Halo (Halo Trilogy, 1)

I loved, loved, loved this book!!!!!! I fell head over heels in love with this book!!! There are so many negative reviews about this series, that I put it off and put it off. I never should have done that. Once I started reading it, I couldn't find anything I didn't like. This book captured me, and I fell in love with the world the Alexandra created. All of the characters were amazing, especially Xavier and Gabriel. Three angels came to Venus Cove to balance out the evil with good. Ivy and Gabriel has done this before, but it was a new experience to Bethany. She has never experienced anything like that before. She starts school and meets a friend named Molly. Also, Xavier starts paying attention to her which makes other girls jealous. All is good for awhile with the angels helping the town. Bethany and Xavier also fell for each other. Everything was perfect until Jake showed up. Bad things started to happen especially when Bethany turned him down. He was doing whatever it took to make her his. Xavier won me over from the beginning. I absolutely fell in love with him. After Emily died, he put a wall up and wouldn't let anybody in. That all changed once Bethany came to town. Watching that wall break, and seeing the new light in his eyes was so touching. He can protect me anytime. The romance was to die for!!!! I loved all of their scenes together. I only wish that they would have gotten to go to the prom together. I didn't understand why the angels couldn't heal him. I loved Bethany as a character. I got to enjoy experiencing new things as she experienced them for the first time. She isn't like the other angels. She connects to humans and Earth more easily than they do. It was nice watching her grow through the story. She started off so fragile, but then became strong. I loved her brother and sister, Gabriel and Ivy. I can't wait to see what happens with them. They seemed to ease up in the story. They even started liking Molly and Xavier. I can't wait to read Hades to get some more of Xavier!!! Of course, I want to know what happens next. I am already in love with this series!!! The characters and the story was beautifully written. I recommend this to all who love angel stories with an amazing romance!!!!

I love these books so much. Great romance fantasy for teens or adults.

Among all of the young adult fantasy hit series and trilogies that I've read, this one is my very favorite. This was written by an author who was actually still in her teens at the time and she deserves much credit for touching on those issues in a more realistic way. Secondly, Adornetto has admitted to basing the character of Angel Bethany (Church) on herself, which was smart since teenagers are still developing into the world and still don't really know that much outside of it. And third, instead of having the main characters ascend onto Earth exclusively to fight against the Dark Agents, Adornetto has them also has them blend in and do works in their community simultaneously. Archangel Gabriel is assigned as a music teacher and Angel Bethany as a student to Bryce Hamilton, a local Catholic high school in their fictional coastline town called Venus Cove. Against Heaven's rules, Angel Bethany shortly meets and falls for a fellow student named Xavier Woods who is the captain of the school and also plays several sports. What's worse is that Xavier returns these feelings and is willing to sacrifice his very life for her even though he's only human. Shortly, thereafter, another new student who claims his name is Jake Thorn and that he's from England arrives and also poses as a student. From the beginning, Jake gives the air of the polite bad boy yet it doesn't take a rocket scientist to sense that something is seriously off about him and in a very negative way. To make matters worse, he seems to share Xavier's feelings for Angel Bethany and tries to lure her to him. It doesn't take much to win my respect but I am absolutely in awe of Alexandra Adornetto. That she had the courage to take on something so potentially controversial yet something that just touches to core of the heart at such a young age. After all, she was only a senior in high school herself when she wrote Halo.

After reading some of the scathing reviews of this book, I decided it needed someone to highlight its good aspects. I think a lot of the readers who bash it have forgotten that it is a YOUNG ADULT novel, and therefore is not written to be as mesmerizing as Ayn Rand, Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, etc. With all of the hype over vampires, werewolves, and the like these days, I found it to be refreshing to read about angels for a change. Adornetto has done her research, describing the angelic hierarchy in describing the difference between seraphim angels and arch angels, which is very well done. Beth being the youngest angel and made more like a teenager than her two siblings, I believe the author did a very good job showing that Beth would be filled with questions about human life and would be susceptible to falling in innocent love with a human. Being the first book in a trilogy, it does contain a lot of background and hence has some slower points, but overall my opinion of the book is that it is great for younger readers. The 400+ pages are very easy to get through in a day's time for an avid reader. For a young adult novel, I thought the content was appropriate, and the main character adequately reflected the thoughts and actions of someone in that time of her life. Very well done. I have not yet read the second book, but do plan on reading the rest of the trilogy. Since these are the author's first books, I am looking forward to seeing more from her as her talent becomes more defined.

