Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

Details

Publisher:  Feiwel and Friends (2010)

Pages:  484

Content:  L- Mild swearing, Sexual dialogue, S- Kissing, Nude Cuddling, V- Moderate
Recommended Age:  15+

Source:  Dorchester County Library

Front Flap Description
Three angels--Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer, and Bethany, the youngest and most human--are sent by Heaven to bring good to a world falling under the influence of darkness.  They work hard to conceal their luminous glow, superhuman powers, and most dangerous of all, their wings, all the while avoiding all human attachments.
   Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them.  Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong.
   The angels' mission is urgent, and dark forces are threatening.  Will love ruin Bethany or save her?

My Thoughts
This book had a good premise and definitely held promise.  The execution, however, fell short.  There were a number of problems, the most notable being the pacing.  The first 130 pages or so were basically filled with repetitive and overly flowery descriptions of everything the main character, Bethany, was experiencing.  Since Bethany was a seventeen-year-old angel visiting earth for the first time, the author went into excruciating detail about everything she sensed- how loud the wind was, how soft the pillows were, how the oatmeal tasted, and on and on and on for a hundred pages.  Now, I will grant that Adornetto is skilled at descriptive writing--she just does way too much of it and I found myself skimming to get to any action.
   Another issue is that there are minor contradictions all over the place.  For example, Ivy and Gabriel had lived on earth many of different times, yet didn't know why they started feeling weak part way through the day, and they discovered that, Oh! we have to eat multiple times a day to fuel our human bodies.  This should have been something they already discovered on one of their many other visits to earth.  The book was littered with such contradictions.
   Character development was also generally weak.  The main character, Bethany, was super-well developed, but it was like Adornetto spent all of her energy focusing on Bethany's character and she neglected to develop the rest.  Her friends were mindless and flat, her sister and brother were a little better developed, but still lacking depth, and the bad guy (who had black hair, wore black clothes, and had a snake tattoo) was predictable.  Also, although we knew pretty much every thought that Bethany had, her character didn't seem to do much.  She was on an angelic mission to earth, yet she spent most the book getting in touch with her human senses and mooning over the unbelievably perfect Xavier.  Apparently, her mission on earth was to fall in love with him so deeply that the forces of evil could not withstand it.  Sigh.
   I didn't 100% hate this book.  I really think that somewhere in there is a good story and I believe that there is promise for Adornetto as an author (I later found out that she was only 17 when she published this book).  The main problem was in the editing.  This could have been a decent book with some heavy editing, but it's like the publishers just took the first draft, checked it for spelling and grammar (which were excellent), and rolled it out.  Definitely a disappointment.

Rating
2.5/5