 Alright so today we are going to be talking about the hush hush quadrilogy quartet whatever you want to call that This is the first of that pile of angel young adult romance books I bought a couple of months ago that I got through and um, I Don't hate it. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long Like I'll come right out and say now these books are Mediocre for the most part, but then they get kind of good. I think the last book is actually fairly decent and I'm hardly gonna sing its praises. Yes, but I I really can't get that angry at them. They're they're perfectly all right for some of the time other times They're really stupid and annoying, but you know, that's what we're here to talk about So this video is going to be in a different format than what I've done before so If you're watching this you've probably seen at least one of my really long in-depth book reviews Which are like 90 minutes long and you've probably seen some of my regular book reviews Which are spoiler-free and they're like 10 to 15 minutes. This one. I'm gonna try something More medium length so I'm still gonna read these and go into detail on them But I'm not going to go in as much detail like you can see I didn't really use tabs for these like I have a Couple that are in there that those are just for like really stupid things But there's not that many because I didn't want to take that many notes and focus on every little thing the way I normally do these I'm gonna try most mostly focusing on the big problems and the stuff that just really annoyed me and Hopefully this will only be 30 to 40 minutes long. You guys are in the future. So, you know how well that worked out So this like I said is a twilight clone just with angels You know, it's about a normal everyday teenage girl named Nora Gray who meets this mysterious bad boy Whose name is patch and some weird stuff starts happening She learns patches an angel and then she swept up in some big conflict. Okay, it's just twilight Excuse me, but it's with Angels instead of vampires and if you've seen my video on the fallen series, which if you haven't I'll put it up Here I forget which side that I think goes on but if you haven't seen it you can watch that one and that one was Yeah, basically just twilight with angels and it was pretty bad This one actually came out around the same time as fallen and it was I think about as popular They're both best-sellers But I I will give credit this one is at least a bit different than other stuff. I've read in the genre Now I'll start off by just saying I think the covers are really cool like they're black and white but with like little spots of red and other colors and It just so the red really pops out, you know, and they're all drawn really interestingly or actually I think these might be photographs. I'm not sure but either way They're done in a really interesting way, so it's just dripping with atmosphere and character and Emotion that's just coming right off of it and it looks a lot different from most other covers I've seen so it instantly stands out in my mind and it also does showcase an escalation across the course of the series because it starts off with just okay Here's an angel falling from heaven and then it shows like people in the rain and they're alone and it kind of sucks and then They're together, but they're in danger and the final book is patching Nora together again, and they're Not in any danger. It's like they can finally Be just be a couple which kind of fits with what happens in the story If you'll give me some time We'll read through that and the titles are kind of the same like there's hush hush Crescendo silence and finale like they have that escalation and they do all have kind of a theme there Only question is um Why are they called that? Really, there's no Music in this series like I was thinking there'd be some sort of theme about how music is Love or something or maybe one of the characters would just be really into music like they play violin or something like I Don't get it. Why? Anyways from this point forward there's going to be major spoilers ahead So if that bothers you then leave now if not, let's get started so first up is hush hush and this one the prologue starts off with some French Duke in the 16th century named Chauncey who is apparently a Nephilim He is a combination of angel and human and then a fallen angel who remains nameless But it turns out pretty quickly that it's patch not really a spoiler there. It's pretty obvious from the beginning and Patch forces him into an oath of some sort. We don't know exactly how it works And this is not a good start like it tries to be mysterious without actually really introducing much of a mystery and Because we already know there's angels in this series like just based on the title the premise the covers like we know it's about angels there's no need to play koi with it and Well, I just I've said it before I'll say it again The prologue is in third person and then it switches to first which most of the series is in it's from Nora's perspective And I hate switching from third to first person. Okay, I just do it. You're not supposed to think that hard about the narrator or how they would actually write all this down, but When you switch like that it forces you to think about it and it annoys me so then we cut to the present day in a small fictional town called cold water in Maine where our friend Nora Gray is With her friends named V in their biology class and they have a really cringy conversation about sex At my side V sky said this is exactly why the school outlaws camera phones Pictures of this in the easing would be all the evidence I'd need to get the board of education to axe