Crescendo - Becca Fitzpatrick

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
Genre: YA Fantasy

Blurb (on back of book): 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 archenemy, 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.

MY OPINION: **

**SPOILERS AHEAD (BUT NOTHING TOO MAJOR)**
**THIS IS A REALLY LONG REVIEW😟**

I don't even know what to say about this book, only that I had really high expectations for it and I ended up not liking it as much as I thought it would.

I read through a TON of reviews, very mixed reviews at that, that said that they either absolutely HATED the book or LOVED it. I'm somewhere in between that range but leaning more towards the former. There were just so many things about it that I couldn't help but not give it a higher rating.

The first book was mediocre. I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it extraordinarily. But this book was completely different and I couldn't help but not love it.

Let's talk about the plot or lack thereof. I think that in this book, the author had no idea where it was going. Things didn't make sense, there was a lot of plot holes, and some things fell short of what they could have been. I think that the book had a lot of potential, to say the least, but it didn't have the proper fulfillment to be GOOD. Basically, we have Nora, our MC tell her boyfriend, Patch, that she loves him, finds out he can't vocally answer the way she wants him to, and break up with him horribly and then, to top it all off, spend the next gazillion pages complaining about how she wants him back but she doesn't. On top of all that, we have some more angel, Nephilim, fallen angel type stuff that to me, was a little confusing. However, I will give it points to say that it was intricate and a lot more well-thought out than the "romance" aspect of this book.

Nora. I wanted to love her, I really did. I'm notorious for NOT loving the protagonist but I really tried with Nora. However, she was just so STUPID that I gave up. I've never meant a "dumber" character. She proceeds to break up with her boyfriend, sees him going out with her nemesis, decides to further torture herself by going places with yet another bad boy to see if he's there, and lo and behold, of course he's there, but he's with Marcie, the evil girl of the story. Then she finds out that her real dad isn't the guy she thought it was and instead she and Marcie are sisters. She also has tons of unanswered questions about everything and she doesn't even care to ask Patch about anything, though she's thinking about them. On top of all that, she BLOCKS Patch out when he's trying to warn her of future danger and then proceeds to do everything she can to see him.

And that's not even the half of it.

She insists on being a "rebel" by going out with Scott Parnell, this really bad boy who has some Nephilim blood running through his veins and is immortal. She's easily fooled by him and then he tries to kill her and she's stupid enough to try to run and instead crash into someone far worse, who shall not be named because I don't want to give too much away. She goes to pool bars and clubs that are in the bad area of her town. She sneaks into Marcie's room to steal her diary only decides to NOT read it in an effort to "be good" and do her conscience a favor.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one thing: she's a horrible friend.

She treats Vee like crap, even though Vee was the only character who had any soul in this story. Vee was always there for Nora and in return for her friendship, she's treated like trash. At one point in the story (and I had to save this for the review), Nora says, and I QUOTE, "She could be obnoxious, annoying, and lazy..." NOBODY SAYS THAT ABOUT THEIR SUPPOSED BEST FRIENDS. She's also jealous of Vee for having a boyfriend when she did the same exact thing to Vee. When she tries to put herself into Vee's shoes, she decides that she should just let it go, like she has the right to decide who Vee dates.

Anyway, that's just one character.

Patch Cipriano. In the first book, I definitely loved his character and his personality and his overwhelming bravery and urge to protect Nora. In this book, I didn't admire him as much as I did before, but his actions were justified. He still obviously cared about Nora whose pride and amazing stubbornness refused to let her see that. He found a way to protect her even though he was risking his life with the archangels. He came to her aid whenever she needed it. He saved her life in this book. He's also wildly romantic, if not a little dangerous. I think that bad boys are becoming a trend in books and Patch fit the description but I thought it was an accurate representation of how they could change.

Patch IS a violent character. "Touch her... and it'll be the biggest regret of your life." This can be seen as romantic in some eyes or dangerous in others. I personally see it as a little bit of both. Violence is not the answer but it does show how committed he is to protecting Nora, even when they've broken up. However, one thing I really loved about him is that he was capable of FEELINGS. This is rare in books these days because they always show the bad boys as being cold and unfeeling. However, Patch says things like "I thought I got there too late. I thought you were dead." He obviously cares for her and is not afraid to show it.

Scott. I didn't necessarily hate him but I did think Nora was a little dense to think that she could trust him. From the start, he was very suspicious and trust me, if Nora's MOM caught on to that, that shows you something. But Nora's thick-headed skull decides to go with this guy, only to get herself into even more danger. Scott did manage to slightly redeem himself but the things he did could not be forgiven just like that. However, Scott had the decency to be honest to Nora, which is what counts.

Marcie. She's labeled as a slut from the beginning by both Vee and Nora, and even Patch, who claims that she's "easy" and someone he wants to be with (no commitments). However, I think Marcie was overly slut-shamed. It's not fair that a girl should be labeled a slut while the boys get to roam free. In another book I read, this was addressed (can't remember the title) and I remember feeling like it was definitely an important topic to broach. Marcie was pure evil and at some point in the book, I remember thinking "HOW CAN SOMEONE BE THIS MEAN" which is somewhere close to Nora's thoughts. However, I learned to understand Marcie better and just realized that she doesn't have a picture-perfect life like everyone believed.

I would go into more detail about the story and everything that happened but I'm afraid this review is scandalously long. I would just like to say that I appreciated the writing itself. It was elaborate and didn't leave readers hanging. Will I read the next books? Yes, probably, if not only to see how the whole series ends. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a darker fantasy series.

Main Character: Nora
Sidekick(s): Patch, Vee, Scott??, etc
Villain(s): Marcie, Rixon, Scott??, etc
Fantasy Elements: This book was all purely from the imagination.