Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
Buy Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: Follow up to Hush Hush, this is an enjoyable paranormal romance, and fans of the genre will love it. It's a tried and tested formula, but it's well done and it works.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 432	Date: October 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 1847387195
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We last saw Nora and Patch at the end of Hush, Hush - lovely title, that! - battered after a Nephilim conflict, but very much together. Patch is no longer fallen, has been given back guardian angel status and the threat to Nora is no more. You'd think everything would go swimmingly after that, wouldn't you? But you know and I know that falling in love with any kind of angel, fallen or otherwise, isn't conducive to a normal life.

The archangels disapprove of their relationship, Patch starts spending more and more time with Marcie, Nora's sworn enemy, and Nora starts to see her murdered father, alive, well and walking down the street. Determined to find out exactly what is going on, Nora delves deeper and deeper into the darker reaches of the Nephilim and angel world. She knows she's putting herself in danger, but she doesn't realise quite how much. Is Patch watching over her? Or is he hiding the ultimate betrayal?

Crescendo follows tried and tested romantic fiction mores, in which the conflict between Patch and Nora is based on misunderstandings and poor communication between them, and on his ultimate unattainability as an angel. It's infuriating as it always is, but it does create for some great sexual tension, which Fitzpatrick is great at. The book is hot! Underneath the romance, there's a paranormal thriller and a mystery to be solved. Who did kill Nora's father? This is also well-handled. I'm not known for my mystery-solving talent but even so, I genuinely had no idea as to the villain's identity until Fitzpatrick told me.

I like the relationship between Nora and her best friend Vee - there's great affection between them but they do keep secrets from one another and aren't always as reliable friends as they could be - the whole dynamic rings true. Marcie, Nora's nemesis, is beautifully nasty. I probably shouldn't like her, but I do. She owns the killer one-liner.

On the downside, Nora does even more stupid things than your average romantic heroine does and her supposedly over-protective mother leaves her to her own devices far too often. Fitzpatrick does this to set Nora up for various brushes with death, but sometimes it lacks a bit of credibility. However, this is a mere nitpick. Fans of the genre are going to love Crescendo. It's hot, tense and moreish - just what it says on the tin.

My thanks to the nice people at Simon & Schuster for sending the book.

Fans of the paranormal romance genre will also love Fallen by Lauren Kate - but they've probably read it already! They may not have discovered Angel by Cliff McNish though - and it's absolutely super, with angels as a metaphor for human potential.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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