biology and then we'd have this hour to do something productive Like receive one-on-one tutoring from the cute upper-class guys Why V I said I could have swarmed you've been looking forward to this unit all semester V lowered her eyelashes and smiled wickily this clash isn't going to teach me anything I don't already know V as in virgin I'm not gonna go into the bad lines in this series because there's really not that many of them overall but Pretty much all of them come from V Like all of her Nora and these conversations or most of them anyhow are just trying too hard They're trying way too hard like here look personality. They're quirky and weirdly. No, it's just it's trying too hard Let's move on so in her biology class Nora is forced to sit next to a mysterious bad boy Whose name is patch and they're forced to work on a project together Which she's upset about because patch is playing super coy and mysterious and he's difficult to get a hold of and she keeps trying to talk to him and He eventually winds up saying hey if you want to work with this if you want to work with me on this project Then just come to this arcade with me Which is really obnoxious of him then let's do the interview over the phone I've got a list of questions right he hung up on me. Yeah, he just hangs up the phone on her because He wants her to come to him rather than doing the absolute bare minimum to make sure they get a decent grade on this project like He's a dick at this point. This is a bad start. This is a bad start to their romance but you know, she eventually goes out there and he's like playing pool and she tries asking him more questions and he's Still being coy and everything and he kind of winds up sexually harassing her for a while and talking about how oh, you're cute We should make out blow like that sort of thing admittedly there is worse sexual harassment, but Um It's still not cool. It's still not cool like everything patch does for a pretty huge chunk of this book just makes him come across as more of a dick than a brooding bad boy or a loner or Anything really so we are later introduced to a cheerleader named Marcy Miller and Marcy Miller is just kind of a Mean rich girl who Nora dislikes and they're both just kind of mean to each other like I'll give it this much that like Marcy seems to have started it. She seems to just be a bully, but also Nora doesn't just sit there and take it. She also is Really mean and rude back like they they're kind of vicious when they talk to each other So neither of them comes out of it looking great But at least that does give Nora a little bit of character and that's something I want to Really praise the series for is that the main protagonist Nora Has actual personality and actual character like she has hopes and dreams and fears and flaws and stuff which the Pretty much every other entry in this genre doesn't have like the protagonist are total blank slates for the most part so it's nice to have that change at least a little bit and Marcy really doesn't do much for the entire rest of the of the book But she becomes important later. So I guess it's a good thing. They brought her in now and anyways Nora While she's out and about at various points a man seems to be following her in a store So she just gets in a car drives off really fast in the middle of a rainstorm and then another guy Or possibly the same one just appears in front of her car She hits him and she's like oh fuck. I just killed somebody but even though he got hit really bad and was laying on the ground He winds up jumping right back up and he actually Shatters the window by punching it and Nora has to keep running and the guy chases after her a little bit and almost catches Up with the car. So it's like okay He's clearly not a regular human and then later when she's telling people about it She goes to show them and the window is fine. So Nora thinks oh Okay, maybe I'm going crazy and she also thinks that maybe patch has something to do with it because Yeah, I don't know. He's mysterious and stuff and so she winds up going to the school's Record office and stealing files to get information on patch and the files wind up being empty Which is a bizarrely common trope now that I'm thinking about it like Fallen did the exact same thing like almost word-for-word The main girl protagonist was interested in a bad boy and tried looking for information on him by Stealing files from the school. It's it's weird how often I see that I Like I guess it makes sense It's not a trope that was thrown there for no reason, but it is still odd how often it pops up So then later she runs into patch and they start talking again And this is the first time that he calls her by his nickname for her angel That is the laziest nickname of all time He may as well just call her beautiful or woman or sweetheart or something like that like It's for starters. It's just a generic name, which is used a lot and for another thing It's really dumb considering the subject matter of this series Like this is a series that's actually about angels and stuff and so there will be times where he's Talking to her and calls her angel in the text and for a moment. I was a little Confused about whether he was talking about actual angels or if he was just talking to her and for that matter It's used a lot. Okay. I I didn't count all of them It's used at least 39 times throughout the series and I only started counting like Three-quarters of the way through the third book so if you were to add it all up, it would be a lot higher trust me, but Anyways her and patch wind up just running into each other a few more times and he's still mysterious and Nora keeps feeling like someone is stalking her or someone is