping her 'father's' ring when she asked for it back after the breakup? Not cool. She may have broken up with you for stupid reasons, but you don't keep her dead father's ring when you're not the person she is closest to anymore.
As mentioned before, I liked Marcie. Marcie was the only thing keeping me sane throughout the whole book. As I said in my review of Hush, hush, I support anyone tormenting Nora. I thought she was quite a badass, though it did piss me off that she was called a 'ho'. Just because she isn't afraid to express her sexuality, it doesn't make her a 'ho'. But that's another story.
I didn't care much for Scott. He was obviously the typical third-wheel Jacob of this New moon copy, the guy who the girl uses to get back at the guy she is actually in love with. Though he had some interesting aspects to him, the fact that he was just the typical third wheel love interest prevented him from achieving both uniqueness and greatness. Also he just seemed like a recycled Elliot from the first book.
Nora just wont stop being whiny and stupid. Plus, she stalks another guy. And she breaks into other people's homes and steals other people's stuff. How she is not already in a straight-jacket is beyond me. And as usual, she is also a hypocrite and one hell of a parasite. She uses Scott to get back at Patch and dares to preach how she is committed to a relationship when she is the one running from a relationship at the first signs of trouble. She manages to avoid serious jail time, and also somehow gets guys left, right and centre. Oh what a strange universe this is.
But whatever, I honestly didn't care about her and Patch breaking up. The two are terrible for each other anyway. Nora can't live with him or without him, and Patch is psycho when she's around and when she isn't. Just move one to a different planet from the other and let them find someone else. If Nora had to end up with someone, it should have been Vee. Though Vee isn't that much smarter than Nora, the two mirror each other perfectly. They share the same insanity, interests, and stupidity. Together, they could make history. Plus that would have been hilarious to see.
I would also like to point out that the archangels are stupid. Okay, like I said before, love and lust are totally mixed up in this book. It makes no sense that angels get sent to hell for falling in love with humans. 'Consorting with mortals' does not mean falling in love with mortals, it means wanting to have sex with mortals. I don't believe in God or Jesus or even angels, but I don't expect either of them to think of love as being a sin (if you're straight). I know lust is, apparently, and okay. Let's consider that. I mean, technically the archangels in this book consider lust a sin and something you get sent to hell for. Yet there are so many moments that they don't seem to notice. Patch gets away with making out with Nora, sexually harassing her in the first book, and even getting hit on by Marcie. But the archangels still continue to sit up there, twiddling their thumbs, act all threatening and 'wait for Patch to slip up'. Please. If Patch can get away with shit like that, he wouldn't have a problem with getting it on with Nora, therefore he wouldn't even have a problem and they can both live happily ever after, bla bla bla.
The plot was mostly about Nora bitching about not being with Patch while some random drama occurs. The plot twists felt very soap opera-ish to me. Therefore they didn't affect me at all. They were more funny than shocking. But the again Becca fails at shock value and plot twists. In fact she fails at drawing any emotion out of the reader. Her writing is very noobish, with weird descriptions to over dramatic expressions of sorrow and love. They made me want to gag. Like Hush, hush, this book tried but failed to make me feel anything for it other than disgust and the occasional laughs (and not the good kind). I didn't care for anything that happened in this book.
November 5, 2010
Spoilers are coming up, but mostly about the 'relationship' between Nora and Patch.
Also: pretend I'm reading this out loud to you, while I'm barely able to remember what they taught me in my anger management classes, and with a voice that's a few notches above normal volume. There's also some foaming at the mouth and a very, very strained and scary smile on my face.
*clears throat* Here goes...
Dear Nora,
How shall I put this... You are a stupid, stupid girl. The guy who loves you spends his time, trying to get through to your thick skull and show you what you mean to him. You, my dear, are an idiot. You are incapable of making rational decisions. Not even normal ones are an option with you. The amazing leaps between your conclusions are way beyond my understanding, like in a galaxy, far, far away, even. When a guy tells you he'd sacrifice himself for you, you don't go around complaining about how he 'ran' when you told him you love him. He 'ran' because you were IN DANGER. I'M SORRY THE MOMENT WAS RUINED BY THE PERSON WHO TRIED TO KILL YOU, NORA.
Then you spend all your time telling Patch to go do something anatomically impossible, while you, Nora, spend the rest of your time trying to be a bad girl (puh-lease) while wishing he was with you, every time you have an itch you can't patch. But naturally, when the he puts some effort into it, and invades your dreams, just to tell you you really need to listen, because YOU ARE IN DANGER, then you basically put your hands over your ears and start yelling "I can't heaaaaaar yooouuuuu" right in his face. You even think he's trying to kill you (again, jumping to conclusions, and where the hell did that one come from anyway?). "I've fallen in love with a killer". Oh please. All he has to do is stick his tongue in your ear and you're slobbering all over him like a needy puppy.
I lost count of how many times you told Patch to GET OUT. WHY DON'T YOU GET OUT? AND BUY A DECENT BRAIN. *insert rude gestures here* GOD.
And then there's Vee, the best friend you really don't deserve. She made things interesting and was there to make me laugh every once in a while. How she can put up with you is a mystery to me. She made it to the top 5 of my 'awesome people' list. She deserves to be declared a saint.
One more thing: You. Don't. Deserve. Patch. AT ALL.
HAVE A NICE LIFE. SOMEWHERE ELSE.
Kim.
Last but definitely not least: I can't believe it, the size of the balls on this cliffhanger are huge.
Also: pretend I'm reading this out loud to you, while I'm barely able to remember what they taught me in my anger management classes, and with a voice that's a few notches above normal volume. There's also some foaming at the mouth and a very, very strained and scary smile on my face.
*clears throat* Here goes...
Dear Nora,
How shall I put this... You are a stupid, stupid girl. The guy who loves you spends his time, trying to get through to your thick skull and show you what you mean to him. You, my dear, are an idiot. You are incapable of making rational decisions. Not even normal ones are an option with you. The amazing leaps between your conclusions are way beyond my understanding, like in a galaxy, far, far away, even. When a guy tells you he'd sacrifice himself for you, you don't go around complaining about how he 'ran' when you told him you love him. He 'ran' because you were IN DANGER. I'M SORRY THE MOMENT WAS RUINED BY THE PERSON WHO TRIED TO KILL YOU, NORA.
Then you spend all your time telling Patch to go do something anatomically impossible, while you, Nora, spend the rest of your time trying to be a bad girl (puh-lease) while wishing he was with you, every time you have an itch you can't patch. But naturally, when the he puts some effort into it, and invades your dreams, just to tell you you really need to listen, because YOU ARE IN DANGER, then you basically put your hands over your ears and start yelling "I can't heaaaaaar yooouuuuu" right in his face. You even think he's trying to kill you (again, jumping to conclusions, and where the hell did that one come from anyway?). "I've fallen in love with a killer". Oh please. All he has to do is stick his tongue in your ear and you're slobbering all over him like a needy puppy.
I lost count of how many times you told Patch to GET OUT. WHY DON'T YOU GET OUT? AND BUY A DECENT BRAIN. *insert rude gestures here* GOD.
And then there's Vee, the best friend you really don't deserve. She made things interesting and was there to make me laugh every once in a while. How she can put up with you is a mystery to me. She made it to the top 5 of my 'awesome people' list. She deserves to be declared a saint.
One more thing: You. Don't. Deserve. Patch. AT ALL.
HAVE A NICE LIFE. SOMEWHERE ELSE.
Kim.
Last but definitely not least: I can't believe it, the size of the balls on this cliffhanger are huge.
June 6, 2024
1.5 stars✨
Brace yourself for some ranting 🫣
Ngl I hated 75% of this book but the last 25% surprised me, so now am confused about reading the next one lol.
The way it started was me being hopeful and interested, especially with the way Sour Patch was carrying himself. Then boom, Nora Bitch starts talking and it was all going downhill. How is using eating disorders and body shaming others ever okay? How are we supposed to like a fmc who talks shit like that? Then comes the fmc's best friend who has one operating brain cell that when her friend is being vulnerable, she is like "umm okay, so wanna hang?"
Time to elaborate on Nora Bitch and Sour Patch's relationship; y'all tell me if am overreacting.
This is basically how their conversations went (obviously paraphrased)-
Nora- You kiss me. I don't think you feel anything. You just kiss me.
Patch- Can I say something?
Nora- I hate you. You don't love me. You don't feel anything when you kiss me.
Patch- But can I say something now?
Nora- We are breaking up.
Patch- But- okay.
Nora- I don't want you to be my guardian angel anymore.
Patch- *starts guarding other*
Nora- How dare you not be my guardian anymore?! After I said I love you and kissed you?! Why are you not my guardian?!
*repeats 100x*
Nora- I hate you. You don't even hang out with me.
Patch- Yeah but I'm hot, wanna make out?
Nora- Okay cool.
Their relationship is full of toxic communication, self centered, and one of lies and betrayal. Sour Patch could have had open and honest conversations with her. He could have made her feel more involved in his life. He didn't have to tell her everything, but being present does wonders in one's life. But Nora Bitch could have grown a brain. She is unbelievably dumb, insecure and jealous. Look, if I was a guy, she would be my worst nightmare. Nora not only makes it her business to make herself miserable, but also others around her. She also steals and vandalises, falsely accuses multiple people, jumps to conclusion with no thought, doesn't think about consequences ever. Basically, I hate the bitch.
Despite almost everything going wrong, this book somehow kept me invested still. The plot with the angels and Nephilims is not refined but it's interesting enough. The chaos and mystery is the only thing working for the series.
The reveals and the plot twists at the end were really shocking and ones I didn't see coming, maybe cause Nora was killing my brain cells too but anyway. I ate the ending up. I do however believe that the betrayal and exposure could have been more impactful if the first half of the book wasn't so messy.
~•~•~
Here for some trashy entertainment 🍿
Brace yourself for some ranting 🫣
Ngl I hated 75% of this book but the last 25% surprised me, so now am confused about reading the next one lol.
The way it started was me being hopeful and interested, especially with the way Sour Patch was carrying himself. Then boom, Nora Bitch starts talking and it was all going downhill. How is using eating disorders and body shaming others ever okay? How are we supposed to like a fmc who talks shit like that? Then comes the fmc's best friend who has one operating brain cell that when her friend is being vulnerable, she is like "umm okay, so wanna hang?"
Time to elaborate on Nora Bitch and Sour Patch's relationship; y'all tell me if am overreacting.
This is basically how their conversations went (obviously paraphrased)-
Nora- You kiss me. I don't think you feel anything. You just kiss me.
Patch- Can I say something?
Nora- I hate you. You don't love me. You don't feel anything when you kiss me.
Patch- But can I say something now?
Nora- We are breaking up.
Patch- But- okay.
Nora- I don't want you to be my guardian angel anymore.
Patch- *starts guarding other*
Nora- How dare you not be my guardian anymore?! After I said I love you and kissed you?! Why are you not my guardian?!
*repeats 100x*
Nora- I hate you. You don't even hang out with me.
Patch- Yeah but I'm hot, wanna make out?
Nora- Okay cool.
Their relationship is full of toxic communication, self centered, and one of lies and betrayal. Sour Patch could have had open and honest conversations with her. He could have made her feel more involved in his life. He didn't have to tell her everything, but being present does wonders in one's life. But Nora Bitch could have grown a brain. She is unbelievably dumb, insecure and jealous. Look, if I was a guy, she would be my worst nightmare. Nora not only makes it her business to make herself miserable, but also others around her. She also steals and vandalises, falsely accuses multiple people, jumps to conclusion with no thought, doesn't think about consequences ever. Basically, I hate the bitch.
Despite almost everything going wrong, this book somehow kept me invested still. The plot with the angels and Nephilims is not refined but it's interesting enough. The chaos and mystery is the only thing working for the series.
The reveals and the plot twists at the end were really shocking and ones I didn't see coming, maybe cause Nora was killing my brain cells too but anyway. I ate the ending up. I do however believe that the betrayal and exposure could have been more impactful if the first half of the book wasn't so messy.
~•~•~
Here for some trashy entertainment 🍿
October 30, 2010
Actually in love with this book !!!
Just read it, in a day.
I cannot describe how much i adore it though, i have to say its my favourite one i've ever read.
Got this off amazon yesterday, and i started reading and was hooked,
i had to go out that night, and slept out and all i could think about was the book, it was that capturing. I started reading it this morning and finished this afternoon.
A Billion times better than hush hush, the author did an amazing job,
can't wait for the next one, what a cliff hanger it was left on!
Only problem was i was screaming at nora throughout, i missed patch a hell of a lot.
So many secrets and different plots, its an amazing read.
I'm starting reading it again as well, i'm that hooked!
5 stars, LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!
Just read it, in a day.
I cannot describe how much i adore it though, i have to say its my favourite one i've ever read.
Got this off amazon yesterday, and i started reading and was hooked,
i had to go out that night, and slept out and all i could think about was the book, it was that capturing. I started reading it this morning and finished this afternoon.
A Billion times better than hush hush, the author did an amazing job,
can't wait for the next one, what a cliff hanger it was left on!
Only problem was i was screaming at nora throughout, i missed patch a hell of a lot.
So many secrets and different plots, its an amazing read.
I'm starting reading it again as well, i'm that hooked!
5 stars, LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!
April 3, 2019
this book/series is the very definition of guilty pleasure for me. its one of those books where i can just turn off my brain and be entertained by the simplest of things.
i will say that i dont think this is as good as ‘hush, hush.’ i found myself getting soooo frustrated with both nora and patch. it got so bad that i couldnt really tell if it was just bad writing or the characters really were that dumb. but so help me, i couldnt put this down. i practically inhaled this.
theres just something about this story that i find so nostalgia inducing. i mean, it also could be this YA paranormal phase that im currently going through, but these books feel like an old friend. its kind of comforting.
and now on to the next book! i really hope nora and patch get their act together!