I don't know why people gave this book such bad reviews. It's a pretty good book. Three angels are sent from heaven to help bring good to a small town. Bethany/Beth is the youngest off the three angels and is most human. She starts going to school and there she meets Xavier (Who you can't but love) and things get a little messy. I'm not going to lie this book is slow, but it's not a boring slow. If you like romance then the slow start won't bother you, but if you don't then it will bore you. Beth is a likeable character and very curious, Xavier is so sweet you'll fall in love with him and Jake is just pure evil, I hate him! Overall it is a good read. 4.5****

The three angels Bethany, Gabriel and Ivy are sent on earth. In a small town they try to adjust to their human form and to perform good deeds to reduce the influence of the Agents of Darkness in the world. While her brother, the warrior Gabriel, and her sister, the healer Ivy, are older angels and have problems to blend in, Bethany is just an ordinary angel of seventeen years. She is nearly as vulnerable as a human and fascinated about earth and humanity. Despite her orders she wants to interact with humans. As she is send to highschool to drive away the evil influence in the young, she sees her opportunity to get to know some of the humans around. And there is one special boy – Xavier - who intrigues her and gives her a feeling that she has not known before. The story is told by Bethany. She is an angel but as she is so young her thoughts and emotions are typical for a YA book . The other two treat her like that also, they don't share all the informations about the mission with her. The story starts somehow slow – her impressions of the earth are told and all about the time they need to adjust to their earthbound form. The decision to inscribe her to the high school was a cliché and I didn't like that to much, as it's always the same story: new pupil – with a great secret - comes to high school and finds his/her love. And yes it is also a lovestory that has its cliches. But always when I was starting to get bored from the story about Beth and Xavier a scene where she is feeling and thinking more like an angel than a teen interrupts it. And I really liked her siblings and all the scenes about their family-life at home. Neither the story nor the characters are new or surprising. Some chapters I loved – others I found boring, and some decisions mostly from Beth I found just stupid. So as a summary I give 2,5 points.

Es muy hermosa esta historia y me parece muy dulce y juvenil la manera de escribirla

Halo, une nouvelle saga sur les anges qui a commencé à faire parler d'elle aux USA vient de prendre place dans les sagas desquelles je veux absolument la suite, non seulement parce que le premier tome ne nous en dit pas assez, mais aussi parce qu'on veut obligatoirement connaître la suite des aventures de Bethany et Xavier sans attendre. On se retrouve plongé dans un univers totalement nouveau pour un livre angélique, j'ai été très agréablement surpris par les créatures divines que l'auteure nous a créé. On repart sur les "vraies" bases avec de bons et de mauvais anges, une bataille contre le bien et le mal, et le pouvoir d'un amour si fort qu'il pourrait bien tout dévaster... D'ailleurs, cet amour est celui de Beth et Xavier. Bon, petit ( gros quelque fois ) bémol, ce livre est vraiment pour les romantiques, car leur histoire est toute belle, toute jolie, toute rose... Elle m'a parfois fait penser à celle de la saga "Le Baiser De L'ange", c'est un petit bonbon à la fraise, doux et sucré. De plus, ne vous attendez pas à de grandes surprises avant d'avoir passé la moitié du livre, les premières pages se concentrent essentiellement sur les légendes, les histoires des anges, leur création et bien sûr, la naissance des liens entre Xavier et Bethany. Ce moins est par contre oublié grâce à l'humour qui règne dans le roman et grâce à l'atmosphère sereine mais pensante qui nous entoure, car on sait que quelque chose va arriver, le problème, c'est de savoir quand ! J'ai ressenti plusieurs fois ces petits papillons au ventre quand l'adrénaline grimpe, et c'était vraiment excitant de savoir ce que l'histoire allait nous réserver. Mais, malgré les péripéties nombreuses et les moments d'angoisse, j'ai tout de même trouvé l'ouvrage un peu trop lent, trop répétitif et doté de pas mal de clichés ( ex : toutes les lycéennes sont des gossip girls sans coeur et les lycéens sont des rugbymans qui ne pensent qu'à boire et oublier les règles instaurer par leur établissement scolaire. ). Mais pour lutter contre cela, Ivy et Gabriel sont aussi présents dans l'histoire, et, bien qu'au départ ils me semblaient inutiles, la fin m'a réservé beaucoup de surprises de leur côté. Avant de parler de la fin, revenons sur le milieu de livre, c'est là que l'histoire commence réellement à devenir intéressante, lors de l'arrivée de Jake... Un adolescent mystérieux pleins de ( mauvaises ) surprises... Mais attention, les apparences peuvent être trompeuses. A partir du moment où ce dernier est présent, l'histoire prend une tournure plus noire, plus intrigante, et on dévore la fin avec une envie nouvelle. Entre rituels des ténèbres, anges noirs, amour destiné à être brisé, meurtres et frissons, les dernières lignes se dégustent tant elles nous fascinent. Vous l'aurez compris, j'attends de pied ferme le second tome de Halo, bien que le début est était un peu décevant... Mais ne vous y fiez pas, le reste de l'histoire est très beau de par l'histoire d'amour mature et magique qui lie nos deux personnages et le fait que le suspense nous oppresse dès les deux-cents cinquante pages passées.

I got these books as a birthday gift for my wife. She has already started reading them, and if she likes them I am sure she will tell me that I must read them as well.