watching her, but that's it doesn't lead to much for a while and Her and V wind up going on a double blind date with these guys named Elliot and Jules Now Nora is going with Elliot and Jewel or jewels or jewels or something like that. I don't know. I don't speak French. He goes with the beat and They run Jesus Christ They run into patch while they're there and he makes Nora play billiards with him And if she loses then she has to abandon her date and go with him and of course she loses because he's really good at billiards and Jesus Christ that patches like weirdly controlling and Has no idea when to keep his nose out of other people's business like just everything he does For most of this book makes him look bad just everything but anyway She winds up having to go with him which I guess is fine because Elliot kind of creeped her out anyways, but and they go to this theme park nearby and They're on a ride which is called the Ark Angel Get it because Angels the whole theme park has a bunch of angel themed stuff Okay, and then patch takes her home and while they're there she's like, okay Well, thank you. I'm gonna go inside now and he essentially just shoves past her and is like hey Let's make tacos and then they like he forces his way into her house and starts. Oh God patch. You're such a creep like it becomes even creepier when you realize that he Occasionally will just touch her without permission Like nothing too inappropriate, but like putting his arms around her shoulders and stuff It's so creepy that this relationship so far has more red flags than the fucking October Revolution. I am Just no, okay, but anyways most of the rest of the book Nora gets followed Patches being mysterious Nothing is all that noteworthy. The only thing I want to bring up is that Nora does not tell her mom about the trouble that she's in because you see Nora and her mom live in a farmhouse kind of on the outskirts of town and About a year before the series begins Nora's father was murdered And so her mom had to get a new job which takes her out of town a lot In order to afford living in this house because nothing nearby that she qualified for would allow her to afford it And so Nora knows that if she tells her mom about this trouble She's gonna quit her job get something local so that she can be with her and They're gonna have to move out of their house And this is Nora's last real connection to her father So she doesn't want to to leave even if it means putting herself in danger and that is again, that is an actual bit of character that Nora has and I Don't want to make it sound like she's the Most three-dimensional well-rounded character ever but she is a hell of a lot better than I've learned to expect And then while this happening she learns Elliot may be murdered someone and he also is seems to be stalking her So she goes off to another city to investigate and while she's doing that she winds up getting trapped she Long story short she has to call patch for help and he drives over picks her up and then while they're driving his car breaks down because of course and then he kind of Basically they have no choice but to stay in a motel for the night and then try and get help in the morning and Patch kind of coerces her into doing that and also they have to stay in a room with only one bed because reasons Jesus Christ pat pat reading this makes me feel like I'm reading the script for a real crime TV show like Jesus Christ But what whatever basically while they're in bed She notices that patch has these v-shaped scars on his back Obviously, that's where his wing wings were ripped off and she touches them and gets some hallucinations like she sees some of his memories and stuff and so she learns the truth patch is a fallen angel You know he sided with Lucifer however long ago But instead of being banished to hell most of the fallen angels were banished to earth instead All right, and they part of their punishment is that they can't feel anything they Like just nothing at all. They can't feel heat cold pain anything like basically every fallen angel is Baldur from God of War, you know, they just they want to feel things and So the only way they can do that is that during the Hebrew month of Cheshvon Which is about two weeks every year. They can possess Nephilim who are you know half human half angel people and while they're possessing them they can feel things Okay, that is kind of an interesting setup for things and also it turns out that patch if he Kills Nora and or rather if he manages to get Nora to sacrifice herself Which is kind of killing her but he can't do it himself basically if he gets her to sacrifice herself He can become human. So, you know, he'll no longer be immortal, but he'll be able to feel and stuff before he dies and he wound up deciding not to Because he was following her for a while and he's like, you know, she's an alright person Nora is upset by this Obviously like why wouldn't she be and Well, no, that's that's the big thing here Nora is upset by this and I also just have one question if Okay, so the way Nephilim are created is if a fallen angel possesses a person and then they have sex Then the baby will be a Nephilim and sometimes many generations down the line their descendants will turn into a Nephilim like it lays dormant for however long and It also appears that Nora is a descendant of Chauncey the French Duke from the prologue who patch Was possessing on her father's side. They think it comes from but the thing is if if fallen angels can only possess Nephilim and Nephilim can only be created by a fallen angel possessing somebody How did the first Nephilim get created at all? Anyone anyone at all? No, okay? It's only the cornerstone