↠ 3.5 stars
i will say that i dont think this is as good as ‘hush, hush.’ i found myself getting soooo frustrated with both nora and patch. it got so bad that i couldnt really tell if it was just bad writing or the characters really were that dumb. but so help me, i couldnt put this down. i practically inhaled this.
theres just something about this story that i find so nostalgia inducing. i mean, it also could be this YA paranormal phase that im currently going through, but these books feel like an old friend. its kind of comforting.
and now on to the next book! i really hope nora and patch get their act together!
↠ 3.5 stars
Read
April 15, 2012So I was at Borders the other day, and this book was on the shelf and underneath it read 'Patch is the bad boy Edward wishes he was'.
Of course, the idea of a forbidden-ish love story will always remind us of You-Know-What, but i'm seriously saying that this book is addictive enough for it to be a crime to compare it twilight. It has its own characters and instead of VAMPIRES, its about ANGELS and that makes me happy because angels are as cool, or even more so, than vampires. And yes I have a fetish (unsexual of course) for angels.
Nora Grey is a teenager living in a town somewhere. One day a new transfer student comes and he is... u guessed it: tall, sexy, unreachable yet irresistable and the most intriguing thing: dark. He has a very, very mysterious past.
And that's the next great thing about the book. I'm guessing it can be categorised as a thriller beecause in some parts of the book, I was so scared (in a good way) that I had to close my curtains because i thought I'd see a stalker out there. Did you catch that? A STALKER.
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick is so good. It's a great mix of mystery, thriller, adventure, lurve and a sexy, sexy, sexy bad boy (or angel...?) named Patch.
P.S in the blurb it says "For Nora is in the middle of a centuries-old battle between the immortal and those that have fallen". The battle wasn't that dramatic so just keep that in mind.
It was still really good! Read it!!!
Of course, the idea of a forbidden-ish love story will always remind us of You-Know-What, but i'm seriously saying that this book is addictive enough for it to be a crime to compare it twilight. It has its own characters and instead of VAMPIRES, its about ANGELS and that makes me happy because angels are as cool, or even more so, than vampires. And yes I have a fetish (unsexual of course) for angels.
Nora Grey is a teenager living in a town somewhere. One day a new transfer student comes and he is... u guessed it: tall, sexy, unreachable yet irresistable and the most intriguing thing: dark. He has a very, very mysterious past.
And that's the next great thing about the book. I'm guessing it can be categorised as a thriller beecause in some parts of the book, I was so scared (in a good way) that I had to close my curtains because i thought I'd see a stalker out there. Did you catch that? A STALKER.
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick is so good. It's a great mix of mystery, thriller, adventure, lurve and a sexy, sexy, sexy bad boy (or angel...?) named Patch.
P.S in the blurb it says "For Nora is in the middle of a centuries-old battle between the immortal and those that have fallen". The battle wasn't that dramatic so just keep that in mind.
It was still really good! Read it!!!
January 31, 2023
4.5 stars
“Don’t ever leave me,” I told Patch, hooking a finger in the collar of his shirt and pulling him close.
“You’re mine, Angel,” he murmured, brushing the words across my jawbone as I arched my neck higher, inviting him to kiss everywhere. “You have me forever.”
“Being with you never felt wrong. It's the one thing I did right. You're the one thing I did right.”
“I love you, Nora. Whatever happens, promise me you'll remember that. I don't care why you came into my life, only that you did. I don't remember all the things I did wrong. I remember what I did right, I remember you. You made my life meaningful. You made my life special.”
This was truly amazing but Nora annoyed me in the entire book :P. The story was intense and I really like some unexpected things :P
P.S. I love Patch
“Don’t ever leave me,” I told Patch, hooking a finger in the collar of his shirt and pulling him close.
“You’re mine, Angel,” he murmured, brushing the words across my jawbone as I arched my neck higher, inviting him to kiss everywhere. “You have me forever.”
“Being with you never felt wrong. It's the one thing I did right. You're the one thing I did right.”
“I love you, Nora. Whatever happens, promise me you'll remember that. I don't care why you came into my life, only that you did. I don't remember all the things I did wrong. I remember what I did right, I remember you. You made my life meaningful. You made my life special.”
This was truly amazing but Nora annoyed me in the entire book :P. The story was intense and I really like some unexpected things :P
P.S. I love Patch
November 12, 2010
Note: This review is rather "harsh" so PLEASE IF YOU LOVE THE BOOK AND DON'T WANT TO READ A RANT REVIEW ABOUT IT PLEASE DON'T READ THIS!!!
S
C
R
O
L
L
D
O
W
N
I
F
Y
O
U
S
T
I
L
L
W
A
N
T
T
O
R
E
A
D
M
Y
R
E
V
I
E
W
This book is a classic example of a horrible imitation of Twilight, Evermore and City of Bones .
Add some cliches, one-dimensional hot guy, annoying, whiny, suicidal, boring, petty, clingy, stalkerish, slutty, stupid female heroine Nora Grey aka The New Bella Swan , with a pinch of Anti-Feminism and damn add that gorgeous silver cover and TADAAAAAAA!
We had this 100% CRAPTASTIC BOOK!!!
If you're in the right mind please don't read this crap it's just twilight with fallen angels instead of sparkly vampires, duh. And seriously do you want to read another book about a Bella Swan character falling for Edward Cullen character for no apparent reason other than the guy is hot?
[image error]
see more Very Demotivational
Seriously Hush hush f*** yourself and bye for good!
And Becca Fitzpatrick, Five words honey...
_____________________
Thoughts Before Reading This Crap
10.19.2010
loved the silver theme of the book covers ^^
I'm freaking jealous, I want my own copy of this T_T
Moment of Jealousy Over. I now have a copy. *evil laugh* I promise I'm going to read this after reading all my books.
S
C
R
O
L
L
D
O
W
N
I
F
Y
O
U
S
T
I
L
L
W
A
N
T
T
O
R
E
A
D
M
Y
R
E
V
I
E
W
This book is a classic example of a horrible imitation of Twilight, Evermore and City of Bones .
Add some cliches, one-dimensional hot guy, annoying, whiny, suicidal, boring, petty, clingy, stalkerish, slutty, stupid female heroine Nora Grey aka The New Bella Swan , with a pinch of Anti-Feminism and damn add that gorgeous silver cover and TADAAAAAAA!
We had this 100% CRAPTASTIC BOOK!!!
If you're in the right mind please don't read this crap it's just twilight with fallen angels instead of sparkly vampires, duh. And seriously do you want to read another book about a Bella Swan character falling for Edward Cullen character for no apparent reason other than the guy is hot?
[image error]
see more Very Demotivational
Seriously Hush hush f*** yourself and bye for good!
And Becca Fitzpatrick, Five words honey...
_____________________
Thoughts Before Reading This Crap
10.19.2010
loved the silver theme of the book covers ^^
Moment of Jealousy Over. I now have a copy. *evil laugh* I promise I'm going to read this after reading all my books.
February 23, 2011
Sometimes, if you're really lucky, a book will teach you a lesson or give you something valuable you can carry with you through your entire life. Crescendo gave me an unexpected gift although lesson might be too generous a term. It's a sort of 'I've been through this so that can't possibly be as bad.' I am no longer afraid of childbirth (or other really painful experiences but specifically childbirth) because I know that the pain of labor does not usually add up to the amount of hours I spent with Crescendo. Also, I'll have drugs to get me through it -- which might have been the only thing that would have made Crescendo a pleasant experience.
Often the second book in a YA trilogy will feel like a filler between novel one and novel three. You usually get to see what it's like when the honeymoon is over so that in book three you can get some sort of affirmation that the characters are indeed soul mates because they made it through all of that and then some.
For Nora and Patch, the honeymoon is indeed over. Nora tells Patch she loves him. He is less than responsive to her delightful confession. I'm sorry, but why are things like this seen as confessions? In the last book she'd been willing to sacrifice herself to give him a chance of what he wanted most, a life as a human. Obviously she loves him. We get it. He gave up the chance at humanity because being human wasn't worth anything without her. Obviously he loves her. We get it. I think these confessional moments come from trying to pace what is supposed to be an extraordinary relationship against social norms and rites of passage because the author loses track of the story's pacing. Fitzpatrick is not the only one guilty of this, but it does make Nora look dimmer than a two watt light bulb to fuss over the word love.
The inevitable fall out of Patch not telling Nora he loves her back with roses and fanfare (you know, more fanfare than him sacrificing what he wanted most for her) is that she breaks up with him. Nora does it mostly out of childish spite because he isn't telling her SECRETS and he doesn't really love her.
Their break up could have been done without. It was just stupid and confusing. Nora can't decide why they're broken up. At one point when they're almost back together Patch tells her that he's going to have go on the run and hide from the archangels because they're going to put him in hell for loving her. Nora walks away rather than risking his soul, but for the rest of the book she wibbles back and forth about the reasons why they're over. Is it because he's keeping secrets from her or because she doesn't want to risk sending him to burn in hell? Later, she wants him to burn in hell, but she doesn't want anyone else's help accomplishing it. Fuck the archangels, she's putting him in hell herself.
Also, my what the fuck moment with all of this: Fallen angels routinely mistreat humans and their half-human offspring. They torture and kill people. Patch was going to murder Nora and get a human soul as a reward for all his effort. That was all okie dokie. The straw that breaks the camels back here -- the freaking thing that will send him to hell is loving her?
Imagine a bunch of archangels chilling in a conference room discussing the matter.
"What do we do about angels who disobey and fall from heaven?"
"Let the fallen angels keep their immortality as punishment muwahaha."
"While they're down there should we let them torture people?"
"Yeah, that's totally within acceptable standards."
"Okay... what about killing people? Should we let them kill people without consequence?"
"Personally, I think they should get a gold star and a human body for that!"
"Agreed, agreed. But what about falling in love?"
"BURN IN HELL!"
What a great way to make the romance forbidden! Look, I get that Angels are not supposed to love humans, that this is the big no-no for this particular supernatural creature, but it seems a little stupid for the archangels to let the fallen angels run rampant and then lose their shit and play the hell card over this.
Other major plot points in no particular order aside from what struck me as totally ridiculous:
So Nora's not her father's biological child... but the entire plot of the first book is based on her being her father's child and having some very specific nephilim blood in her that makes her an acceptable sacrifice in exchange for Patch's soul. How does Fitzpatrick fix this gaping plot hole? She makes her biological father and adoptive father distantly related on the nephilim wave length. Okay. I can tentatively accept this if I stop using 2/3s of my brain. Goodbye 2/3rds, you will be missed when I have to tie my shoes tomorrow morning.
Guys, I could have lived without those 2/3s but Fitzpatrick greedily tries to tax me another 1/3 by giving this explanation for Nora's adoption: her biological father gave her (and her mother, it's so sad I'm not even worked up about this giving business) to her adoptive father to protect her from angels who might want to sacrifice her as the female child of a nephilim.
That's right. Both men are nephilim. Granted, her biological father is MUCH more nephilim than her adoptive father, but apparently her adoptive father was not human enough to have kept Nora safe from Patch in Hush, Hush because Patch wanted to kill her on the basis of being her adoptive father's child or at least that's how it was explained in the first novel. It's disgustingly complicated and stupid. It was clearly NOT the intentions with which the first book was written. This entire subplot about who is really Nora's daddy is about extending what should have just been a stand alone into a trilogy. Milk that money making cow.
There's a scene where NoraDrew and Vee are breaking into a character's bedroom to find out all his mysterious secrets and sniff his laundry. (Nora always comments on laundry when she's busting into someone's house undercover.) In the scene before it Nora instructs Vee to park behind some shrubs. Vee expresses the concern that the car will not make it over a ditch to get to said shrubs. Nora insists and Vee does it. Her car gets stuck in the ditch. They move the car back and forth until they flatten one of the tires on a rock. Without a tidy getaway car, Nora still decides to go through with the plan. I assumed the fact that the car was totally disabled would become part of the plot of the scene -- like their hasty escape is thwarted by the car... but NOPE. Despite all the time Fitzpatrick spends discussing the position of the car, the moving of the car, and the fact that the car is stuck the entire conclusion was calling Triple A later in a throwaway sentence. At this point I was rocking myself in a corner trying not to stomp my nook into rubble.
Speaking of Vee, all the fat jokes in the novel started to piss me off. We get that Vee is heavy. Vee don't need her to suggest food at every turn to reinforce it. If Nora eats one donut Vee eats twelve and the polishes off Nora's leftover one while Nora is outside being flirted with boy of the moment. More examples include: Vee insists on stopping for hot dogs before they go on their NoraDrew mission. This scene is there so Nora can complain about the grease and chemicals and Vee can swoon over the courage endorphins she supposedly gets from them. Again, Nora's food goes uneaten or consumed by someone else. In that same scene Nora demands Vee chase down a car a quarter of a mile. The car arrives at the location, the boy gets upstairs and inside, he has an entire conversation with Nora, Nora goes downstairs, and Vee is still standing by the curb wheezing. For the love of god, we get it. Vee is fat and Nora is slender as a toothpick. Skinny equates good, pretty, worthwhile and every other characteristic you want Nora to have.
Whenever Marcie, the book's mean girl, has a negative comment to make about Nora it's usually not actually about Nora. Marcie routinely calls Vee fat while fighting with Nora as if this somehow negatively reflects upon Nora. (If you ask me it only negatively reflects on Marcie.) Marcie's first scorching remark is that Nora's father's dead. I don't even know how I can begin to explain that this is not an insult. My father died when I was a teenager and if someone had told me my dad was dead as an insult I'm not sure I even would have comprehended they were trying to insult me. If you want to use a dead father as a joke you should say he had a heart attack while in a cheap motel with an even cheaper hooker. Nora is too perfect to insult! The only thing repeated through the book is that she studies too much!!
I could go on and on about everything that was wrong or crappy about this book, but I'm not going to continue subjecting myself to it.
I read this book despite having disliked Hush, Hush because of a blog post the author wrote about negative reviews coming back to haunt the person writing them. The book was bad and I'm not going to be intimidated out of telling people exactly why.
