Book Review: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand
(Unearthly, #2)
Release Date: January 17, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins; 416 pages

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought. Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

I couldn't put HALLOWED down. It was almost as addicting as UNEARTHLY. Almost.

As a Tucker fan (but a secret love for Christian), this quote scared me (but also excited me at the same time): "Well, that's the thing about summers, isn't it?" says Christian after a minute. "They have to end sometime." This, at the beginning of the book told the reader to prepare for just about anything, especially when it came to the love triangle.

Love triangles are a huge thing in YA novels and I love how Cynthia Hand even joked about them, I got a good laugh out of it. It fit perfectly with the story and how Clara was feeling. Brilliant. Thank you for that, Ms. Hand!

I'm kind of bummed when it comes to Tucker though. The problem I'm having is I can't quite figure out exactly what it is that's bothering me about him. You see a different side to Tucker; one I never expected to see from him. But, I don't know - its hard to put my finger on it (and that bothers me); he wasn't around as much as I was hoping for, either. That was kind of a bummer.

My biggest issue with HALLOWED was I found it to be quite predictable. UNEARTHLY threw me off a few times; I never expected Christian to be an angel-blood and it was a nice surprise. Now, there were still a few surprises in this book but the 'big' things I guess from the get-go. The story wasn't as exciting, you know? Though, being right is always a nice thing, too. (lol)

I may actually be on Team Christian now. I know, I know...but wait until you read this and tell me if you've switched teams or not?

Besides knowing things before they happened, I really enjoyed the story. You find out more about angels, angel-bloods, black wings and even a new, rare angel-blood breed.

If you love UNEARTHLY, you'll obviously be picking up this book. But if you haven't read UNEARTHLY, what are you waiting for? This is a great series, thus far!