through which most of the series comes from, you know, it's not that important to think about Also Nephilim are immortal, I guess which is a thing definitely Okay, let's kick this into overdrive. Basically patch has an angel girlfriend who Wants to prevent patch from becoming human so she tries to kill Nora and then she fails and then it turns out that Jules Remember Elliot's friends that they went on double date with is Chauncey He's the French Duke from the beginning and he wants to kill Nora so that he can get revenge on patch because patch keeps you know possessing him every year and that kind of sucks and He obviously can't kill patch So he's just gonna kill the one he loves and that's revenge and so he kidnaps V in order to learn Nora out and They go to the school where she's being held captive and they try to rescue her and basically Nora winds up jumping off of the roof and dying but then she immediately comes back because Patch rejected her sacrifice I'm not sure how that's how that works because also when he rejects her sacrifice Apparently that automatically resets it so that her sacrifice was used to kill Jules because apparently that is a way you can kill Nephilim is by sacrificing your life Not explained very well and also if you didn't actually sacrifice your life Like if you came back then it doesn't really count as a sacrifice How does that work? I don't understand Whatever in at the end of the book Nora and patch make the kissy with each other like they're a couple now And they're like yeah, what's let's be together rock on bro, and that's the end now Like I said pretty mediocre book a Lot of time is kind of wasted in there Well, not a lot of time but a lot of time is spent just building up the mystery without a lot else happening But it's really not awful. There's some character. There are some decent story beats and it is self-contained actually like there is room for sequels obviously, but it is You can just read this one and come away with it like yeah, I don't I don't feel like I got half a story there I can I can read just that and be satisfied. It gets worse after that, but you know That that one really isn't as bad as it could have been so book to crescendo starts off a couple of weeks later when Nora and patch have been dating for a little while and They're having a problem. You see the problem is that patch won't say he loves her Which is kind of an issue, but I mean they haven't meant to get it that long and Also, he starts hanging out with Marcy the mean girl that Nora hates. So I Guess that's a I guess that's a problem and Nora's upset by this So she starts chilling with her old friend Scott who they knew each other's kids And then he moved away and now he's moving back and it also turns out he's a nephilim so he knows about all this stuff and Okay, cool and She also Compounding all this stuff that's upsetting her. She gets a note saying that someone called the black hand murdered her father and She's like, oh, who who was this black hand? I don't understand and then anyways patch and Nora break up and patch starts dating Marcy because Look I hate this plot point for two reasons. I don't just think it's dumb and stupid I hate this plot point for two reasons one We know patch and Nora are gonna be together by the end of the series like there's It's just very blatantly obvious from the way it's all set up that that's how it's going to end Like even though they tease a little bit. Oh, maybe Nora and Scott really like each other It's very half-assed even by the standards of this genre like think about it What while reading Twilight? Did you ever really think that Bella and Jacob were gonna end up together? Like no you didn't so we know it's just Gonna end up that way so it's a waste of time and two Her and patch didn't quite have love at first sight But it's close enough because they didn't know each other that well or for that long before they decided. Oh, we're in love now and That love at first sight cliche can kind of work if you just After that you just show the couple being together like, you know, you show them being in love you show them going over the trials and tribulations of Being in a relationship you show them Working together trusting each other all that it can work if you do that and for the bulk of this book You don't get to see patch and Nora be a couple actually for the bulk of the third book as well We'll get to that when the time comes but it I just hate this plot point for those two reasons So someone tells Nora that patch is the black hand and she's like no it couldn't be him But maybe it is patch killed my dad and then she's sad and also Marcy tells Nora that Nora's mother Had an affair with Marcy's dad and Hank and so she's saying like hey Nora, you're actually You're the guy you thought was your dad is actually not your dad Your dad is also my dad and we're sisters and I Kind of liked that at first because It like one it is upsetting Marcy more or not Marcy. It's upsetting Nora more and so she has to You know learn to deal with more of this stuff Which is showing some character growth and I liked that but it also felt like What when we learned that she was a nephilim it was saying like she's special She's not the chosen one, but it's kind of like being the chosen one and You know just because of the way she was born and this felt almost like a an inverse of that where it's saying oh You thought you were special, but it turns out you're just a normal person like yeah, your dad was just a human and That that was kind of the opposite of what usually is so I thought that was kind of cool But it turns out that's not the case like it turns out Marcy's father Hank is Is her father, but also he's a