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lk23's review against another edition
5.0
LOVE LOVE LOVED this book. Patch is the best thing for Nora! & I was so happppppy that they finally were back together & bam Hank ha to ruin it & take patch! The book left me hanging & I have to start the 3rd book ASAP! I loved the 2nd book better than the 1st! We got new characters and learned more about each character! & rixon?! I knew he was a bit fishy & he proved me right & he killed Nora's dad! I couldn't believe it but all along I just didn't believe patch did it & I'm glad he didn't! But I'm glad rixon was sent to hell!
emily404's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
steph_anielynn9's review against another edition
5.0
Omg omg omg, the ending of this book is just crazy! I loved this book just as much as the first one maybe even more. Thank goodness I have the next book I read already or I might have gone plain crazy waiting for it!
dragnfary's review against another edition
I loved this when I first read it, going for a reread and I just can't. It's too angsty teen drama.
storyflowsolutions's review against another edition
5.0
Hush, Hush was better. Even though I read that about a year ago, it is still better. Patch is hardly in this one. That was a huge let down. The plot is so twisting. Anyway, I loved the plot and how Nora gains more courage. So Rixon tries to kill her in this one. There's also a new kid named Scott which he has a huge part. More than Patch :( I loved the book though. Oh and Nora and Marcie may be sisters. :o
jade09's review against another edition
1.0
the protagonist is so dumb it hurts. At the part when Scott keeps on insulting Nora and then invites her to that party with rough sex and stuff and she agrees to go -after she almost died because of him- just so he doesn't find her boring i threw the book. never finished it.
t0mmi3's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I loved the first one, and I loved the second one just as much!!!
This book was definitely more focused on the plot this time, but i loved it nonetheless. It never let me down plot wise, an I could have devoured in much faster had i known whether I was going to be able to buy the next books or notðŸ˜ðŸ«¶ Nora was a bit irritating at the start, especially with the way that she was handling the situations and jumping to conclusions before getting a proper answer, but I also somewhat understand from her point of view- as she was being kept in the dark about certain things and was being lied to at times.
Honestly I could not ask for a better book, and personally, the plot twist was unexpected for me! I can’t believe Becca ended it just like that, but hopefully the next books will be just as amazing as this one🖤
This book was definitely more focused on the plot this time, but i loved it nonetheless. It never let me down plot wise, an I could have devoured in much faster had i known whether I was going to be able to buy the next books or notðŸ˜ðŸ«¶ Nora was a bit irritating at the start, especially with the way that she was handling the situations and jumping to conclusions before getting a proper answer, but I also somewhat understand from her point of view- as she was being kept in the dark about certain things and was being lied to at times.
Honestly I could not ask for a better book, and personally, the plot twist was unexpected for me! I can’t believe Becca ended it just like that, but hopefully the next books will be just as amazing as this one🖤
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood and Death of parent
befsk's review against another edition
1.0
I don't even know how to begin. This book is aimed at teenagers? That's the most horrific part. Impressionable young teenage girls will be reading this thinking that relationships this abusive are 'sexy' and desirable, and that Nora's attitude to her TTLY SRS 2 MONTH RELATIONSHIP is normal and not creepy and over the top at all. It makes me want to gag. She's such an awful role model. At one point she claims she wants to kill herself because she can't be with her boyfriend of 2 months any more. She constantly makes illogical conclusions and decisions, and I've no idea how this shit is popular and quite highly rated on goodreads, because I've never read such trash.
The plot from this was basically the plot from the first book in the series all over again, all the characters were frustrating and Nora became an even bigger twat. I spent most of my time reading it asking myself over and over why anyone would act as she acts about 90% of the time, or think as she thinks. Tip to author - if your character makes out of character choices and decisions all the time that result in tidy plot points appearing out of nowhere, then maybe they have no character at all, and maybe, just maybe, you should try place yourself in your character's shoes instead and think logically what they might do next instead of trying to make things 'fit' with the plot. I give up. I really do. This makes me want to ignore the YA genre for a long, long time.
Because this review is my way of venting about the book, because no one else I know will ever read it and I'm actually glad of that, I'm going to list all the things wrong with the book, starting with the characters (I'm gonna have to leave Nora and Patch out or it will never end) (also, SPOILERS from here on out):
- Vee. In the first book, Vee had a boyfriend who tried to kill Nora. Guess what happened this time? That's right, Vee got another boyfriend who tried to kill Nora! Vee is a great best friend/doormat. Nora just has to ring her and Vee turns into Nora's bitch, giving her rides everywhere, even when Vee isn't going in that direction or anywhere near there, or going anywhere at all. She also encourages Nora to do idiotic things like break into people's houses and steal things, which Nora generally agrees to rather easily considering she's usually uptight and worried about her school work constantly.