Often the second book in a YA trilogy will feel like a filler between novel one and novel three. You usually get to see what it's like when the honeymoon is over so that in book three you can get some sort of affirmation that the characters are indeed soul mates because they made it through all of that and then some.
For Nora and Patch, the honeymoon is indeed over. Nora tells Patch she loves him. He is less than responsive to her delightful confession. I'm sorry, but why are things like this seen as confessions? In the last book she'd been willing to sacrifice herself to give him a chance of what he wanted most, a life as a human. Obviously she loves him. We get it. He gave up the chance at humanity because being human wasn't worth anything without her. Obviously he loves her. We get it. I think these confessional moments come from trying to pace what is supposed to be an extraordinary relationship against social norms and rites of passage because the author loses track of the story's pacing. Fitzpatrick is not the only one guilty of this, but it does make Nora look dimmer than a two watt light bulb to fuss over the word love.
The inevitable fall out of Patch not telling Nora he loves her back with roses and fanfare (you know, more fanfare than him sacrificing what he wanted most for her) is that she breaks up with him. Nora does it mostly out of childish spite because he isn't telling her SECRETS and he doesn't really love her.
Their break up could have been done without. It was just stupid and confusing. Nora can't decide why they're broken up. At one point when they're almost back together Patch tells her that he's going to have go on the run and hide from the archangels because they're going to put him in hell for loving her. Nora walks away rather than risking his soul, but for the rest of the book she wibbles back and forth about the reasons why they're over. Is it because he's keeping secrets from her or because she doesn't want to risk sending him to burn in hell? Later, she wants him to burn in hell, but she doesn't want anyone else's help accomplishing it. Fuck the archangels, she's putting him in hell herself.
Also, my what the fuck moment with all of this: Fallen angels routinely mistreat humans and their half-human offspring. They torture and kill people. Patch was going to murder Nora and get a human soul as a reward for all his effort. That was all okie dokie. The straw that breaks the camels back here -- the freaking thing that will send him to hell is loving her?
Imagine a bunch of archangels chilling in a conference room discussing the matter.
"What do we do about angels who disobey and fall from heaven?"
"Let the fallen angels keep their immortality as punishment muwahaha."
"While they're down there should we let them torture people?"
"Yeah, that's totally within acceptable standards."
"Okay... what about killing people? Should we let them kill people without consequence?"
"Personally, I think they should get a gold star and a human body for that!"
"Agreed, agreed. But what about falling in love?"
"BURN IN HELL!"
What a great way to make the romance forbidden! Look, I get that Angels are not supposed to love humans, that this is the big no-no for this particular supernatural creature, but it seems a little stupid for the archangels to let the fallen angels run rampant and then lose their shit and play the hell card over this.
Other major plot points in no particular order aside from what struck me as totally ridiculous:
So Nora's not her father's biological child... but the entire plot of the first book is based on her being her father's child and having some very specific nephilim blood in her that makes her an acceptable sacrifice in exchange for Patch's soul. How does Fitzpatrick fix this gaping plot hole? She makes her biological father and adoptive father distantly related on the nephilim wave length. Okay. I can tentatively accept this if I stop using 2/3s of my brain. Goodbye 2/3rds, you will be missed when I have to tie my shoes tomorrow morning.
Guys, I could have lived without those 2/3s but Fitzpatrick greedily tries to tax me another 1/3 by giving this explanation for Nora's adoption: her biological father gave her (and her mother, it's so sad I'm not even worked up about this giving business) to her adoptive father to protect her from angels who might want to sacrifice her as the female child of a nephilim.
That's right. Both men are nephilim. Granted, her biological father is MUCH more nephilim than her adoptive father, but apparently her adoptive father was not human enough to have kept Nora safe from Patch in Hush, Hush because Patch wanted to kill her on the basis of being her adoptive father's child or at least that's how it was explained in the first novel. It's disgustingly complicated and stupid. It was clearly NOT the intentions with which the first book was written. This entire subplot about who is really Nora's daddy is about extending what should have just been a stand alone into a trilogy. Milk that money making cow.
There's a scene where NoraDrew and Vee are breaking into a character's bedroom to find out all his mysterious secrets and sniff his laundry. (Nora always comments on laundry when she's busting into someone's house undercover.) In the scene before it Nora instructs Vee to park behind some shrubs. Vee expresses the concern that the car will not make it over a ditch to get to said shrubs. Nora insists and Vee does it. Her car gets stuck in the ditch. They move the car back and forth until they flatten one of the tires on a rock. Without a tidy getaway car, Nora still decides to go through with the plan. I assumed the fact that the car was totally disabled would become part of the plot of the scene -- like their hasty escape is thwarted by the car... but NOPE. Despite all the time Fitzpatrick spends discussing the position of the car, the moving of the car, and the fact that the car is stuck the entire conclusion was calling Triple A later in a throwaway sentence. At this point I was rocking myself in a corner trying not to stomp my nook into rubble.
Speaking of Vee, all the fat jokes in the novel started to piss me off. We get that Vee is heavy. Vee don't need her to suggest food at every turn to reinforce it. If Nora eats one donut Vee eats twelve and the polishes off Nora's leftover one while Nora is outside being flirted with boy of the moment. More examples include: Vee insists on stopping for hot dogs before they go on their NoraDrew mission. This scene is there so Nora can complain about the grease and chemicals and Vee can swoon over the courage endorphins she supposedly gets from them. Again, Nora's food goes uneaten or consumed by someone else. In that same scene Nora demands Vee chase down a car a quarter of a mile. The car arrives at the location, the boy gets upstairs and inside, he has an entire conversation with Nora, Nora goes downstairs, and Vee is still standing by the curb wheezing. For the love of god, we get it. Vee is fat and Nora is slender as a toothpick. Skinny equates good, pretty, worthwhile and every other characteristic you want Nora to have.
Whenever Marcie, the book's mean girl, has a negative comment to make about Nora it's usually not actually about Nora. Marcie routinely calls Vee fat while fighting with Nora as if this somehow negatively reflects upon Nora. (If you ask me it only negatively reflects on Marcie.) Marcie's first scorching remark is that Nora's father's dead. I don't even know how I can begin to explain that this is not an insult. My father died when I was a teenager and if someone had told me my dad was dead as an insult I'm not sure I even would have comprehended they were trying to insult me. If you want to use a dead father as a joke you should say he had a heart attack while in a cheap motel with an even cheaper hooker. Nora is too perfect to insult! The only thing repeated through the book is that she studies too much!!
I could go on and on about everything that was wrong or crappy about this book, but I'm not going to continue subjecting myself to it.
I read this book despite having disliked Hush, Hush because of a blog post the author wrote about negative reviews coming back to haunt the person writing them. The book was bad and I'm not going to be intimidated out of telling people exactly why.
August 31, 2017
Okay okay, so this book kept having plot twists over plot twists, I kinda liked that in the beggining, but at the end I was like: NO WAY, ANOTHER ONE? Well, that doesn't mean I don't like surprises, but this was too much to take in.
EDIT: I just read the summary of the third book. WTF? She doesn't remember anything. DEAR GOD. I think this next book is going to make me want to kill someone.
EDIT: I just read the summary of the third book. WTF? She doesn't remember anything. DEAR GOD. I think this next book is going to make me want to kill someone.
February 5, 2018
Someone please pass me that voodoo doll? I have to hurt Nora.
Thank you. I'm feeling better now.
I’ve spent the last 8 hours gulping down this book. My fingernails are bitten down, my eyes are red-rimmed, my hair is all tousled because I kept pulling it...basically, I look like a lunatic.
Well, that Nora’s acting beyond stupid in this book has already been established by several readers so I will not waste my breath on this and get all worked up again. I’ve thrown my book across the room several times today already. Enough with the violence.
Nora is a major pain in the ass in this book. Period.
Then there’s Patch. God, even though I know I shouldn't, I've totally got the hots for him. *ducks head in shame*
I really can’t come up with much to say right now, because I’m way too exhausted (sorry Kim) but I think I liked this much more than I was supposed to. What a ride! Guess I like to torture myself... So, if you feel like throwing a fit for hours while reading, I'd recommend you to give Crescendo a shot.
Thank you. I'm feeling better now.
I’ve spent the last 8 hours gulping down this book. My fingernails are bitten down, my eyes are red-rimmed, my hair is all tousled because I kept pulling it...basically, I look like a lunatic.
Well, that Nora’s acting beyond stupid in this book has already been established by several readers so I will not waste my breath on this and get all worked up again. I’ve thrown my book across the room several times today already. Enough with the violence.
Nora is a major pain in the ass in this book. Period.
Then there’s Patch. God, even though I know I shouldn't, I've totally got the hots for him. *ducks head in shame*
I really can’t come up with much to say right now, because I’m way too exhausted (sorry Kim) but I think I liked this much more than I was supposed to. What a ride! Guess I like to torture myself... So, if you feel like throwing a fit for hours while reading, I'd recommend you to give Crescendo a shot.
August 28, 2019
3.5/5 stars.
I don't believe that the book ends like this! Lucky I have the sequels now so I can start straight the third book.
Current Book Review:
To be honest, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the first book in the series.
At first, I felt that the book had no plot or meaning at all. Then, Patch started acting like a dick and I felt how my affection for him was gone.
Anyway, I must say, that towards the end of the book, the plot is quite dragged. The ending was interesting and left a taste for more.
I don't believe that the book ends like this! Lucky I have the sequels now so I can start straight the third book.
Current Book Review:
To be honest, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the first book in the series.
At first, I felt that the book had no plot or meaning at all. Then, Patch started acting like a dick and I felt how my affection for him was gone.
Anyway, I must say, that towards the end of the book, the plot is quite dragged. The ending was interesting and left a taste for more.
April 15, 2016
My brain, guys. My brain.
Reading this book is the equivalent to listening to Vogon poetry. It may not liquify your brain (not yet anyways. Give it another two books), but it will lead to a massive decrease in brain cells.
First off, the plot.
Hold on a sec. Plot? What plot?
Crescendo is not so much a story about hostile archangels and the opposing Nephilim than it is about a girl breaking up with her boyfriend and immediately wants him back.
And let's not forget the slutty bitch that he gets together with afterwards.
Two-thirds of the book is relationship drama. Nora breaks up with Patch near the beginning to protect him because apparently, their love is forbidden and Patch might get his cocky ass sent to hell. But the archangels are totally okay with Patch and Marcie because hey, it's just lust. It's not like it's one of the seven sins or anything.
After breaking up with the epic love of her life, Nora proceeds to spend every other page whining about how Patch doesn't love her anymore and how he has the audacity to move on with her archenemy, Marcie. Patch would come around a few times, trying to patch things up (see what I did there) and Nora would send him away because her will is strong. She does not want to shop—I mean, get back together with her ex.
Yet she still expects Patch to stick around even after she finds a new boy toy. Because no means yes, donchaknow?
I felt a hard smile cross my face as I realized it didn't matter what I did, or what Scott might do; Patch had to protect me.
News flash, Nora, Patch doesn't have to do squat. He's a guardian angel, not a trained dog. Though it'd take a entire militia to protect Nora from herself because the girl is as dumb as a doornail.
There's this secret Nephilim club called The Black Hand and instead using the Internet like a normal person to dig up info on it, she ponders the 5Ws endlessly in her mind: What does this have to do with my dad? Where are the headquarters? When will I get off my ass to do some research like the studious character I'm supposed to be?
Screenshot from this video
It's called Wikipedia, Nora. Have you heard of it?
When Nora isn't wallowing in self-pity, she does her best to make other people's lives miserable. Namely, her best friend Vee.
There is not a single scene in which Vee shows up and is not slapped with the fat card:
"I had never seen Vee just eat one doughnut, but I kept my mouth shut."
"'You probably called [the police]!"
'Who, me?' Vee said. "And lose the free food. No way."
"Vee:'Like I said, I think we should stop by Skippy's [for hot dogs]."
'I already had pasta for dinner.'
'Pasta isn't very filling.'
'Pasta is very filling'
'Yeah, but not in the way mustard and relish are,' Vee argued."
Or painted out as a horrible friend:
"Vee was my best friend, but she had a big mouth."
"'Not. But you know Vee. Always there to make an uncomfortable situation ten times worse," I muttered under my breath."
"Right now, Vee was the only person I could count on. She could be obnoxious, annoying and lazy, but she never lied to me."
That's a great way to think about the person who gives you free rides, stands up for you in front of your archenemy and comforts you when you're sad about your deceased dad. Vee is a fantastic friend if a tad boy-possessed. Nora, on the other hand, ignores her calls in favor of Patch, weight-shames her and drags her into bat-shit crazy missions to stalk her ex. A true friend indeed.
And there is no concrete reason for Marcie to hate Nora. Oh sure, we find later that It reminds me of this article by B&N:
Sign seven that you may be living in a YA novel: You have an archnemesis. We hate to break it to you, but most people don’t have to deal with someone who is single-mindedly devoted to ruining their life. This goes double if you were inadvertently responsible for your archnemesis becoming a mutant/losing control of their space colony/falling out of their dress at prom.
Marcie exists because every YA novel needs a slutty Plastic to contrast against the holier-than-thou heroine.
Fair warning for those who are planning to read this: it ends on a cliffhanger, presumably to get us readers in a tizzy fit for the next book. My verdict?
Me and my brain cells are jumping ship. Laters.
Reading this book is the equivalent to listening to Vogon poetry. It may not liquify your brain (not yet anyways. Give it another two books), but it will lead to a massive decrease in brain cells.
First off, the plot.
Hold on a sec. Plot? What plot?
Crescendo is not so much a story about hostile archangels and the opposing Nephilim than it is about a girl breaking up with her boyfriend and immediately wants him back.
And let's not forget the slutty bitch that he gets together with afterwards.