nephilim so Doesn't add much and anyways TLDR a different nephilim is the black hand and the heroes and by heroes I mean patch Nora and Scott Kill him and turns out patch was with Marcy because he wanted to spy on Hank for a while and then her Nora and patch are like oh, okay. I guess we're together again. All is forgiven Which it really shouldn't be because I feel like patch could have just told Nora about that like he could have just said Hey, look there might be something going on here We can still be together But we have to keep it on the DL and I'm just gonna pretend to be dating this other person is that cool Okay, cuz you know he doesn't seem to trust her and he wants to keep things from her which is not the basis for a healthy relationship, but Okay, we'll just again red flags lots of lots of red flags lots of red flags I know just lots of red flags and anyways it the book ends with Hank capturing them and He's talking to Nora and he's basically like so Nora I heard you killed my friend Chauncey and that's it which is a good cliffhanger. I'll give it that I immediately wanted to know what happens after that, but the It feels kind of like you only had half a story because there's huge parts of this which are just wasted by Nora angsting and It's not that interesting and then but you know It is a good cliffhanger. I'll give it that Then we get to book three silence and that cliffhanger is ruined and you might be wondering James How do you ruin such a good cliffhanger? Well, you see Nora has amnesia in this book and the thing is she it starts off I think three months after the end of last book So like Nora was missing for that whole time and then she comes back and she doesn't remember any of her time there Which sounds kind of good or I'm sorry She was gone for two months and missed out all of her time there Which sounds kind of good, but then you realize her missing memory goes back five months Which means she doesn't remember the events of the first two books either She doesn't remember anything about angels or patch or Nephilim or anything and we spend the first 170 fucking pages of this book just getting her caught up to speed That's stupid. Use your common sense. Like it is just Nora Seeing some mysterious stuff around which is like magic and everything and she's like oh, what's going on here? I don't know and her trying to get caught up before eventually she she gets caught up All of the tension in addition to just being really annoying to have to retread all this old ground All of the tension is gone. But when you do that Normally amnesia works as a way of building tension and giving the characters a clear goal to work towards because the audience And the characters are both in the dark here But in this instant usually amnesia they will have it from the beginning for that very reason like they don't get it in the middle the only Other thing I can think of that did something kind of like this and even then they did it Well was the finale of the first season of mr. Robot now a minor spoilers for that show But I mean I've only seen the first season so I can't spoil it that much Basically the penultimate episode of that season the good guy I forget his name Rami Malik's character is forced to tell the bad guy about his plan to like hack people and save the world yada yada and The next episode starts off like two or three days later and Rami Malik doesn't remember anything like He doesn't know what happens the bad guy is missing and he knows that they did something bad But they don't know exactly what it was and he doesn't know how they did it or anything And so he is going around looking and trying to get his memory back or rather trying to Find out what happened when he blacked out or something like that and so that works pretty well to build tension, but This doesn't just this does not also while Nora was gone her mom was super worried and so she started dating Hank remember Marcy's dad and I Mean okay that that does make sense from her mom's perspective You know her daughter was missing her husband was murdered not that long ago It makes sense she want to find some sort of emotional connection to latch on to that's fine And even though Nora doesn't know anything about what's going on at this point She still is kind of suspicious about Hank and he's just kind of like hey I I just want to get to know you you know I want to spend some time with you and Marcy and all them I'm trying to have a relationship with my kids, and I can't do it and One interesting bit is that throughout this whole segment. It's made pretty clear that everyone thought that Even though she's not talking about it cuz again, she doesn't remember anything Everyone seems to think that Marcy was Chained up in a basement somewhere and getting raped a whole bunch for the past couple of months But no one is comfortable saying it in as many words, and it's just uh It's just a little uncomfortable to read about whole girls against a wheel chain them up in my basement So eventually Nora gets Scott to fill her in and he tells her about all the fallen angels and patch and everything And she's like okay, I guess that makes sense whatever she buys into it a little too quick if you're asking me but honestly, I just wanted this part to be done, so it's not that big a deal and It turns out that basically Hank is building a Nephilim army so that he can fight the fallen angels because they are essentially treated like slaves at least for two weeks out of the year and Scott takes her to a fallen angel hideout to see if they can find patch and The one tab I put in this book the one tab is That hideout because it turns out that the fallen angels As long as they've been on earth for all the