- Rixon. In the first book, he was 'funny accent guy', having not much purpose except being Patch's bitch. In this book, he turned into my most hated character, in that he could have, at any time, killed Nora, and instead decided to overdo the theatrics and try kill her in a funhouse only to fail because he was taking too much time. Useless bastard. And, seriously, he was the plot twist? The big bad plot twist? If you didn't see it coming three miles off, you're blind.
- Marcie, oh Marcie. For punching Nora in the eye +100 points. For screaming 'this is for stealing *boy* off me', with Nora replying 'that was _ years ago', despite the blurb to Hush, Hush saying that Nora has never been interested in boys, -50 points (from the author). For holding an idiotic 'typical teenage' party and hiding your diary in such a clichéd place -100 points. For eating up Nora's cast-offs (aka Patch) without a care as to how it looks to others and without wondering why Patch suddenly followed you everywhere -150 points. For being able to convince Nora that your dad is her dad without ever having told her the truth before in your life just because it was convenient to the plot, -500 points from Nora/the author.
- Scott. In the end, what was Scott for? A pity party? A rebound? To see someone get maimed time and time again for pointless reasons? As soon as he turned up acting like Patch's long lost partner in dickheadedness, I was like 'here we fucking go again'. The fact that he didn't see Nora STARING AT PATCH EVERY TIME SCOTT WAS WITH HER was baffling, and that he didn't put two and two together when Patch beat the crap out of him and deduce he was the ex, also baffling. Also, he was friends with Marcie for the purpose of one conversation it seems, which was also weird. Honestly thinking right now, was his only purpose in the book to buy Nora a car? Because he didn't even tell Nora much about 'THE BLACK HAND', except that Nora should have deduced that by Scott saying he'd never forget 'THE BLACK HAND's voice after getting beaten up and mocked by Patch meant that Patch probably wasn't the big bad guy, but NORA MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE WHATSOEVER and instead of jumping to this vaguely logical conclusion she jumps to ones that move the plot in the direction the author wants it to move. God, I fucking hate Nora. And the author.
- Nora's mum. Apparently just decided to go along with marrying someone who wasn't the father of her unborn child, who she'd never met before and she didn't protest at all. Fantastic message to send to teenagers.
- Nora's dad's ghost. Might as well have screamed 'I'M A PLOT POINT'. I actually would've preferred it if Nora had accidentally touched Rixon's back instead of having her dead not-dad turn up and tell her to. Ridiculous.
- Marcie's dad. Great idea, man, becoming rich and powerful and well known and film TV commercials when you're immortal. I have to say, I didn't see the twist coming with him being Nora's dad but that's mainly because Nora's angel blood lineage was traced by Patch to her dad, and it made no sense to take that away and still have her related to Jules from the previous book, but after a very confusing page of explanation that I had to read three times, I think I understand. Wait no, I don't. A female angel takes over a woman human for 2 weeks, gets her pregnant in that time and somehow, the MAGIC FALLEN ANGELNESS stays in the human's body and creates a first-gen Nephil. Okay then.
Miscellaneous complaints:
- The 'plot twists'. No. Most were forseeable from a mile away. Most were the exact same twists as the ones in the first book.
- The 'ending'. How was that an ending? It finished in the middle of a scene. I know you're meant to end on a cliffhanger to make the reader come back for more but that was ridiculous. It wasn't an ending, it was as if she ran out of pages and just cut the story off mid-way through. More money for nothing must be nice, eh?
- Nora never ringing for help. The police at the end of the last book were nice and they were reasonable. At the end of this book, they were nice and reasonable also. Yet Nora, at every opportunity, passed up calling them for help. You get date-rape-drugged and locked in a library? Phone the police? Nah, wander around for a while wasting time, then escape the approaching footsteps by throwing a computer through a window. Someone breaks into your house? Phone the police? Nah, talk to him while he approaches you menacingly and only phone the police when he's knocked unconscious by your ex's best mate who coincidentally appeared.