Two-thirds of the book is relationship drama. Nora breaks up with Patch near the beginning to protect him because apparently, their love is forbidden and Patch might get his cocky ass sent to hell. But the archangels are totally okay with Patch and Marcie because hey, it's just lust. It's not like it's one of the seven sins or anything.
After breaking up with the epic love of her life, Nora proceeds to spend every other page whining about how Patch doesn't love her anymore and how he has the audacity to move on with her archenemy, Marcie. Patch would come around a few times, trying to patch things up (see what I did there) and Nora would send him away because her will is strong. She does not want to shop—I mean, get back together with her ex.
Yet she still expects Patch to stick around even after she finds a new boy toy. Because no means yes, donchaknow?
I felt a hard smile cross my face as I realized it didn't matter what I did, or what Scott might do; Patch had to protect me.
News flash, Nora, Patch doesn't have to do squat. He's a guardian angel, not a trained dog. Though it'd take a entire militia to protect Nora from herself because the girl is as dumb as a doornail.
There's this secret Nephilim club called The Black Hand and instead using the Internet like a normal person to dig up info on it, she ponders the 5Ws endlessly in her mind: What does this have to do with my dad? Where are the headquarters? When will I get off my ass to do some research like the studious character I'm supposed to be?
Screenshot from this video
It's called Wikipedia, Nora. Have you heard of it?
When Nora isn't wallowing in self-pity, she does her best to make other people's lives miserable. Namely, her best friend Vee.
There is not a single scene in which Vee shows up and is not slapped with the fat card:
"I had never seen Vee just eat one doughnut, but I kept my mouth shut."
"'You probably called [the police]!"
'Who, me?' Vee said. "And lose the free food. No way."
"Vee:'Like I said, I think we should stop by Skippy's [for hot dogs]."
'I already had pasta for dinner.'
'Pasta isn't very filling.'
'Pasta is very filling'
'Yeah, but not in the way mustard and relish are,' Vee argued."
Or painted out as a horrible friend:
"Vee was my best friend, but she had a big mouth."
"'Not. But you know Vee. Always there to make an uncomfortable situation ten times worse," I muttered under my breath."
"Right now, Vee was the only person I could count on. She could be obnoxious, annoying and lazy, but she never lied to me."
That's a great way to think about the person who gives you free rides, stands up for you in front of your archenemy and comforts you when you're sad about your deceased dad. Vee is a fantastic friend if a tad boy-possessed. Nora, on the other hand, ignores her calls in favor of Patch, weight-shames her and drags her into bat-shit crazy missions to stalk her ex. A true friend indeed.
And there is no concrete reason for Marcie to hate Nora. Oh sure, we find later that It reminds me of this article by B&N:
Sign seven that you may be living in a YA novel: You have an archnemesis. We hate to break it to you, but most people don’t have to deal with someone who is single-mindedly devoted to ruining their life. This goes double if you were inadvertently responsible for your archnemesis becoming a mutant/losing control of their space colony/falling out of their dress at prom.
Marcie exists because every YA novel needs a slutty Plastic to contrast against the holier-than-thou heroine.
Fair warning for those who are planning to read this: it ends on a cliffhanger, presumably to get us readers in a tizzy fit for the next book. My verdict?
Me and my brain cells are jumping ship. Laters.
February 14, 2018
The only thing a boyfriend was good for was a shattered heart.
Well, this is a book full of drama:
-teenage desperation,
-lost and found love,
-lies and secrets,
-truths and revelations,
-broken trust,
-broken friendship
-dream walking
-mistakes from the past that haunt the future
Patch behaves like an irrational jerk:
Firstly he behaves like he does not care, then he chases Nora, then he betrays her, then he invades her dreams, then he destroys her dreams, then he gives no explanations, then he tries to explain without making any sence, then he tries to win her back, then he pushes her away, then he tells her how much he cares.
"You're the one thing I did right."
Nora behaves like a normal heartbroken teenager:
Firstly she says "I love you", then she thinks it is a mistake and she tries to take it back, then she gets angry and feels used, then she tries to understand,then she pushes Patch away, then she forgives but not forgets, then she demands explanations, then she cries, then she tries to get over him, then she is lost in her other problems, then she misses him.
"I love you," I murmured. "More than I think I should."
The secondary characters are once more very much interesting:
1. Nora's father Harrison. It is not a coincidence that the book starts with his death.
2. Marcie Millar, her bitchy classmate. Is there a reason that she is so bitchy with Nora? What on earth Patch does with her?
3. Marcie's father. Mentioned frequently, appeared just once. One time was actually enough. I have a feeling that we will definitely see more of him in book 3.
4. Vee, Nora's friend. She will have boyfriend troubles again. Possibly she is an asshole magnet. And let's leave it there.
5. Scott Parnell, Nora' childhood friend (hahaha, yeah right...). Is he a bad guy? He will surely get Nora into trouble and Patch hates him. Not that Nora is a fan of him.
6. Rixon, Patch's best friend. He will play a central role in this book.
7. Last but not least, Nora's mother. She has a lot of explanations to give.
And the big secret of the book:
4 stars for the story and 1 extra star for the awesome bookcover.
And I am ready for book 3.
May 27, 2020
”They said the moment I fell in love with you was the moment you’d leave”.
[2,75]
Ay, dioses del Olimpo. Quisiera viajar en el tiempo y entender por qué hace tantos años le di cinco estrellas a este libro. Sí, apenas me estaba volviendo súper lectora y no conocía muchas sagas, pero… wow, cómo cambiamos con el paso de los años.
Por si no lo saben, estoy haciendo un experimento en el que releo y vloggeo toda mi experiencia con los cuatro libros de Hush Hush casi diez años después de la primera vez que los leí. Y es tremenda la diferencia que he sentido con esta experiencia.
Crescendo empieza dos meses después del incidente con Jules en el gimnasio del instituto en donde Nora se sacrificó para que Patch volviera a ser humano, pero él rechazó ese sacrificio y, a cambio, se volvió el ángel guardián de Nora. El problema aquí es que a los arcángeles no les hace mucha gracia que uno de los suyos se enamore de una Nefilim, así que Nora y Patch tienen que llevar con mucho secretismo su relación. La cosa se empieza a poner tensa cuando Nora se desespera de esa actitud, termina con Patch y entra en una espiral absurda que la lleva a escuchar la voz de su padre muerto, redescubrir a su amigo de la infancia Scott y a ser más paranoica que nunca.
A decir verdad, este libro tiene unos giros bastante interesantes en lo que se refiere a Nefilims, secretos sobre el asesinato del papá de Nora y otros asuntos turbios con los arcángeles y un grupo llamado la Mano Negra. Hay muchas revelaciones que, afortunadamente, le dan mucho más ritmo a Crescendo del que tuvo Hush Hush.
Ahora, mi mayor problema con este tomo es que si bien los giros te enganchan a la historia, Nora hace que quieras tirar el libro por la ventana. ¡QUÉ MUJER TAN ABSOLUTAMENTE LOCA Y DESESPERANTE, JODER! Es que, de verdad, está demente. Lleva dos meses saliendo con Patch, dos meses, y en un arranque de hormonas le dice que lo ama, que no quiere vivir sin él, que su vida es mejor desde que lo conoció y que por favor nunca la deja sola. Y luego empieza a pensar que él es inmortal y su relación no sería compatible y que ella siempre quiso hijos y un montón de cosas, pero que puede dejar de lado sus sueños por él. ¿PERO QUÉ DEMONIOS LE PASA A ESA NIÑA? Por todos los dioses, creo que no tiene ni 16 años y ya basa toda su vida en un tío que conoció hace dos meses. Chica, pues con toda la razón Patch se espanta un poco cuando le haces tremendo show. En fin, que sí, que Nora es tonta, desesperante, toma decisiones de “venganza” fatales y… bueno, que tiene 15 años.
Por otra parte, sí que tengo que aceptar que me emocioné en un par de momentos que tuvieron Patch y Nora (cuando ella no estaba siendo una psicópata loca), sobre todo en la escena en la que él se mete en sus sueños y en la escena final cuando por fin la lleva a su casa. Creo que en ese momento mi yo de 15 o 16 años salió a la superficie y fangirleó un poco. Y también debo conceder que el final es muy shockeante con todo esto de que Hank Millar es realmente el padre de Nora y que, además, es la Mano Negra.
[2,75]
Ay, dioses del Olimpo. Quisiera viajar en el tiempo y entender por qué hace tantos años le di cinco estrellas a este libro. Sí, apenas me estaba volviendo súper lectora y no conocía muchas sagas, pero… wow, cómo cambiamos con el paso de los años.
Por si no lo saben, estoy haciendo un experimento en el que releo y vloggeo toda mi experiencia con los cuatro libros de Hush Hush casi diez años después de la primera vez que los leí. Y es tremenda la diferencia que he sentido con esta experiencia.
Crescendo empieza dos meses después del incidente con Jules en el gimnasio del instituto en donde Nora se sacrificó para que Patch volviera a ser humano, pero él rechazó ese sacrificio y, a cambio, se volvió el ángel guardián de Nora. El problema aquí es que a los arcángeles no les hace mucha gracia que uno de los suyos se enamore de una Nefilim, así que Nora y Patch tienen que llevar con mucho secretismo su relación. La cosa se empieza a poner tensa cuando Nora se desespera de esa actitud, termina con Patch y entra en una espiral absurda que la lleva a escuchar la voz de su padre muerto, redescubrir a su amigo de la infancia Scott y a ser más paranoica que nunca.
A decir verdad, este libro tiene unos giros bastante interesantes en lo que se refiere a Nefilims, secretos sobre el asesinato del papá de Nora y otros asuntos turbios con los arcángeles y un grupo llamado la Mano Negra. Hay muchas revelaciones que, afortunadamente, le dan mucho más ritmo a Crescendo del que tuvo Hush Hush.
Ahora, mi mayor problema con este tomo es que si bien los giros te enganchan a la historia, Nora hace que quieras tirar el libro por la ventana. ¡QUÉ MUJER TAN ABSOLUTAMENTE LOCA Y DESESPERANTE, JODER! Es que, de verdad, está demente. Lleva dos meses saliendo con Patch, dos meses, y en un arranque de hormonas le dice que lo ama, que no quiere vivir sin él, que su vida es mejor desde que lo conoció y que por favor nunca la deja sola. Y luego empieza a pensar que él es inmortal y su relación no sería compatible y que ella siempre quiso hijos y un montón de cosas, pero que puede dejar de lado sus sueños por él. ¿PERO QUÉ DEMONIOS LE PASA A ESA NIÑA? Por todos los dioses, creo que no tiene ni 16 años y ya basa toda su vida en un tío que conoció hace dos meses. Chica, pues con toda la razón Patch se espanta un poco cuando le haces tremendo show. En fin, que sí, que Nora es tonta, desesperante, toma decisiones de “venganza” fatales y… bueno, que tiene 15 años.
Por otra parte, sí que tengo que aceptar que me emocioné en un par de momentos que tuvieron Patch y Nora (cuando ella no estaba siendo una psicópata loca), sobre todo en la escena en la que él se mete en sus sueños y en la escena final cuando por fin la lleva a su casa. Creo que en ese momento mi yo de 15 o 16 años salió a la superficie y fangirleó un poco. Y también debo conceder que el final es muy shockeante con todo esto de que Hank Millar es realmente el padre de Nora y que, además, es la Mano Negra.
February 22, 2011
Wow. I mean, wow. I used to think Hush, Hush was the worst book ever written, and then I was stupid enough to read Fallen and Torment, and I realized there was a whole deeper level of shit an "author" (again, term used loosely) could achieve. So I picked up Crescendo thinking, "Well, at least it's not Fallen, right?"
Now, Lauren Kate is a shitty author. This has been established. Her writing is ... bizarre, her characterization maddening, her plotting more aptly described as "plodding." Maybe it was a case of "grass is always greener," or maybe it was a case of delayed Stockholm Syndrome, but I started reading Becca Fitzpatrick's sequel thinking, "Hey, this isn't as bad as I remember! Because I've been through the Fallen Torment of Lauren Kate!"
I think Becca Fitzpatrick is mildly a better writer than Lauren Kate. But this is like saying I think tuberculosis is mildly better than the ebola virus.* At least Fitzpatrick doesn't have the annoying habit of saying, "[Thing] was both [adjective] and [adjective's antonym] at the same time." The two authors seem to be cut from the same [gaudy, nausea-inducing] cloth, however, in terms ofplodding plotting:
◆ Dippy heroine? Check.
◆ Endless nothingness for the first 300-ish pages of book before slamming so much plot and twisty twists in your face that you need an airsickness bag? Check.
◆ Crappy copy of crappy Twilight? Check.
◆ Love interest mysterious and brooding and possibly evil? Check.
◆ Constant fighting between heroine and love interest due simply to lack of honest communication and braindead-ness of heroine? Check.
◆ Twisty twist wherein THE PERSON YOU TRUST THE MOST IS ZOMG THE BAD GUY LIKE I MEAN REALLY? Check.
Let's try to make sense of the plot here. I'm writing this not so much for your benefit, but for me to figure out if I really did read all that shit.
Nora and the ever-so-sexily-named "Patch" are ♥♥♥ in love ♥♥♥. There's this bitchy girl Marcie who, while briefly mentioned in
Twi, Light
Hush, Hush as "bitchy," now is like Nora's personal scourge. Like a guardian angel, except sent to belittle and humiliate her constantly. She seems to hate Nora (and not for the reader's reasons like "too fucking stupid to live").
Patch is Nora's guardian angel. They're all like, "ZOMG I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH, NO I LOVE YOU MORE, LET US KISS." Then, one night, Patch gives Nora his silver necklace. She returns with a ring her dead father gave her the week he was TRAGICALLY, SENSELESSLY SHOT TO DEATH. This is supposed to, like, SEAL THEIR ENDLESS LOVE. She tells Patch she loves him, and he freaks out and runs away, looking off toward the woods.
Oh noes! Patch has commitment issues! He doesn't love her! He is freaked out because she said she loves him!
