Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Series: Hush, Hush #1
Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on October 13, 2009
Genre: Angels, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Pages: 391
Source: Purchased
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Rating: ★★★★

A SACRED OATH
A FALLEN ANGEL
A FORBIDDEN LOVE

Romance was not part of Nora Grey's plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen — and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

Before starting Hush, Hush, I was about 120 pages into Seraphina by Rachel Hartman and totally stuck. So when I cast Seraphina aside unfinished, I was grumpy and wanted an awesome book. Hush, Hush totally sucked me in. It took me two days to get through 120 pages of Seraphina, but only about two hours to get through the same amount of pages in Hush, Hush. Man, I was hooked!

This book is intriguing. Hush, Hush is so full of mystery that it totally draws you in and has you begging for more. I wanted to find answers! I wanted to know the truth! What the heck was going on??

Okay, Vee isn’t the main character; she’s actually Nora’s best friend. But I’m going to start with her because she is awesome! I’ll admit she did start annoying me in the second half of the book, but in the first half she is absolutely hilarious! She’s a little crazy, and some might say she’s a little too carefree, but I adored her! I wish I had a best friend like her! But then in the second half I feel like she became a little clueless and seemed to have very little common sense.

Nora was a good character too, but in hindsight, there wasn’t much about her that drew me in. I didn’t think about this at all when I was reading, but looking back, she doesn’t stand out that much. She is really curious though and I love her determination to get to the bottom of things. I feel like I totally wouldn’t be like that. If there was a weird guy in my biology class I’d just write him off as being a weirdo. I wouldn’t be determined to find out more and convinced that there was something paranormal about him!

The one thing I didn’t like in this book was the romance. I didn’t hate it, but I just didn’t resonate with it. I felt like it came out of nowhere. I mean, Patch and Nora barely know each other. They never talk. Patch seems to magically know facts about Nora and her life, but she knows nothing about him and they only hung out socially once. Then suddenly he’s all like, “I care about you more than anything,” and throwing out all sorts of similar phrases that basically equate to “I love you more than my own life.” I was just like, “woah, slow down, where did that come from?” I mean other than the sexual tension (which I’d consider lust rather than actual romance/love), I felt like there was very little there. But the sexual tension was TOTALLY HOT!! Most of the book is about Nora trying to figure out Patch by interrogating other people about him. They only actually sit down and chat with each other two or three times.

Another thing that caused me to not get sold on the romance was Patch himself. I had a hard time believing in his feelings for Nora when we learned that he’d been in love twice before. I mean, I know it’s possible to love more than one person in your life, but seeing it in writing (especially when combined with the almost-insta-love described above) kind of cheapened it for me. I couldn’t help but think: how are your feelings for Nora so special when there have already been two other women in your life that you fell head over heels in love with?

I thought that the fallen angel story was absolutely awesome. In fact, I was a little bummed that we didn’t get more of it (maybe in later books?). I was dying to learn more about the angels’ history, their rules, their hierarchy, and so on.

The main thing that Hush, Hush has going for it is that it’s a quick read — not in length, but in the way it hooked me in. I was interested! I wanted to know what happened next so I read and read and read, with very few breaks! If it weren’t for the fast moving, totally enticing plot, I probably would have given this book three stars because of all my little annoyances. But most of those things I didn’t even think about until afterwards when I was reflecting on the book. In the moment, I was just focused on how addicted I was to reading the book and figuring out what would happen next.

I definitely think there’s a cool story here and I’ll be picking up the second book! Reading Hush, Hush was also kind of a test because Becca Fitzpatrick will be in London in November and I decided that if I liked Hush, Hush I’d attend her book signing! So it looks like I’ll probably be going!

The Verdict