thousands of years. That's been they have just been hanging out on the coast of Maine out in the middle of nowhere and They dug a bunch of tunnels and caves and stuff to hide out in Which doesn't make a lot of sense because they can just blend into human society But okay, and then in order to sustain themselves Which is weird because they don't need to pay rent or eat food or anything like that in order to sustain themselves They built that theme park with all the angel rides and everything in addition to just not making that much sense That's just really dumb. You know, I can't really harp on it that much for being like inconsistent or anything It's a little weird and doesn't make that much sense, but I can't harp on that too much It's just dumb. That's about all I have to say there. It's just dumb Anyways, they find patch and it turns out that the reason Hank kidnapped Nora and him Was that they wanted patched to be a spy and walk among the fallen angels So so that they can prepare for their you know rebellion where they like kill them all or something He wanted patched to just spy on them give him information And he was gonna hold Nora hostage for a while until he agreed to do that and he agrees to do that so Yay, and Then by that point we're like two-thirds through the book. So you know and the TLDR is that Hank wants to rebel like I said because slavery and While he's explaining what it's like to be possessed. He uses some He uses some interesting language. Do you have any idea what it's like to have someone come inside you and Completely take over and he's not the only one to do that They that repeatedly whenever they're talking about angels possessing somebody they refer to it as coming inside them That why? Seriously, there's this thing called a 13 year old boy filter And what you need to do is have a 13 year old boy read all your stuff and if he can find a way to make it sexual Maybe maybe just change up some of the wording at this point I'm not sure who I'm supposed to root for though because With both sides it kind of sucks like obviously it does suck to get possessed But it also sucks to not be able to feel anything ever so I can understand why the fallen angels would be desperate enough to do that even if they weren't awful people to begin with but also For the Nephilim, it's really only two weeks out of the year where you're possessed. So like as awful as that is It's not like it's for eternity or anything, but at the same time like I'm just not sure who I'm supposed to be rooting for here Like and maybe there could be a peaceful solution and just This could have the world could have been set up a little better to make this make more sense to make it seem like okay Fighting really is inevitable here Whereas in this it just seems like everyone involved is being kind of a dick, but also everyone involved is kind of a victim and I mean like maybe that's some sort of commentary on how war works, but I I don't think the author is really smart enough to do that and Anyways Hank Eventually is talking to Nora and he agrees to take an oath to leave her and her mother alone forever as long as she will take an oath to Lead his army and if he if he breaks his oath he'll die if Nora breaks her oath her and her mother will die and I'm not sure why he agrees to let her do it because She doesn't have any like combat experience or anything. I'm not sure why he thinks she would be a little leader rebellion but she agrees to do it and Everything seems great for a minute, but then Hank tries to burn Patches feather now basically the fallen angels in this world still have like one or two feathers They're scattered around and one of them's kept in heaven and then one of them is usually kept on earth And if the feather is ever burned then they're banished to hell for eternity So Hank was essentially trying to kill patch for all intents and purposes and so Nora shoots him I Thought Nephilim were immortal. Maybe he became human with his oath. It's not really explained God just make Nephilim Not age, but they still die if you like shoot them or something. Okay, it's not that hard Anyways the war ends or the book ends with war coming now I'm gonna say right now books two and three needed to be combined Like this series should have been a trilogy because both of those books waste a lot of time and there's just not enough material To make two books out of it. They were both a huge slog to get through But luckily we get to finale which this one is actually kind of good. I like this one So this one starts off with you know Nora has to leave the Nephilim into war and she's like no I don't want there to be a war like we're just not gonna fight and they're like well It's inevitable you know if you don't want to fight people are the people here are just going to kill you and Install a different leader in your place and if you can't take your up and if you don't fulfill your oath You and your mom are going to die so she's thinking okay I have to find a nonviolent solution to this which is actually kind of a compelling conflict because it shows Nora did kill her father and She feels bad about it, but she also understands that like yeah, it was something that needed to be done and So in this she's like okay. I don't want to kill people unnecessarily Which is just a neat thing to do. It seems like most of the time in Fiction characters are either total pussies who will never ever hurt anyone for any reason even if it's a good reason or They are just complete psychos. So having something be in the middle is kind of compelling and Plus we get to see her and patch actually be a couple throughout most of this books book, which is You know, that's nice and it starts with