He eventually tells her that the archangels are watching him, that he can't let his feelings get too strong, or they'll cast him into hell. Um, what? I have no idea. Oh, and also, did you know angels can't feel physical sensation? Or maybe only when it's all lusty? So when he kisses her, he feels ... nothing. He makes like he wants to bang her, but ... he would feel nothing. In addition, Nora finds out Patch went to Marcie's house after Nora's declaration of love.
Nora thinks that there's no way they can possibly work if he's going to be cast into hell for loving her, so she breaks up with him. Instead of saying, "I care too much about you to have that happen" or "I'm not sure what kind of future I can have if loving you only endangers your eternal salvation," Nora focuses on Patch's being at Marcie's house and how he is tight-lipped about it. "You're a jerk!" she says.
As this is the second book of a Twilight rip-off, Crescendo has fulfilled the "New Moon" requirement of BIG BREAKUP OF TWUE WUV COUPLE. Check and check.
Then begins Nora's Epic Journey of Stupidity. Scott Parnell, a childhood friend of Nora's, has just moved back to town with his mom. He's secretive and dangerous and comes off like he has serious 'roid rage. Also important, there is a gang of Nephilim (I SWEAR I AM GOING TO PUNCH THE NEXT PERSON TO USE "NEPHILIM" IN A BOOK) who are sick of the whole "fallen angels get to possess my body for two weeks during this Hebrew month of I-Totally-Made-This-Up" thing. Oh, and Scott's a Nephil. He's also an asshole, so naturally, Nora starts hanging out with him--especially since it seems to piss Patch off.
"New Moon" requirement of INSERT SECOND BOY FOR REBOUND JEALOUSY MAKING STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE. Check and check.
Whenever Patch and Nora meet, she has the most annoying inner monologue ever about how much she misses him, how she shouldn't have said whatever, that she loves him and blah blah blah blah, but all she says out loud is stuff to hurt him. She tells him she doesn't want him as her guardian angel anymore. She keeps questioning his involvement with Marcie, and okay, come on. THE BOY WAS GOING TO KILL YOU IN THE LAST BOOK, BUT HE FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU, AND WHEN YOU [STUPIDLY] SACRIFICED YOURSELF, HE CHOSE TO SAVE YOU INSTEAD OF BECOMING HUMAN, WHICH WAS HIS GOAL IN THE FIRST PLACE. To me that would be pretty good proof that a fallen angel loves you, you know, about as much as a fallen angel can. But no, it also means that you don't LEND YOUR BASEBALL CAP TO YOUR TRUE LOVE'S BITCHY NEMESIS BECAUSE OMG YOU JUST DON'T THAT'S THE FIRST RULE OF FEMINISM.
It should also be mentioned that Nora's vapid, boy-crazy friend Vee (short for "Vee Dee," I think) has been set up by Patch with his good fallen angel buddy Rixon. Nora hangs out with them, feeling third-wheel-ish. One day she gets an envelope with a note and a ring of a black hand. "THIS RING BELONGS TO THE BLACK HAND. HE KILLED YOUR FATHER." Oh, you crazy kids.
Who is THE BLACK HAND?
Randomly, Nora starts seeing her dead father around, and chases him down dark alleys and abandoned homes. Naturally, she puts herself into danger because when you see your dead dad who was TRAGICALLY SHOT PERHAPS BY THE BLACK HAND, regardless that in previous times BAD ANGEL PEOPLE HAVE PUT RANDOM THOUGHTS INTO YOUR HEAD AND MADE YOU THINK SHIT WAS HAPPENING THAT WAS NOT HAPPENING, this is totally different, especially since your dead dad has got to be alive because you SEE HIM and you just KNOW this is real.
She also gets, like, fallen-angel-roofied via scented apology card and chased around a library (libraries are here to remind us that NORA IS SMART N SHIT).
She finds another THE BLACK HAND ring in Scott's room (because she totally thought it would be a good idea to snoop around his room even with his roid rage). Scott's hellbent (no pun intended) on getting the ring back. Says if he doesn't get it back, THE BLACK HAND will find him and kill him.
She also snoops in Marcie's room and finds Marcie's diary. But she doesn't read it, because ... I don't know.
Oh yeah, and one day at the beach Rixon tells Nora that "the Black Hand" is an old nickname of Patch's. Dun dun dun. Nora uses her SUPER SNEAKY SMARTY SKILLS to trick Rixon into telling her where Patch lives (he is, for no good reason at all, exceptionally evasive about where he lives).
Somewhere in here, Patch starts visiting Nora in dreams. And then you get the special flashback-within-a-dream-sequence device, and again, I have no fucking clue.
Now that Nora knows where Patch lives, she sneaks over there. Everything smells of rotting food and stuff, and she finds a whole fucking BOX O' THE BLACK HAND RINGS. And then she hears someone come into the apartment and plant sticks of dynamite. She gets out of the building just before it blows sky high. Again: no idea.
Somewhere in here she also goes back to Marcie's house, and Marcie sees her holding her stolen diary. She finally reveals why she hates Nora so much: Nora's mom has been having an affair with Marcie's dad, and they might be sisters. Oookay.
It all culminates in a showdown at the Delphic, the shitty amusement park from the first book. Scott is chasing down Nora to get the THE BLACK HAND ring back, Nora is ... I don't know what she's trying to do. Cops are involved. Scott chases Nora down, then gets shot by Rixon, and Rixon says he's here to save Nora, that they should wait in the underground tunnels below the funhouse because they'll be safe from Scott, and after an "Angel of Death" "stops time" on behalf of NORA'S DEAD FATHER, his heretofore unexplained ghostly presence tells Nora to touch Rixon's scars. In doing so, Nora discovers that oops, Rixon is the bad guy. I SAID IT. RIXON IS THE BAD GUY! RUN, NORA!
So it turns out Rixon sent the fallen-angel-roofie note, the THE BLACK HAND note, and lied to her about both a) Patch's domicile and b) Patch's being THE BLACK HAND. His motive? Rixon's vessel Nephil dude is also related to Nora, as in, HE IS HER FATHER. He's also Marcie's dad. So Nora's biodad is Marcie's dad, who is one of the Nephilim. For some reason he hid Nora away, got his college BFF to marry the babymama and pass the baby off as his own. So it turns out that while Patch was out to kill Nora in the first book because killing the ... heir (?) of his Nephil vessel would make him human, Rixon wanted the same thing, because she's the heir to HIS Nephilessel as well! And Marcie ... isn't Nephilimy enough for his sacrificing purposes? Again: I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS CRAZY FITZPATRICK LOGIC.
Patch saves the day, somehow. I dunno. He says he sent Rixon to hell. He says he suspected Rixon all along, which is why he set Vee up with him, so he could keep a better eye on him. Uh, WHAT? You use your love's [extremely irritating] BFF as bait to draw out psychopathic fallen angel? That's kind of a dick move.
Patch takes Nora to his real house, which is in that shitty Delphic park, since it was, like, made by fallen angels, for fallen angels? Or something? Anyway, they declare their love for each other, Patch says he's going to go rogue no matter what, and then Marcie's dad jumps out at them from behind a door or some shit and says, "I AM THE BLACK HAND MWAH HA HA HA HA HA." THE END!
So, uh. I really. Um. No. What? I have no idea what's going on. Basically just flip to p. 399 of the hardcover, where Rixon does that classic "bad guy explains it all exposition exposition bullshit" maneuver.
I'm sorry this review makes no sense. I was trying to lay out the plot points, but I kept getting lost. So instead I'll close with some examples of Becca Fitzpatrick's finest prose.
- "Patch's eyes were slate black, darker than a million secrets stacked on top of each other." I like dark eyes of stacked secrets like I love the neverending pancake buffet at IHOP.
- "She was caught in the crossfire when a group of fallen angels tried to force a Nephil to swear fealty inside the men's room at Bo's Arcade."
- "The following morning, I dragged myself out of bed, and after a quick stint in the bathroom that included dabbing on under-eye concealer and spritzing my hair with curl revitalizer, I moseyed into the kitchen to find my mom already seated at the table." It's important to know that she "spritzed" the curl revitalizer--I mean, you don't want to use a heavy [THE BLACK] hand with curl revitalizer.
- "... I snatched my discarded tights from the floor. I tightened them between my hands." So, you tightened your ... tights?
- "I settled on a box of bow-tie pasta and a jar of sausage spaghetti sauce. When the stove timer beeped, I drained the pasta, poured myself a bowl, and stuck the sauce in the microwave. We were out of Parmesan, so I grated cheddar and called it good. The microwave chimed, and I spooned layers of sauce and cheese on top of the pasta." BUT HOW MANY LAYERS? YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HANGING LIKE THAT, BECCA FITZPATRICK!
- "In my bedroom, I squeezed into a pair of toothpick jeans, pulled on a graphic tee and cardigan, and finished the look with suede driving mocs. I smoothed my hair into a low ponytail, offsetting it so it hung over my right shoulder. Having not slept in more than a full day, my eyes were ringed by smoky circles. I brushed on mascara, silver eye shadow, and lip gloss."
I swear she's just copying and pasting this shit from the makeup-tips column of various women's magazines. Oh, and by the by, the above quote is why I have renamed this book Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Suede Driving Mocs.
Oh, oh, and let's not forget:
- "The tang of fear and panic was on my clothes, and I left them in a heap on the floor." I hate how fear and panic are so tangy. I also leave my tangy fear and panic in a heap on the floor.
Will I read the third book? THE BLACK HAND MADE ME SWEAR FEALTY TO THE TRILOGY OF SHIT, AND I MUST OBEY.
*This analogy freely borrowed from Anthony Lane's The New Yorker review of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith: The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion. [See: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005...]
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005...
Now, Lauren Kate is a shitty author. This has been established. Her writing is ... bizarre, her characterization maddening, her plotting more aptly described as "plodding." Maybe it was a case of "grass is always greener," or maybe it was a case of delayed Stockholm Syndrome, but I started reading Becca Fitzpatrick's sequel thinking, "Hey, this isn't as bad as I remember! Because I've been through the Fallen Torment of Lauren Kate!"
I think Becca Fitzpatrick is mildly a better writer than Lauren Kate. But this is like saying I think tuberculosis is mildly better than the ebola virus.* At least Fitzpatrick doesn't have the annoying habit of saying, "[Thing] was both [adjective] and [adjective's antonym] at the same time." The two authors seem to be cut from the same [gaudy, nausea-inducing] cloth, however, in terms of
◆ Dippy heroine? Check.
◆ Endless nothingness for the first 300-ish pages of book before slamming so much plot and twisty twists in your face that you need an airsickness bag? Check.
◆ Crappy copy of crappy Twilight? Check.
◆ Love interest mysterious and brooding and possibly evil? Check.
◆ Constant fighting between heroine and love interest due simply to lack of honest communication and braindead-ness of heroine? Check.
◆ Twisty twist wherein THE PERSON YOU TRUST THE MOST IS ZOMG THE BAD GUY LIKE I MEAN REALLY? Check.
Let's try to make sense of the plot here. I'm writing this not so much for your benefit, but for me to figure out if I really did read all that shit.
Nora and the ever-so-sexily-named "Patch" are ♥♥♥ in love ♥♥♥. There's this bitchy girl Marcie who, while briefly mentioned in
Patch is Nora's guardian angel. They're all like, "ZOMG I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH, NO I LOVE YOU MORE, LET US KISS." Then, one night, Patch gives Nora his silver necklace. She returns with a ring her dead father gave her the week he was TRAGICALLY, SENSELESSLY SHOT TO DEATH. This is supposed to, like, SEAL THEIR ENDLESS LOVE. She tells Patch she loves him, and he freaks out and runs away, looking off toward the woods.
Oh noes! Patch has commitment issues! He doesn't love her! He is freaked out because she said she loves him!
He eventually tells her that the archangels are watching him, that he can't let his feelings get too strong, or they'll cast him into hell. Um, what? I have no idea. Oh, and also, did you know angels can't feel physical sensation? Or maybe only when it's all lusty? So when he kisses her, he feels ... nothing. He makes like he wants to bang her, but ... he would feel nothing. In addition, Nora finds out Patch went to Marcie's house after Nora's declaration of love.
Nora thinks that there's no way they can possibly work if he's going to be cast into hell for loving her, so she breaks up with him. Instead of saying, "I care too much about you to have that happen" or "I'm not sure what kind of future I can have if loving you only endangers your eternal salvation," Nora focuses on Patch's being at Marcie's house and how he is tight-lipped about it. "You're a jerk!" she says.
As this is the second book of a Twilight rip-off, Crescendo has fulfilled the "New Moon" requirement of BIG BREAKUP OF TWUE WUV COUPLE. Check and check.
Then begins Nora's Epic Journey of Stupidity. Scott Parnell, a childhood friend of Nora's, has just moved back to town with his mom. He's secretive and dangerous and comes off like he has serious 'roid rage. Also important, there is a gang of Nephilim (I SWEAR I AM GOING TO PUNCH THE NEXT PERSON TO USE "NEPHILIM" IN A BOOK) who are sick of the whole "fallen angels get to possess my body for two weeks during this Hebrew month of I-Totally-Made-This-Up" thing. Oh, and Scott's a Nephil. He's also an asshole, so naturally, Nora starts hanging out with him--especially since it seems to piss Patch off.
"New Moon" requirement of INSERT SECOND BOY FOR REBOUND JEALOUSY MAKING STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE. Check and check.
Whenever Patch and Nora meet, she has the most annoying inner monologue ever about how much she misses him, how she shouldn't have said whatever, that she loves him and blah blah blah blah, but all she says out loud is stuff to hurt him. She tells him she doesn't want him as her guardian angel anymore. She keeps questioning his involvement with Marcie, and okay, come on. THE BOY WAS GOING TO KILL YOU IN THE LAST BOOK, BUT HE FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU, AND WHEN YOU [STUPIDLY] SACRIFICED YOURSELF, HE CHOSE TO SAVE YOU INSTEAD OF BECOMING HUMAN, WHICH WAS HIS GOAL IN THE FIRST PLACE. To me that would be pretty good proof that a fallen angel loves you, you know, about as much as a fallen angel can. But no, it also means that you don't LEND YOUR BASEBALL CAP TO YOUR TRUE LOVE'S BITCHY NEMESIS BECAUSE OMG YOU JUST DON'T THAT'S THE FIRST RULE OF FEMINISM.
