[Book Review] Crescendo, by Becca Fitzpatrick

Crescendo, by Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush, #2)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Released: October 19, 2010
Pages: (Hardcover) 427
Young Adult

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.

When I first started Crescendo, I was in a reading slump since I had been pouring all of my extra time into writing, and so I didn't read much in the beginning. I read the first book, Hush, Hush, back in July 2010 (You can read my review of it on my old review blog here and it's also on my Goodreads.)and though I liked it a lot, it wasn't a favorite.

I've been meaning to read this sequel ever since, but haven't gotten around to it until now. I couldn't get into it right away, but after I picked it up again when I had some free time and wanted to read, I really got into it. I started it up again a few nights ago and haven't been able to put it down. Last night I stayed up until three in the morning reading it!

You don't see as much of Patch in this book as you do in the first book, which I was kind of sad about since I had grown to really like Patch. But the times he is in here you're kind of suspicious about him, at least I was. Though I was still sitting there like:

You get to meet a new character as well, Scott, who moves back to Coldwater with his mom and who has a lot of dark secrets. For the longest time I didn't trust him one bit, nor did I really like him much, but now because of the end of the book I hope he comes up in the next two books so we can learn more about that. 

Nora, as always, kind of annoys me with how she acts with some things and always gets herself into more trouble, BUT she does stand up for herself and tries to do things alone without having to ask a guy for help which doesn't come up very often in YA. Normally YA girls are always damsels in distress who need saving every five minutes and who actually call for it. Though she does need saving quite a bit, but she doesn't call for it she tries to fix it herself. 

And Vee, Nora's best friend, I didn't like her much in the first book; she annoyed me quite a bit. She still does annoy me a bit, that's just her nature, but I've grown to love her. :) I especially love her and Nora's relationship. 

And Rixon, God, I thought he was awesome for a while, but wow. I'm not going to go into those details. 

I'm really glad Nora reveals some answers of secrets she didn't even know about in this book. I love the mystery edge to it mixed in with the fallen angels. I definitely can't wait to get my hands on the next two books after that cliff hanger. Seriously left off mid scene and I thought I was going to throw the book across the room, though I really wouldn't do that. I promise. 

Becca has a great way of creating lots of detail that pulls you in and makes you believe everything in the book is really happening. My husband had to repeat things a million times and then finally start banging on stuff to get my attention quite a few times while I was reading it. I was so intrigued by everything my eyes just couldn't catch up to how fast I really wanted to read. 

Overall, I liked this a lot more than the first book and I need to get my hands on the next two books. Will definitely try my best to read them back to back so I can finish the series. Though I have a feeling I'm going to be upset when the series ends. I'm still upset right now that I finished Crescendo because I'm trying to start reading another book, but I'm still stuck in Nora's world. 

The last two books in the series are: Silence and Finale.

I will definitely be writing more reviews on this blog as I finish some books. I love reviewing books, but I just don't have time to keep up with a full time review blog like I was doing, nor have the time to fly through books like I normally do since I'm trying to finish writing my own book.