Cheshvon being near and so Nora has to train because See before she was descended from Nephilim, but she wasn't really a Nephilim. I think I don't know again That part of the series has never really explained that well like how do Nephilim come about But despite that She is now a full Nephilim after taking her oath and everything and so she has to train to learn her new powers like super strength and Mine powers and stuff turns out. She's actually really good at mine powers like invading people's minds You know coming inside them and taking over it. She's good at that and she's training with a Nephilim named Dante now Dante While he's training her he repeatedly breaks into her house watches her sleep and at one point gives her water Which is laced with the devil craft, which is basically black magic and in this case It's like steroids, which will make her stronger and everything so he's drugging her You know, maybe maybe maybe she's only attracted to patch because every man in her life is a psycho with boundary and control issues Like we don't know anything about her dad because he he died before the series began But I'm willing to bet that if if he um Yeah, I'm willing to bet he was also controlling and had boundary issues So patch and Nora so patch and Nora can't publicly date because you know They're on opposite sides and people on both sides will think that they're traitors for that so they have a fake breakup and then Nora tells patch about how Dante I Can't I can't even keep a straight face Nora tells patch about how Dante was Drugging her and about how the seed of evil had been planted inside her and about and then he's angry and he's like Oh, he forced devil craft into your body Again third just work on your phrasing Jesus Christ So throughout the book the Fallen angels attack Nora a couple of times trying to assassinate her and it never works At one point she gets stabbed with a knife that injects devil craft into her body, which makes her Kind of addicted to it, which is kind of neat. I like the way they handle it like she acts weird and lies and steals of it because of her addiction But they don't spend that much time with it and they don't spend that much time with her overcoming it either and either way I think it would have been It would have been kind of neat to have more time spent with that but whatever and then Marcy at this time learns about angels and stuff and about who her dad was really and She moves in with Nora and her mom for some reason really doesn't add much to the story and actually it makes Nora's mom seem like kind of a bitch because She completely disregards her daughter's feelings on it and I'm not sure why it just straight up doesn't make sense But basically there's a few more attacks by fallen angels and stuff and eventually they come up with a plan to prevent the war So there is this archangel who's hanging out on earth named pepper and he is getting up to some mischief And so Nora and patch and Scott say hey We're gonna tell your bosses about this if you if you don't do what we want and what they want is for him to go up To heaven Take all of the fallen angel feathers bring it back down to them And then they're gonna hold them hostage and say hey if you guys go to war or possess Nephilim against their will or anything We're gonna burn these and send you to hell and that'll be their plan to end the war And so they get to Pepper and they managed to convince him But he's also being blackmailed by someone on earth who he can't tell them the name because he took an oath But they assume it's a fallen angel Because he's trying to help them create weapons which are like holy they do like holy damage or radiant damage or something and They're like, okay We can go meet him for you and we'll kill him or whatever and then they go there and it turns out that the guy That's blackmailing him as Dante. Yeah, Dante is going to sell out all the Nephilim for his own benefit and Just let the fallen angels kill or take over them Because I guess we need a villain now. We killed our other one. We need an antagonist of some sort Now Dante could have killed Mara at this point, but he he doesn't because he actually wants to usurp her position as the leader of the Nephilim and He actually has like photographs of her and patched together and he's like, ah, I'm gonna show them that you're a traitor You can't escape me now and from here. This is like the last hundred pages of the book things go really fast basically Nora challenges Dante to a duel Because that would kind of steal his thunder and she thinks if you can beat him in a duel That will just make him look weak and like a liar and everything so he won't be able to usurp her And then she eventually breaks down and tells her friend V about angels and stuff But it turns out V already knows because V is a Nephilim and V only found out she was a Nephilim like a couple of days earlier This adds nothing, but it's there Eventually pepper gets the feathers and he brings them down to them and he gives them a call and he's like Hey, I have them at Patch's house So come meet me there and they race on over but by the time they get there Marcy got there first and she actually burned them because someone told her that Nora killed her dad which I mean she did but the circumstances were extenuating let's say and Yeah, it makes it kind of makes sense why Marcy would be upset about that, but Still it does kind of suck and so all of the angels including Patch are sent to hell and it is really sad and stuff but Nora still has to have a duel with Dante and so she Goes there and with all the other Nephilim there to watch and Dante's not there and they're like where'd he go and then he brings an army of