It should also be mentioned that Nora's vapid, boy-crazy friend Vee (short for "Vee Dee," I think) has been set up by Patch with his good fallen angel buddy Rixon. Nora hangs out with them, feeling third-wheel-ish. One day she gets an envelope with a note and a ring of a black hand. "THIS RING BELONGS TO THE BLACK HAND. HE KILLED YOUR FATHER." Oh, you crazy kids.
Who is THE BLACK HAND?
Randomly, Nora starts seeing her dead father around, and chases him down dark alleys and abandoned homes. Naturally, she puts herself into danger because when you see your dead dad who was TRAGICALLY SHOT PERHAPS BY THE BLACK HAND, regardless that in previous times BAD ANGEL PEOPLE HAVE PUT RANDOM THOUGHTS INTO YOUR HEAD AND MADE YOU THINK SHIT WAS HAPPENING THAT WAS NOT HAPPENING, this is totally different, especially since your dead dad has got to be alive because you SEE HIM and you just KNOW this is real.
She also gets, like, fallen-angel-roofied via scented apology card and chased around a library (libraries are here to remind us that NORA IS SMART N SHIT).
She finds another THE BLACK HAND ring in Scott's room (because she totally thought it would be a good idea to snoop around his room even with his roid rage). Scott's hellbent (no pun intended) on getting the ring back. Says if he doesn't get it back, THE BLACK HAND will find him and kill him.
She also snoops in Marcie's room and finds Marcie's diary. But she doesn't read it, because ... I don't know.
Oh yeah, and one day at the beach Rixon tells Nora that "the Black Hand" is an old nickname of Patch's. Dun dun dun. Nora uses her SUPER SNEAKY SMARTY SKILLS to trick Rixon into telling her where Patch lives (he is, for no good reason at all, exceptionally evasive about where he lives).
Somewhere in here, Patch starts visiting Nora in dreams. And then you get the special flashback-within-a-dream-sequence device, and again, I have no fucking clue.
Now that Nora knows where Patch lives, she sneaks over there. Everything smells of rotting food and stuff, and she finds a whole fucking BOX O' THE BLACK HAND RINGS. And then she hears someone come into the apartment and plant sticks of dynamite. She gets out of the building just before it blows sky high. Again: no idea.
Somewhere in here she also goes back to Marcie's house, and Marcie sees her holding her stolen diary. She finally reveals why she hates Nora so much: Nora's mom has been having an affair with Marcie's dad, and they might be sisters. Oookay.
It all culminates in a showdown at the Delphic, the shitty amusement park from the first book. Scott is chasing down Nora to get the THE BLACK HAND ring back, Nora is ... I don't know what she's trying to do. Cops are involved. Scott chases Nora down, then gets shot by Rixon, and Rixon says he's here to save Nora, that they should wait in the underground tunnels below the funhouse because they'll be safe from Scott, and after an "Angel of Death" "stops time" on behalf of NORA'S DEAD FATHER, his heretofore unexplained ghostly presence tells Nora to touch Rixon's scars. In doing so, Nora discovers that oops, Rixon is the bad guy. I SAID IT. RIXON IS THE BAD GUY! RUN, NORA!
So it turns out Rixon sent the fallen-angel-roofie note, the THE BLACK HAND note, and lied to her about both a) Patch's domicile and b) Patch's being THE BLACK HAND. His motive? Rixon's vessel Nephil dude is also related to Nora, as in, HE IS HER FATHER. He's also Marcie's dad. So Nora's biodad is Marcie's dad, who is one of the Nephilim. For some reason he hid Nora away, got his college BFF to marry the babymama and pass the baby off as his own. So it turns out that while Patch was out to kill Nora in the first book because killing the ... heir (?) of his Nephil vessel would make him human, Rixon wanted the same thing, because she's the heir to HIS Nephilessel as well! And Marcie ... isn't Nephilimy enough for his sacrificing purposes? Again: I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS CRAZY FITZPATRICK LOGIC.
Patch saves the day, somehow. I dunno. He says he sent Rixon to hell. He says he suspected Rixon all along, which is why he set Vee up with him, so he could keep a better eye on him. Uh, WHAT? You use your love's [extremely irritating] BFF as bait to draw out psychopathic fallen angel? That's kind of a dick move.
Patch takes Nora to his real house, which is in that shitty Delphic park, since it was, like, made by fallen angels, for fallen angels? Or something? Anyway, they declare their love for each other, Patch says he's going to go rogue no matter what, and then Marcie's dad jumps out at them from behind a door or some shit and says, "I AM THE BLACK HAND MWAH HA HA HA HA HA." THE END!
So, uh. I really. Um. No. What? I have no idea what's going on. Basically just flip to p. 399 of the hardcover, where Rixon does that classic "bad guy explains it all exposition exposition bullshit" maneuver.
I'm sorry this review makes no sense. I was trying to lay out the plot points, but I kept getting lost. So instead I'll close with some examples of Becca Fitzpatrick's finest prose.
- "Patch's eyes were slate black, darker than a million secrets stacked on top of each other." I like dark eyes of stacked secrets like I love the neverending pancake buffet at IHOP.
- "She was caught in the crossfire when a group of fallen angels tried to force a Nephil to swear fealty inside the men's room at Bo's Arcade."
- "The following morning, I dragged myself out of bed, and after a quick stint in the bathroom that included dabbing on under-eye concealer and spritzing my hair with curl revitalizer, I moseyed into the kitchen to find my mom already seated at the table." It's important to know that she "spritzed" the curl revitalizer--I mean, you don't want to use a heavy [THE BLACK] hand with curl revitalizer.
- "... I snatched my discarded tights from the floor. I tightened them between my hands." So, you tightened your ... tights?
- "I settled on a box of bow-tie pasta and a jar of sausage spaghetti sauce. When the stove timer beeped, I drained the pasta, poured myself a bowl, and stuck the sauce in the microwave. We were out of Parmesan, so I grated cheddar and called it good. The microwave chimed, and I spooned layers of sauce and cheese on top of the pasta." BUT HOW MANY LAYERS? YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HANGING LIKE THAT, BECCA FITZPATRICK!
- "In my bedroom, I squeezed into a pair of toothpick jeans, pulled on a graphic tee and cardigan, and finished the look with suede driving mocs. I smoothed my hair into a low ponytail, offsetting it so it hung over my right shoulder. Having not slept in more than a full day, my eyes were ringed by smoky circles. I brushed on mascara, silver eye shadow, and lip gloss."
I swear she's just copying and pasting this shit from the makeup-tips column of various women's magazines. Oh, and by the by, the above quote is why I have renamed this book Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Hush, Suede Driving Mocs.
Oh, oh, and let's not forget:
- "The tang of fear and panic was on my clothes, and I left them in a heap on the floor." I hate how fear and panic are so tangy. I also leave my tangy fear and panic in a heap on the floor.
Will I read the third book? THE BLACK HAND MADE ME SWEAR FEALTY TO THE TRILOGY OF SHIT, AND I MUST OBEY.
*This analogy freely borrowed from Anthony Lane's The New Yorker review of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith: The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion. [See: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005...]
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2016
EDIT: 16/07/16
JUST LEAVING THIS HERE
I'll leave my original babble below.
--------
Awesome, fun and highly entertaining, but not as good as the first..............
I was able to guess last year what this book would be about, not hard to figure out. The execution was iffy at best. As for Patch, he disappointed me this time round *pouts*
As for Nora and her need to question and doubt everything anyone does, especially Patch, this is my answer to her...........
Its a good book, and I will read the next one, but, well, I think the pictures have made my POV very clear.
JUST LEAVING THIS HERE
I'll leave my original babble below.
--------
Awesome, fun and highly entertaining, but not as good as the first..............
I was able to guess last year what this book would be about, not hard to figure out. The execution was iffy at best. As for Patch, he disappointed me this time round *pouts*
As for Nora and her need to question and doubt everything anyone does, especially Patch, this is my answer to her...........
Its a good book, and I will read the next one, but, well, I think the pictures have made my POV very clear.
January 15, 2019
Se lee muchísimo más rápido que el primer libro.
Mi principal problema fue Nora… aquí se me hizo insoportable. También eché de menos a Patch. 🥺 Por él estoy releyendo esta saga.🥰
Mi principal problema fue Nora… aquí se me hizo insoportable. También eché de menos a Patch. 🥺 Por él estoy releyendo esta saga.🥰
August 28, 2016
This book angered me so much! Whilst I could forgive a lack of plot progression, cliched sub-plots, nonsensical plot holes and characters I struggled to relate to, I could not forgive some of the characters behavior!
Let's start with guardian angel, Patch. Patch is a demeaning asshole! I disliked him in the first book and struggled to see what Nora found so attractive about him. Here, however, he is an utter *insert every swear world under the sun here*!!!
He is literally every guy I have ever hated all rolled into one fictional piece of shit. He played with Nora's emotions, led her to believe one thing when he knew one sentence could remedy his behavior and save her from a broken heart, picked and chose when he wanted to see her and often used physical displays as opposed to emotional honesty to rectify himself to her.
All of this made me have reservations about Nora's character, as well. She put up with so much disrespect and heartbreak and just seems to be rolling with it. I want my fiction to feature strong female role-models and she does not deliver on that front! I initially found her likable enough, but to fall for such an obviously dislikable creature has me questioning her sanity!
I am so done with this series! Obama out.
Let's start with guardian angel, Patch. Patch is a demeaning asshole! I disliked him in the first book and struggled to see what Nora found so attractive about him. Here, however, he is an utter *insert every swear world under the sun here*!!!
He is literally every guy I have ever hated all rolled into one fictional piece of shit. He played with Nora's emotions, led her to believe one thing when he knew one sentence could remedy his behavior and save her from a broken heart, picked and chose when he wanted to see her and often used physical displays as opposed to emotional honesty to rectify himself to her.
All of this made me have reservations about Nora's character, as well. She put up with so much disrespect and heartbreak and just seems to be rolling with it. I want my fiction to feature strong female role-models and she does not deliver on that front! I initially found her likable enough, but to fall for such an obviously dislikable creature has me questioning her sanity!
I am so done with this series! Obama out.
October 15, 2010
Updated on 10/15/10: Group review of crescendo on Bewitched Bookworms. Pics of tossed book & time out corner included.
http://www.bewitchedbookworms.com/201...
At this moment in time, I will write a very simple review (numbered of course):
1. I threw this book a few times. I have the photos to prove it.
2. The novel also spent some time in the Time Out corner for misbehaving. (Can you expect anything less from a book with Patch in it?)
3. Speaking of Patch: More pleeeeeeeease.
4. Nora. Dude. Chill, alright?
5. I *heart* this book. I'm not sure that I *heart* it more than the first, BUT nonetheless (and against my better judgment) I do so love it. I am now DYING to get my hands on book three (naughty naughty cliff hangers are full of fail or is it win... why are we gluttons for punishment?) annnnnd I will write a better review with my fellow Bookworms soon. =)
P.S. As Danny Vanquish as my witness I NAILED a few pivotal plot twists. *gloats*
P.P.S. This was my first ARC. Thusly, Patch broke my ARC cherry. He wasn't gentle... I didn't mind.
http://www.bewitchedbookworms.com/201...
At this moment in time, I will write a very simple review (numbered of course):
1. I threw this book a few times. I have the photos to prove it.
2. The novel also spent some time in the Time Out corner for misbehaving. (Can you expect anything less from a book with Patch in it?)
3. Speaking of Patch: More pleeeeeeeease.
4. Nora. Dude. Chill, alright?
5. I *heart* this book. I'm not sure that I *heart* it more than the first, BUT nonetheless (and against my better judgment) I do so love it. I am now DYING to get my hands on book three (naughty naughty cliff hangers are full of fail or is it win... why are we gluttons for punishment?) annnnnd I will write a better review with my fellow Bookworms soon. =)
P.S. As Danny Vanquish as my witness I NAILED a few pivotal plot twists. *gloats*
P.P.S. This was my first ARC. Thusly, Patch broke my ARC cherry. He wasn't gentle... I didn't mind.
July 2, 2017
During Reading
*throws book across room*
*lights it on fire*
*rips Nora out of the book*
*lights her on fire*
*lights everything on fire*
HOW CAN I EXPRESS MY HATRED THROUGH TEXT? BOLD SEEMS LIKE THE ANSWER.
First off, Becca, you have completely f**** up with making these characters, holy crap. I have the feeling you hate the entire female population because of how incredibly stupid and irritating you made Nora. Name one positive quality of Nora. I'LL JUST STOP YOU RIGHT THERE BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE.
She's irrational, annoying, stupid, obnoxious, annoying, jealous, untrusting, annoying annoying annoying
The entire book is her going on about 'wah I love Patch, wah I hate Patch, wah I broke up with Patch, wah why can't Patch read my mind and know that I broke up with him and told him I hate him but secretly want him to come hold me? WAH'
If I had to read one more sentence of her b****ing I would have lost it.
She didn't even try to resolve things with Patch because whenever she'd see him she'd say the most randomly offensive thing she could think of instead of talking to him.
This is basically how it goes:
Nora: PATCH LIKE SRSLY, WHAT GIVES
Patch: Well I-
Nora: PATCH I'M ASKING YOU A QUESTION
Patch: Uhm, well like I was saying I-
Nora: PATCH YOU DON'T EVEN LISTEN TO ME
Patch: Wat
Nora: OMG PATCH IT IS OVER
Patch: I-
Nora: ARE YOU REALLY NOT GOING TO FIGHT FOR ME AND TELL ME YOU LOVE ME AND HOLD ME
Patch: I-
Nora: NO STOP DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME? IT'S OVER LEAVE ALONE. GO AWAY
Patch: *leaves*
Nora: UGH *screams* SO TYPICAL JUST WALK OUT DURING OUR FIGHT
...
