Book Review: Hush Hush

TITLE: Hush Hush
Book 1 in the Hush Hush Trilogy
AUTHOR: Becca Fitzpatrick
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: angels, urban fantasy, romance
PREMISE: Nora meets Patch during biology and is confused about him. Then people start turning up dead. Is Patch responsible?
MY REVIEW: Okay, I've been avoiding this book for two reasons: mixed reviews and I don't get this whole angel trend that's been going on. A lot of people have been comparing this one to Twilight and calling it a rip-off of it and for that reason I've stayed away because as I've said before: I can't stand Twilight. Having read it now, I definitely see the Twilight comparisons but this is SO much better. Not utterly fantastic because there are still issues in it, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Issues in it are that the relationship between Nora and Patch is kind of creepy and I'm not sure I'm one hundred percent for it. But it's a complicated relationship and I do see Nora's attraction and it helps that Nora doesn't go around saying "oh Patch and I are soulmates! We're going to be together forever!" from the moment they meet. Actually she never says the s word. Other issues is that the writing felt off in some places. I think the problem is that Fitzpatrick tried too hard to emulate Twilight in order to appeal to Twihards. Because a lot of the time it was good. But then there'd be these random flowery descriptions or scenes that felt very familiar and that took away some of the enjoyment. Plus it got repetitive in the middle a bit.
However, there is definite potential here. While the Nora/Patch vibe is creepy, it is also an interesting relationship (something Twilight sorely lacked) and I'm going to be curious about where she takes it because judging from the summary of the next book, she's not going to do a Breaking Dawn-everything-happily-ever-after thing. The mystery part of it was fun (and again in the second one it looks like there's more mystery), plus Vee who was hilarious. So yes, some flaws to this but overall a very decent first book and I look forward to reading the next one which is out now.
WHO SHOULD READ: Twilight fans, Fallen fans, angel fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five feathers

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