Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Hush. Hush #2

     "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. A mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever (if that's possible) and what's worse, he seems to be spending time with Nora's arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.

     Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has 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 feelings that he is hiding something.

     If that weren't enough, Nora is haunted by images of her murdered father and comes to question whether her Nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death. Desperate to figure out what happened, she puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations to get the answer. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts."

Another re-read review. I also read this book about a year ago. My initial feeling about this book was that I didn't like it as much, but at the same time, it was better than the first. Both are still true. While the plot of this book is way more interesting, but the characters act like a bunch of children. Yeah, I know that Nora, Vee, and Marcie are 'technically' children since they are barely 16 years old. But the crap they pull and say to one another is so far beyond the spectrum from what I encountered when I was that age it seems overly dramatic and petty. Marcie's a hate is completely misdirected. She should be angrier at her dad, than Nora.

Then when Nora yells at Patch for talking to Marcie, I just really want to shove her in a barrel. She over-reacts in the most extreme way. Also, as much as I like the idea of her having a sassy best friend, Vee is actually pretty rude. Rubbing what happened between Nora and Patch in her face. It's not something I would assume a good friend would do, or at the very least be a little nicer about it. The first 20% of the book is like a crappy teen soap opera. But when the talk of The Black Hand starts, the rest of the book really picks up and becomes pretty interesting.

The introduction of Scott and their first couple interactions make you assume that it will lead to the dreaded "second book curse", and bring about a love triangle, thankfully it's squashed very quickly. But Nora learns something about Scott that makes her want to know more about what he is hiding, Scott becomes a person of interest in her father's death, well as far as Nora is concerned he is.

I am glad to point out that Nora isn't as gullible and naive as she was in the first book, but some of her decisions are insufferably immature, regardless of her age. This book is much better than the first, as far as the plot goes, it's just the character's actions in the first few chapters that get on my nerves, still recommend this series.