...
...
Nora: MARCIE
Basically how it goes.
Plus, Nora is so weak and pathetic.
Marcie literally walks all over her, insults her, talks about her dad's death, and what does Nora do? cry in the bathroom.
& don't even get me started with all the other irrelevant characters
Detective BASSO? Why don't you get out of everyones' a**es WHY ARE YOU EVERYWHERE
Marcie? YES we get it, she's the bully, how much can you over emphasize and over dramatify that (ya ik it's not a word leave me alone)
& Vee. Vee is 50/50 with me. One minute shes all funny and chill, and the next she's as stupid as Nora!
Nora: I think I was drugged
Vee: uh-huh
Nora: Someone was chasing me in the library
Vee: Mhm
Nora: I almost died
Vee: Yeah cool so where are you?
Nora: *some street name*
Vee: WHHAAAAAAATTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
& then lastly, Patch. Patch, please calm down with all your secrets and fallen angel bull**** that no one cares about. All I hear from him is blah blah blah SECRET blah blah blah DANGEROUS blah blah blah I THINK I'M SUPER COOL
He literally explains nothing and proceeds to not understand why Nora flips sh** on him. You really can not even explain where you live? No one cares about your top secret super awesomely dangerous bat cave, so chill the f**** out.
Patch literally went from stalking and harassing Nora in Hush, Hush to just popping up every 100 pages to be even more annoying. Plus his whole thing with Marcie is douchey, but Nora is an idiot, yet again, for disregarding it every time.
"He kissed Marcie! omg how could he!...wait damn look at those pecs okay all is forgiven"
Look at this rant and I haven't even finished this book. Am I allowed to claim hatred to a book when I haven't even finished it. YES I CAN
TL;DR = This will be the first book to go during the apocalypse when we need things to burn to light a fire
Okay well now that I've finished it, I can proudly give it the one star it doesn't even deserve. If there was less than one star it'd get it.
*throws book across room*
*lights it on fire*
*rips Nora out of the book*
*lights her on fire*
*lights everything on fire*
HOW CAN I EXPRESS MY HATRED THROUGH TEXT? BOLD SEEMS LIKE THE ANSWER.
First off, Becca, you have completely f**** up with making these characters, holy crap. I have the feeling you hate the entire female population because of how incredibly stupid and irritating you made Nora. Name one positive quality of Nora. I'LL JUST STOP YOU RIGHT THERE BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE.
She's irrational, annoying, stupid, obnoxious, annoying, jealous, untrusting, annoying annoying annoying
The entire book is her going on about 'wah I love Patch, wah I hate Patch, wah I broke up with Patch, wah why can't Patch read my mind and know that I broke up with him and told him I hate him but secretly want him to come hold me? WAH'
If I had to read one more sentence of her b****ing I would have lost it.
She didn't even try to resolve things with Patch because whenever she'd see him she'd say the most randomly offensive thing she could think of instead of talking to him.
This is basically how it goes:
Nora: PATCH LIKE SRSLY, WHAT GIVES
Patch: Well I-
Nora: PATCH I'M ASKING YOU A QUESTION
Patch: Uhm, well like I was saying I-
Nora: PATCH YOU DON'T EVEN LISTEN TO ME
Patch: Wat
Nora: OMG PATCH IT IS OVER
Patch: I-
Nora: ARE YOU REALLY NOT GOING TO FIGHT FOR ME AND TELL ME YOU LOVE ME AND HOLD ME
Patch: I-
Nora: NO STOP DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME? IT'S OVER LEAVE ALONE. GO AWAY
Patch: *leaves*
Nora: UGH *screams* SO TYPICAL JUST WALK OUT DURING OUR FIGHT
...
...
...
Nora: MARCIE
Basically how it goes.
Plus, Nora is so weak and pathetic.
Marcie literally walks all over her, insults her, talks about her dad's death, and what does Nora do? cry in the bathroom.
& don't even get me started with all the other irrelevant characters
Detective BASSO? Why don't you get out of everyones' a**es WHY ARE YOU EVERYWHERE
Marcie? YES we get it, she's the bully, how much can you over emphasize and over dramatify that (ya ik it's not a word leave me alone)
& Vee. Vee is 50/50 with me. One minute shes all funny and chill, and the next she's as stupid as Nora!
Nora: I think I was drugged
Vee: uh-huh
Nora: Someone was chasing me in the library
Vee: Mhm
Nora: I almost died
Vee: Yeah cool so where are you?
Nora: *some street name*
Vee: WHHAAAAAAATTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
& then lastly, Patch. Patch, please calm down with all your secrets and fallen angel bull**** that no one cares about. All I hear from him is blah blah blah SECRET blah blah blah DANGEROUS blah blah blah I THINK I'M SUPER COOL
He literally explains nothing and proceeds to not understand why Nora flips sh** on him. You really can not even explain where you live? No one cares about your top secret super awesomely dangerous bat cave, so chill the f**** out.
Patch literally went from stalking and harassing Nora in Hush, Hush to just popping up every 100 pages to be even more annoying. Plus his whole thing with Marcie is douchey, but Nora is an idiot, yet again, for disregarding it every time.
"He kissed Marcie! omg how could he!...wait damn look at those pecs okay all is forgiven"
Look at this rant and I haven't even finished this book. Am I allowed to claim hatred to a book when I haven't even finished it. YES I CAN
TL;DR = This will be the first book to go during the apocalypse when we need things to burn to light a fire
Okay well now that I've finished it, I can proudly give it the one star it doesn't even deserve. If there was less than one star it'd get it.
February 22, 2023
Patch and Nora break up!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: 💙💚🖤💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌍🌏🌎
Character development: ☺️😟😍
The heroine: Nora Grey - she is attending summer school and dating Patch. After the events in the last book she thinks she is finally safe and knows all the secrets. However, nothing is as it seems and soon there are just as many mysteries and secrets as there were last year.
The Hero(s): Patch Cipriano - Guardian Angel to Nora Grey. He is now dating her but as an angel he still can’t feel things. He has emotions but he can’t feel the touch of a human. It is like he is encased in glass. So things with Nora aren’t perfect.
The Story: When Patch starts hanging around Nora’s arch nemesis Marcy and won’t explain his reasons, she breaks up with him. Around the same time, and old friend from when she was young, Scott Parnell comes into town. He has a mysterious history which doesn’t sound good and Nora thinks he might be a Nephilim when she overhears him speaking to his mother in her mind.
This one was very high school in some ways. I like the whole Fallen Angel theme, but the romance between Patch and Nora was very high school. Even though there were reasons behind everything that happened. Nora’s reactions to everything were certainly age appropriate and got on my nerves more than once.
Also I sometimes really disliked Nora’s best friend Vee. She was never very supportive towards Nora when it comes to Patch. Though I still plan to listen to the rest of the series for a few reasons, firstly because I love books about Angels and Fallen Angels. I like the fact that this series is different than the standard with the storyline about Fallen Angels not being able to feel things and possessing Nephilim for a few weeks each year.
It seems a war is brewing because of the fact that the Nephilim aren’t happy with the situation and don’t like the fact that the fallen take control of them for those two weeks each year and can basically do anything with their bodies, whether it be commit crimes, impregnate their women, or more. However, if the Nephilim are able to successfully prevent the fallen from doing this, then the fallen will take humans and thousands will die since human bodies can’t contain an angel for two full weeks.
There are some inconsistencies in the story and some things that don’t really make sense to me but overall. I keep finding myself wanting to find out what happens next. So the things that concern me over these books are definitely not enough to curb my overall enjoyment.
Blog|Goodreads|Facebook|Instagram|Twitter|BookBub
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: 💙💚🖤💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌍🌏🌎
Character development: ☺️😟😍
The heroine: Nora Grey - she is attending summer school and dating Patch. After the events in the last book she thinks she is finally safe and knows all the secrets. However, nothing is as it seems and soon there are just as many mysteries and secrets as there were last year.
The Hero(s): Patch Cipriano - Guardian Angel to Nora Grey. He is now dating her but as an angel he still can’t feel things. He has emotions but he can’t feel the touch of a human. It is like he is encased in glass. So things with Nora aren’t perfect.
The Story: When Patch starts hanging around Nora’s arch nemesis Marcy and won’t explain his reasons, she breaks up with him. Around the same time, and old friend from when she was young, Scott Parnell comes into town. He has a mysterious history which doesn’t sound good and Nora thinks he might be a Nephilim when she overhears him speaking to his mother in her mind.
This one was very high school in some ways. I like the whole Fallen Angel theme, but the romance between Patch and Nora was very high school. Even though there were reasons behind everything that happened. Nora’s reactions to everything were certainly age appropriate and got on my nerves more than once.
Also I sometimes really disliked Nora’s best friend Vee. She was never very supportive towards Nora when it comes to Patch. Though I still plan to listen to the rest of the series for a few reasons, firstly because I love books about Angels and Fallen Angels. I like the fact that this series is different than the standard with the storyline about Fallen Angels not being able to feel things and possessing Nephilim for a few weeks each year.
It seems a war is brewing because of the fact that the Nephilim aren’t happy with the situation and don’t like the fact that the fallen take control of them for those two weeks each year and can basically do anything with their bodies, whether it be commit crimes, impregnate their women, or more. However, if the Nephilim are able to successfully prevent the fallen from doing this, then the fallen will take humans and thousands will die since human bodies can’t contain an angel for two full weeks.
There are some inconsistencies in the story and some things that don’t really make sense to me but overall. I keep finding myself wanting to find out what happens next. So the things that concern me over these books are definitely not enough to curb my overall enjoyment.
Blog|Goodreads|Facebook|Instagram|Twitter|BookBub
Want to read
November 4, 2018is this good? I have read Hush Hush but I heard mixed things about this one!
Read
December 19, 2011I’ve been thinking about names. Why Nora, of all names? Nora Grey. I get the Grey thing: it’s less obvious than Beautiful Graceful Bird (was once an ugly duckling) Bella Swan. Nora Grey – the woman of honour who is neither good (white) nor bad (black). Total traditional dichotomies, I know. Shades of grey abound. Because although Nora isn’t as empty-headed as your standard YA PNR heroine (Bella, Luce) she is still pretty stupid and driven by hormones. Nora. Nora Grey.
Well I’ve got to hand it to Fitzpatrick: as much as I hated the book, it did have some clever writing in it. Or maybe Nora was just so freaking stupid it was a great chore being inside her head, and I didn’t figure out who the villain was until about halfway (when ). But it was kind of crap, because once it was revealed who the person was and why they wanted to kill Nora, the other suspect lost all the motivation for hurting her and suddenly became a good guy. Much like in Hush, Hush!
In fact, this book was incredibly similar to Hush, Hush. There were only a few differences, two major ones being that Marcie was in it more and Patch didn’t sexually harass Nora all the time. In fact, I didn’t hate Patch as much in this novel, but that’s probably because he was hardly in it. I have no idea how someone can find an absent character hot or sexy, especially when all he does is show up when Nora needs him and offer her rides home. In fact, Nora’s always got people offering her rides home. Don’t these kids know the price of petrol? So yeah, Patch was hardly in it – yay! – but that doesn’t mean Nora could think straight.
In fact, this book’s plot was so similar to the first one that I mean really. This book is almost exactly the same as the first. Two minor differences being that Nora gets a job that she goes to just once only to be humiliated by Marcie and then never goes to again, and she never once mentions needing her iron pills. In fact, her anaemia (the ‘inconvenient’ illness) isn’t a problem for her at all in this book and is never mentioned.
Oh, and I used my Post It flags to make a note every time I came across something pointless or stupid or shitty. I re-used the same flags I used in Hush, Hush. I ran out halfway through Crescendo and gave up using them even though there was plenty of shittiness in the second half of the book as well.
Look, my Hush, Hush review took me days to write because I used quotes from the text to rant about how shitty it was. I’m not going to do it this time because Crescendo is no better than Hush, Hush and I’m not dedicating a massive amount of my time to write an honest review of a book that had me laughing out loud at character’s inappropriate responses. I do however have a few things I’d love to mention.
Really, I’ve had enough of talking about this book. There is was too much wangsting. Nora breaks up with Patch to ‘save him’ and pines over him for the rest of the damned novel. She also thinks that the answer to all of her questions is to break in to people’s homes and rifle through their belongings. I don’t even like Patch. I don’t even like Nora. I don’t like one character in this novel, not one. I don’t like the plot (because it’s exactly the same as Hush, Hush), and although nothing is really wrong with the writing style I recognise the attempts at repeating symbols and motifs, which I have to give Fitzpatrick kudos for.
What I don’t understand is why this book is called Crescendo. Does Fitzpatrick even know what it means? It means "progressively louder'. All that is progressively louder in this book is Nora's whining!
If you loved Hush, Hush (and if you did, why on earth are you on my one star review?) you’ll probably love Cresendo because it’s the exact same story. If you didn’t like Hush, Hush, don’t waste your time with this tripe. I won’t be reading Silence because the fact that books as stupid as this (that encourage rape culture, misogyny, sexism, slut shaming, and gaslighting) are published, marketed, and loved by hordes of screaming girls depresses me and apparently I get miserable after reading them.
Well I’ve got to hand it to Fitzpatrick: as much as I hated the book, it did have some clever writing in it. Or maybe Nora was just so freaking stupid it was a great chore being inside her head, and I didn’t figure out who the villain was until about halfway (when ). But it was kind of crap, because once it was revealed who the person was and why they wanted to kill Nora, the other suspect lost all the motivation for hurting her and suddenly became a good guy. Much like in Hush, Hush!