Seriously speaking, the page where Nora described staying up all night thinking about killing herself because she couldn't be with Patch, who she has known for 2 months, had me tearing my hair out. YA vampire/angel type books do this sometimes, the girl acts as if she couldn't live without the guy. I guess the authors must justify this to themselves by thinking that this is not a normal situation, that these impressionable young teenage girls they aim their books at don't actually date vampires and angels, so they won't think their situation compares to the ones in the book. But teenage girls, a lot of the time, think that their first love is everything. So if these protagonists in these books they love so much say they want to kill themselves because THEIR super-special-supernatural love has dumped them after two months, they won't think in terms of reality. They'll take it as encouragement, or normal behaviour, and convince themselves they feel the same, and teen suicide rates will increase and it will be all these shitty piss-poor author's faults.
The plot from this was basically the plot from the first book in the series all over again, all the characters were frustrating and Nora became an even bigger twat. I spent most of my time reading it asking myself over and over why anyone would act as she acts about 90% of the time, or think as she thinks. Tip to author - if your character makes out of character choices and decisions all the time that result in tidy plot points appearing out of nowhere, then maybe they have no character at all, and maybe, just maybe, you should try place yourself in your character's shoes instead and think logically what they might do next instead of trying to make things 'fit' with the plot. I give up. I really do. This makes me want to ignore the YA genre for a long, long time.
Because this review is my way of venting about the book, because no one else I know will ever read it and I'm actually glad of that, I'm going to list all the things wrong with the book, starting with the characters (I'm gonna have to leave Nora and Patch out or it will never end) (also, SPOILERS from here on out):
- Vee. In the first book, Vee had a boyfriend who tried to kill Nora. Guess what happened this time? That's right, Vee got another boyfriend who tried to kill Nora! Vee is a great best friend/doormat. Nora just has to ring her and Vee turns into Nora's bitch, giving her rides everywhere, even when Vee isn't going in that direction or anywhere near there, or going anywhere at all. She also encourages Nora to do idiotic things like break into people's houses and steal things, which Nora generally agrees to rather easily considering she's usually uptight and worried about her school work constantly.
- Rixon. In the first book, he was 'funny accent guy', having not much purpose except being Patch's bitch. In this book, he turned into my most hated character, in that he could have, at any time, killed Nora, and instead decided to overdo the theatrics and try kill her in a funhouse only to fail because he was taking too much time. Useless bastard. And, seriously, he was the plot twist? The big bad plot twist? If you didn't see it coming three miles off, you're blind.
- Marcie, oh Marcie. For punching Nora in the eye +100 points. For screaming 'this is for stealing *boy* off me', with Nora replying 'that was _ years ago', despite the blurb to Hush, Hush saying that Nora has never been interested in boys, -50 points (from the author). For holding an idiotic 'typical teenage' party and hiding your diary in such a clichéd place -100 points. For eating up Nora's cast-offs (aka Patch) without a care as to how it looks to others and without wondering why Patch suddenly followed you everywhere -150 points. For being able to convince Nora that your dad is her dad without ever having told her the truth before in your life just because it was convenient to the plot, -500 points from Nora/the author.
- Scott. In the end, what was Scott for? A pity party? A rebound? To see someone get maimed time and time again for pointless reasons? As soon as he turned up acting like Patch's long lost partner in dickheadedness, I was like 'here we fucking go again'. The fact that he didn't see Nora STARING AT PATCH EVERY TIME SCOTT WAS WITH HER was baffling, and that he didn't put two and two together when Patch beat the crap out of him and deduce he was the ex, also baffling. Also, he was friends with Marcie for the purpose of one conversation it seems, which was also weird. Honestly thinking right now, was his only purpose in the book to buy Nora a car? Because he didn't even tell Nora much about 'THE BLACK HAND', except that Nora should have deduced that by Scott saying he'd never forget 'THE BLACK HAND's voice after getting beaten up and mocked by Patch meant that Patch probably wasn't the big bad guy, but NORA MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE WHATSOEVER and instead of jumping to this vaguely logical conclusion she jumps to ones that move the plot in the direction the author wants it to move. God, I fucking hate Nora. And the author.
- Nora's mum. Apparently just decided to go along with marrying someone who wasn't the father of her unborn child, who she'd never met before and she didn't protest at all. Fantastic message to send to teenagers.
- Nora's dad's ghost. Might as well have screamed 'I'M A PLOT POINT'. I actually would've preferred it if Nora had accidentally touched Rixon's back instead of having her dead not-dad turn up and tell her to. Ridiculous.
