Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Crescendo	Loved it	Graded
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Genre: Here
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Elements: Angels
Series: Book 2 of the Hush, Hush series

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?

I was really excited for CRESCENDO. Despite giving a good review to HUSH, HUSH, I did read the other reviews and take their points into consideration. And look at the description! It sounds fantastic.

CRESCENDO sadly fell into the sequel slump that usually occurs for movies. It also occasionally suffered from what I term too much Twi-wareness. Now those of you who've read HUSH, HUSH might have noticed the comparisons to TWILIGHT.

Which, to be fair, every YA book is compared to TWILIGHT.

But still.

I found myself reading scenes which reminded me of TWILIGHT where Nora was in the moment, and she suddenly has an epiphany which sounded a bit too much like a handy dandy explanation of why she was doing it. Example: she's hanging out with this socially unacceptable guy, and oh! It's because of some events that happened before.

Dude. I wanted a heroine who was aware of why she did what she did, but really, that was a wee bit too convenient. It broke my concentration, and instead of being impressed with how well she knew herself, I found myself feeling more of a disappointment.

Especially since there was no Patch to look forward to. Ahhh Patch. You're a jerkface, but you're pretty much carrying the whole story. And with no Patch? I wasn't interested.

The story-telling was uneven, with a premise and a plot that was very promising but weren't even carried out one quarter throughout the book. (Summer school what? Working for a car what?) Say what you will about HUSH, HUSH, but it was consistent, and had characters that, while two dimensional at times, managed to surprise me.

So. Only a couple of issues I had with it. Great start, sucky middle, good couple of last pages. Let's hope book three will be awesome, and have loads of Patch.