Review - Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: October 19, 2010
Series/Standalone: Book 2 in Hush, Hush series
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover

Summary from Amazon.com: Nora should have know her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

My Review:


I remember really looking forward to reading Hush, Hush a couple of years ago, but then feeling disappointed with it and thinking something along the lines of, "Darn, I got fooled by the pretty cover!" I've had this second book in the series on my shelf for awhile, but never felt that eager to pick it up, mostly because I had kind of forgotten what had happened in the first book. Many times I do enjoy sequels in series more than the first books, so I wanted to give this series another go. I'm sad to say that it didn't improve in the second installment.

The characters in this book were all very immature and not at all likeable. In the romance department, during most of the book, Nora and Patch spend all of their time attempting to make each other jealous or spying on each other. Healthy, right? Believe me, I am really all for sexual tension in books when two characters for some reason can't be together. However, Nora came across as pathetic in this book, and Patch didn't come across as a good love interest, so the "tension" fell flat.

To add to the list of weak characters, Vee, Nora's best friend, was perhaps one of the most annoying characters I've ever encountered. She babbled on and on and said the dumbest things, making me wonder if the point of adding her in this story was to try to make us feel sympathetic toward Nora for having to put up with her. At one point in the book, Nora muses, "We were lame, friendless people. No one owed us a favor. The only person who would drop everything to come to my rescue was sitting beside me. And vice versa." (297). I think that sums things up about them very well.

As I've mentioned before in other reviews, if I don't like the characters in a book, I won't enjoy the book no matter how strong the other elements of the story might be. Characters are what stick with me after finishing a book, and for me, the characters in this series were not worth rooting for, which means that I don't see myself reading Silence, the third book in the series, anytime in the near future.

Rating: 4/10