Saturday, November 6, 2010

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

I won a signed copy of Halo from Between the Covers Book Blog's Angels and Demons Contest around Halloween and when the package came today, I picked it up and started reading. I had not heard about this book prior to the contest and boy would I have missed out. The basic premise is that three angels are sent to Earth to a small coastal town and the youngest of these angels, Bethany, meets a human boy and falls in love with him. The story is not all hearts and flowers and there are a number of points in the story where the evil that the angels are supposed to be combating comes into the picture.

I love that Alexandra has written the story in such a way that faith seems natural and accessible. You can feel that Bethany has really experienced the life of an angel in Heaven and that she is very much out of her element in the first few weeks on Earth. I also appreciated that Bethany does confront normal, natural teenage emotions. She has to come to terms with her desire for Xavier and how it conflicts with her angelic nature. I was glad to see that dealt with since this is a YA novel that is geared for teens. Teens don't need you to pretend that sex doesn't exist or that no one in their right mind is having sex. They need to see the topic handled in a mature way- which this book does. Xavier is a great hero who is smart, funny, brave, kind and of course, romantic. He is not perfect by any means but I think it is wonderful to see such a well rounded, down to Earth male character. I also like that even though Xavier is human, he does everything in his limited power to care for and protect Bethany. Towards the end of the book we see our first villain. Jake is a pretty decent villain because even Bethany doesn't see him as what he really is for some time. I think that overall, this book is excellent. I can't wait to see how the rest of the Halo Series turns out.

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