In fact, this book was incredibly similar to Hush, Hush. There were only a few differences, two major ones being that Marcie was in it more and Patch didn’t sexually harass Nora all the time. In fact, I didn’t hate Patch as much in this novel, but that’s probably because he was hardly in it. I have no idea how someone can find an absent character hot or sexy, especially when all he does is show up when Nora needs him and offer her rides home. In fact, Nora’s always got people offering her rides home. Don’t these kids know the price of petrol? So yeah, Patch was hardly in it – yay! – but that doesn’t mean Nora could think straight.
In fact, this book’s plot was so similar to the first one that I mean really. This book is almost exactly the same as the first. Two minor differences being that Nora gets a job that she goes to just once only to be humiliated by Marcie and then never goes to again, and she never once mentions needing her iron pills. In fact, her anaemia (the ‘inconvenient’ illness) isn’t a problem for her at all in this book and is never mentioned.
Oh, and I used my Post It flags to make a note every time I came across something pointless or stupid or shitty. I re-used the same flags I used in Hush, Hush. I ran out halfway through Crescendo and gave up using them even though there was plenty of shittiness in the second half of the book as well.
Look, my Hush, Hush review took me days to write because I used quotes from the text to rant about how shitty it was. I’m not going to do it this time because Crescendo is no better than Hush, Hush and I’m not dedicating a massive amount of my time to write an honest review of a book that had me laughing out loud at character’s inappropriate responses. I do however have a few things I’d love to mention.
Really, I’ve had enough of talking about this book. There is was too much wangsting. Nora breaks up with Patch to ‘save him’ and pines over him for the rest of the damned novel. She also thinks that the answer to all of her questions is to break in to people’s homes and rifle through their belongings. I don’t even like Patch. I don’t even like Nora. I don’t like one character in this novel, not one. I don’t like the plot (because it’s exactly the same as Hush, Hush), and although nothing is really wrong with the writing style I recognise the attempts at repeating symbols and motifs, which I have to give Fitzpatrick kudos for.
What I don’t understand is why this book is called Crescendo. Does Fitzpatrick even know what it means? It means "progressively louder'. All that is progressively louder in this book is Nora's whining!
If you loved Hush, Hush (and if you did, why on earth are you on my one star review?) you’ll probably love Cresendo because it’s the exact same story. If you didn’t like Hush, Hush, don’t waste your time with this tripe. I won’t be reading Silence because the fact that books as stupid as this (that encourage rape culture, misogyny, sexism, slut shaming, and gaslighting) are published, marketed, and loved by hordes of screaming girls depresses me and apparently I get miserable after reading them.
April 4, 2011
I've been dying to read crescendo for ages and was ecstatic when I finally got my hands on it. The book was everthing I wanted and more! It's filled with great dialogues and witty remarks. It starts off with nora's dad being murdered and the rest of the book follows the mystery of who the killer was. Meanwhile nora and patch are also goin through a tough time. They break up over a row after nora hears he was hanging round marcie's house and soon he starts roaming round her 24/7. It was maddening to see this and drove me crazy.
Marcie was a slutty bitch throught the book and u'll love to hate her. The archangels are also trying to ripthem apart and it was quite heartbreaking at times. Another mysterious character enters the picture;Scott who is a nephil and nora's childhood friend. Nora uses him at times to make patch jealous. He was a bit of a jerk and quite evil at times but I really liked him and hope to see more of him.
I liked nora in this book as she stood up for herself in front of patch instead of mourning in her room and was a lot more gutsy but sometimes she made some really dumb impulsive decissions and should have listened to patch when he tried to explain. Patch was a lot more sensitive and caring this time round (as crazy as it sounds) and I don't know why so many people keep critisizing him. He didn't have much of a choice for some of the things he did and I fell in love with him evenmore. Having said that, there were times when he caused her a lot of pain and acted like a jerk but in the end won me over. I felt there was a lack of him in this book. Vee was really funny and a very loyal supportive friend. I didn't like her much the first time round but in this she grew on me. Rixon also had a big part in this story and her mom also had a few skeletons in her closet. The ending takes u completely by surprise and the book is packed with twists and turns. You will never guess vwho the villain is! some Scenes with patch and nora were quite steamy and the dream sequences were sensational. It ends with a cliff hanger with a new villain on the horizon and I m dyin to read tempest to see what happens to patch, nora, Scott, marcie and vee. I can honestly say I loved every moment of crescendo and would highly recommend it!
Marcie was a slutty bitch throught the book and u'll love to hate her. The archangels are also trying to ripthem apart and it was quite heartbreaking at times. Another mysterious character enters the picture;Scott who is a nephil and nora's childhood friend. Nora uses him at times to make patch jealous. He was a bit of a jerk and quite evil at times but I really liked him and hope to see more of him.
I liked nora in this book as she stood up for herself in front of patch instead of mourning in her room and was a lot more gutsy but sometimes she made some really dumb impulsive decissions and should have listened to patch when he tried to explain. Patch was a lot more sensitive and caring this time round (as crazy as it sounds) and I don't know why so many people keep critisizing him. He didn't have much of a choice for some of the things he did and I fell in love with him evenmore. Having said that, there were times when he caused her a lot of pain and acted like a jerk but in the end won me over. I felt there was a lack of him in this book. Vee was really funny and a very loyal supportive friend. I didn't like her much the first time round but in this she grew on me. Rixon also had a big part in this story and her mom also had a few skeletons in her closet. The ending takes u completely by surprise and the book is packed with twists and turns. You will never guess vwho the villain is! some Scenes with patch and nora were quite steamy and the dream sequences were sensational. It ends with a cliff hanger with a new villain on the horizon and I m dyin to read tempest to see what happens to patch, nora, Scott, marcie and vee. I can honestly say I loved every moment of crescendo and would highly recommend it!
December 30, 2010
Short review: Stupid girl jumps to wrong conclusions and makes stupid decisions. Of course, if she hadn't had been so dumb, we wouldn't have a novel.
Long review: I found myself frustrated most of the novel with the lack of recapping. It hasn't been that long since I read Hush, Hush, so I remember the characters, but what I couldn't remember was these assumptions Fitzpatrick jumped to in her angel lore. I remember not quite buying into it, and that could be part of the problem, but whenever Norah went on whining about some angel restriction, I kept asking myself "why?" And really, Patch could go have sex with a girl that it didn't mean anything to but he was restricted from developing a loving, emotional relationship with or without touching. Really?
Really?
And when exactly could the archangels watch or listen? Some strange omnipresence that wasn't so omnipresent after all or Norah never would have been in any danger. What is the point of guardian angels if they don't actually guard anything but can make out with their subjects? There are qualities about Patch the fallen angel I could accept that don't jive with Patch the guardian angel, on the up and up with the powers that be, which wouldn't that be God? Yeah, I wasn't so fond of the angel lore, even less so than Hush, Hush.
I struggled with the beginning, but by midway through I was drawn into story. Vee was still annoying, Patch was strangely absent, but Marcie was a viable antagonistic character. I was never satisfied with any answers about Marcie and Patch, nor do I think Norah should have been. She should have hounded Patch a little more about exactly what went on between the two of them. Yeah, it might be annoying girlfriend reaction, but it's what she would have done and as readers we deserved a little more insight too.
I figured out who the villain was pretty early on, which only made it all the more annoying to have Norah manipulated and blindsided. It made the climax fall a little flat for me, but if you hadn't figured that out, it could have been intense. The cliffhanger was a nice twist too, not that I couldn't see that coming, but it did make me want to read on. I'm not sure if I will though. The angel lore bothers me enough and I don't love Norah or Patch enough to feel obligated to complete their story.
Long review: I found myself frustrated most of the novel with the lack of recapping. It hasn't been that long since I read Hush, Hush, so I remember the characters, but what I couldn't remember was these assumptions Fitzpatrick jumped to in her angel lore. I remember not quite buying into it, and that could be part of the problem, but whenever Norah went on whining about some angel restriction, I kept asking myself "why?" And really, Patch could go have sex with a girl that it didn't mean anything to but he was restricted from developing a loving, emotional relationship with or without touching. Really?
Really?
And when exactly could the archangels watch or listen? Some strange omnipresence that wasn't so omnipresent after all or Norah never would have been in any danger. What is the point of guardian angels if they don't actually guard anything but can make out with their subjects? There are qualities about Patch the fallen angel I could accept that don't jive with Patch the guardian angel, on the up and up with the powers that be, which wouldn't that be God? Yeah, I wasn't so fond of the angel lore, even less so than Hush, Hush.
I struggled with the beginning, but by midway through I was drawn into story. Vee was still annoying, Patch was strangely absent, but Marcie was a viable antagonistic character. I was never satisfied with any answers about Marcie and Patch, nor do I think Norah should have been. She should have hounded Patch a little more about exactly what went on between the two of them. Yeah, it might be annoying girlfriend reaction, but it's what she would have done and as readers we deserved a little more insight too.
I figured out who the villain was pretty early on, which only made it all the more annoying to have Norah manipulated and blindsided. It made the climax fall a little flat for me, but if you hadn't figured that out, it could have been intense. The cliffhanger was a nice twist too, not that I couldn't see that coming, but it did make me want to read on. I'm not sure if I will though. The angel lore bothers me enough and I don't love Norah or Patch enough to feel obligated to complete their story.
July 18, 2023
I really am enjoying this series. I never read them as a teen so I’m glad I finally am. They’re really nice refreshers for me to get out of a slump. They’re easy and quick paced. This one in particular was a bit frustrating as I’m not a fan of miscommunication tropes, but I won’t lie, it’s so satisfying once everything comes together. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
March 6, 2020
3.5 hushed STAR ★★★✬✩
⤐ Overall.
This was, by all means, mediocre. Also, this series is not suitable for younger teenagers. If you don't possess the mental stability and experience to put everything that's happening in this book into context (the fictional realm), you might find yourself having really weird relationship standards. I am not kidding! During this reread, I realised my ex-boyfriend was a lot like Patch sometimes: no communication, didn't put in effort to de-escalate arguments (in fact, he did just the opposite), acted surprised when I've had enough.
Not that I condemn anything that Nora's doing in this book - or any of the characters, of that matter. Nora, though, she's especially awful. Horrible friend, for starters - setting up her bf with someone she suspects to be a lunatic. I can't even... Nora ist the epitome of naiveté, cluelessness, negligence, ignorance and pesky; Whenever I feel like I do something stupid I'll think of Nora, the most ignorant and blinded fictional character of all. I mean:
The dialogues, on the other hand, are to die for! They're witty and the laughing-out-loud kind of stuff you can't help but admire in a book.
⤐ Mayor issue.
We really need to talk about the thinphobia (is this even a word?). I already noticed this in the prequel. Body shaming is not okay. YOU DO NOT SHAME PEOPLE FOR THEIR BODY. No. matter. what. they. look. like. This needs to stop, especially in ya literature that is having an impact on people all around the world.
⤐ What’s happening.
If this doesn't sum up Nora's mess, I don't know what does. After just two short months of happy bliss with her lover, everything blows up. It would be a lie to act like there's a huge misunderstanding. 's just a bunch of clueless teenagers and fallen angels acting like they own the world and nothing has consequences.
_____________________
writing quality + easy of reading = 5*
pace = 3.5*
plot/story in general = 4*
plot development = 3*
characters = 4*
enjoyability = 3.5*
insightfulness = 2*
This book is for you if… you hate an MC and then act like you, consequently, don’t like the book itself either but … secretly, you're still kinda loving it. ALthough you don't really know why.
⤐ Overall.
This was, by all means, mediocre. Also, this series is not suitable for younger teenagers. If you don't possess the mental stability and experience to put everything that's happening in this book into context (the fictional realm), you might find yourself having really weird relationship standards. I am not kidding! During this reread, I realised my ex-boyfriend was a lot like Patch sometimes: no communication, didn't put in effort to de-escalate arguments (in fact, he did just the opposite), acted surprised when I've had enough.
Not that I condemn anything that Nora's doing in this book - or any of the characters, of that matter. Nora, though, she's especially awful. Horrible friend, for starters - setting up her bf with someone she suspects to be a lunatic. I can't even... Nora ist the epitome of naiveté, cluelessness, negligence, ignorance and pesky; Whenever I feel like I do something stupid I'll think of Nora, the most ignorant and blinded fictional character of all. I mean:
Nora *in a relationship with Patch for 2 months (before that he frightened her to death)*
Nora: "Swear you'll never stop loving me."
The dialogues, on the other hand, are to die for! They're witty and the laughing-out-loud kind of stuff you can't help but admire in a book.
‘Whoa, who peed in your Cheerios?’
‘Scott Parnell.’ Patch.
‘I see the incontinence problem didn’t go away over time.’
⤐ Mayor issue.
We really need to talk about the thinphobia (is this even a word?). I already noticed this in the prequel. Body shaming is not okay. YOU DO NOT SHAME PEOPLE FOR THEIR BODY. No. matter. what. they. look. like. This needs to stop, especially in ya literature that is having an impact on people all around the world.
⤐ What’s happening.
‘I hate this kind of food,’ I said, feeling grease seep through the one-way-paper-wrapped hot dog onto my hand. ‘It’s unhealthy.’
‘So’s a relationship with Patch, but that didn’t stop you.’
If this doesn't sum up Nora's mess, I don't know what does. After just two short months of happy bliss with her lover, everything blows up. It would be a lie to act like there's a huge misunderstanding. 's just a bunch of clueless teenagers and fallen angels acting like they own the world and nothing has consequences.
Con:
⇢ Patch dating the enemy
⇢ supposedly incontinent nephilim getting a little too close
⇢ best friend too naive for her own good
Pro:
⇢ time to proof stamina
⇢ guardian angel's job to protect even the biggest morons
⇢ Patch's more than your average antihero
_____________________
writing quality + easy of reading = 5*
pace = 3.5*
plot/story in general = 4*
plot development = 3*
characters = 4*
enjoyability = 3.5*
insightfulness = 2*
Displaying 1 - 30 of 13,465 reviews