- Marcie's dad. Great idea, man, becoming rich and powerful and well known and film TV commercials when you're immortal. I have to say, I didn't see the twist coming with him being Nora's dad but that's mainly because Nora's angel blood lineage was traced by Patch to her dad, and it made no sense to take that away and still have her related to Jules from the previous book, but after a very confusing page of explanation that I had to read three times, I think I understand. Wait no, I don't. A female angel takes over a woman human for 2 weeks, gets her pregnant in that time and somehow, the MAGIC FALLEN ANGELNESS stays in the human's body and creates a first-gen Nephil. Okay then.
Miscellaneous complaints:
- The 'plot twists'. No. Most were forseeable from a mile away. Most were the exact same twists as the ones in the first book.
- The 'ending'. How was that an ending? It finished in the middle of a scene. I know you're meant to end on a cliffhanger to make the reader come back for more but that was ridiculous. It wasn't an ending, it was as if she ran out of pages and just cut the story off mid-way through. More money for nothing must be nice, eh?
- Nora never ringing for help. The police at the end of the last book were nice and they were reasonable. At the end of this book, they were nice and reasonable also. Yet Nora, at every opportunity, passed up calling them for help. You get date-rape-drugged and locked in a library? Phone the police? Nah, wander around for a while wasting time, then escape the approaching footsteps by throwing a computer through a window. Someone breaks into your house? Phone the police? Nah, talk to him while he approaches you menacingly and only phone the police when he's knocked unconscious by your ex's best mate who coincidentally appeared.
Seriously speaking, the page where Nora described staying up all night thinking about killing herself because she couldn't be with Patch, who she has known for 2 months, had me tearing my hair out. YA vampire/angel type books do this sometimes, the girl acts as if she couldn't live without the guy. I guess the authors must justify this to themselves by thinking that this is not a normal situation, that these impressionable young teenage girls they aim their books at don't actually date vampires and angels, so they won't think their situation compares to the ones in the book. But teenage girls, a lot of the time, think that their first love is everything. So if these protagonists in these books they love so much say they want to kill themselves because THEIR super-special-supernatural love has dumped them after two months, they won't think in terms of reality. They'll take it as encouragement, or normal behaviour, and convince themselves they feel the same, and teen suicide rates will increase and it will be all these shitty piss-poor author's faults.
lorilaws's review against another edition
3.0
Where to start..Where to start. First let me say I loved Hush, Hush. I loved the whole concept of the fallen angels. (It was a new concept at the time Hush, Hush was released.) Crescendo fell very short for me. Maybe it has the sequel syndrome. Where you expect a book to be as good, or better than the one before it. Maybe it's just a stepping stone book, and the next installment will be great. Whatever the reason, Crescendo was a disappointment.
It started out great. I was sucked right into the storyline, but then the petty childish fights started between Patch and Nora, and ruined everything. If there is one thing I hate it is immature fights for no reason. Sure, there was a reason, but Nora actions still made zero sense. One minute she was angry about one thing, then the next she had completely forgotten about that one thing and was angry about something else. She wasn't consistent at all. I would have been able to tolerate the silly fights much more if they would have been consistent. Add all of this on top of the fact that Nora makes decisions throughout the novel that make no sense, and all she does is cry and you have a excellent read. (Heavy sarcasm)
The plot is still interesting, I just found it hard to get past all the character issues. Will I still give book 3 a chance? Yes, but if I write another review like this one for it, there will be no chance for book 4.
I still gave this book 3 stars, out of the goodness of my heart. It could have easily been 2 stars.
It started out great. I was sucked right into the storyline, but then the petty childish fights started between Patch and Nora, and ruined everything. If there is one thing I hate it is immature fights for no reason. Sure, there was a reason, but Nora actions still made zero sense. One minute she was angry about one thing, then the next she had completely forgotten about that one thing and was angry about something else. She wasn't consistent at all. I would have been able to tolerate the silly fights much more if they would have been consistent. Add all of this on top of the fact that Nora makes decisions throughout the novel that make no sense, and all she does is cry and you have a excellent read. (Heavy sarcasm)
The plot is still interesting, I just found it hard to get past all the character issues. Will I still give book 3 a chance? Yes, but if I write another review like this one for it, there will be no chance for book 4.
I still gave this book 3 stars, out of the goodness of my heart. It could have easily been 2 stars.