Fallen angels with him that apparently he got out of hell Yeah, apparently he can just go to hell and take people out of it You know all of the magic stuff in this series Every time it happens. I'm just like oh Okay, I guess I guess they can do that because it's not set up at all And he's able to lead them because he made them all swear an oath to be loyal and yada yada yada And so a big epic battle happens Scott winds up dying because apparently Nephilim can die again Just like just stop saying they're immortal Like they're clearly not immortal. Just just like make them not immortal whatever Scott dies And then Dante is about to kill Nora because you know, he's a badass fighter and everything and Nora's not but using her mind power she comes inside of him and Makes him stab himself and then he dies and then because his angel army was connected with him They all die too because that's what all shitty villains do they Make their armies be attached to them so that as soon as they die everything ends Okay, sure and apparently patch managed to get out of hell as well because Dante specifically says he watched for his face in the crowd and He wouldn't have let him pass but it turns out patch actually came inside of another angel and possessed him and managed to get out and Also because of that he didn't swear an oath to Dante. So he's still here on earth. He's there He's okay. Yay, and then an archangel pops up He was a detective who has shown up in all four books so far But I haven't mentioned him because he's an inconsequential character and him being an archangel changes nothing about the plot It's not a very interesting twist at all and you could literally just replace him with a character who pops up at this moment And it would not change anything. But anyways, he shows up. He's an archangel. He thanks Nora for her help he gives her this magic ring and Tells her to like bleed on patch basically and then she does that and then her and patch kiss and he's like wait a minute I can feel things now. I Don't know what that means like it's not explained if He becomes a human because of this or if he's still an angel, but now he can feel it's not explained at all Okay, I guess I'm still happy for him either way and then there's the epilogue It's just a couple of years later. V is getting married to some other guy who she met who was not in the books up to this point and it also turns out that Marcy is dead and V and Nora have no sympathy for her whatsoever. In fact, they're kind of vindictive about this which like On one hand. Yeah, I get it. She did try to kill patch, but also Like if when you look at it from her perspective, it kind of makes sense And so the these two being so vindictive and unsympathetic like I feel like that is just a Bit of protagonist-centered morality like anything that you do that hurts the protagonist is bad and anything you do that helps them is good and Like I feel like maybe Nora being vindictive could have been an interesting character trait But you would have had to explore it a lot more up until this point. So Yeah, then her and patch are still together and everything's happy and that's the end Overall it could have been a lot worse like both the ending is fine and the series as a whole It's really not that bad not not at all like there there is more stuff that I could have critiqued Okay, there are some leaps in logic There are a lot of dumb lines in there or not a lot but a decent number of dumb lines in there There is a serious lack of world-building like there's a lot of stuff that should straight up never explained Even if the bits that are explained don't make sense like it's better to have Somewhat deep setting, but we don't have that There's just a lot of wasted time especially in the second and third books But if you really look at this series on its own terms like if you just look at it and say look This is a twilight clone let's just Come at it from the perspective of a teenage girl who wants to read about romance if you just look at it that way it is Alright, you know and like I said the last book is kind of good It has a pretty good climax. I know I went through it really fast but it is a fun battle and the main characters do have to suffer and They do have to work pretty hard to get their happy ending So it's not like everything's handed to them like like fallen if you remember that too That the ending of that one was terrible for that exact reason the heroes just got everything handed to them or elixir Is another good example because elixir is the worst thing ever But yeah on its own terms It's fine now. Is it's the elusive good twilight clone that I've been looking for for years You know the thing that is very clearly just a teenage girl supernatural romance But has actual good story and characters and everything that I can genuinely enjoy with without any hint of irony or anything No, it's it's not that But if you are looking for something in this genre, I think you'll love it I do like I've had a lot of people over the past few months tell me that like Hush hush was their jam or something like that, but I get it. You know even as a Dude who was never super into this genre if I had read this when I was like 14 I think I would have liked it a lot more than I do now Like I still would have noticed some of its flaws and some of them would probably have bothered me even more than they do now but I Would have enjoyed it like there there is some real character There is some real heart to it like it feels like the author Becca Fitzpatrick was being genuine with this it felt like she was actually trying and I will give it credit that it is a lot different than other entries in the genre that I've read Like there's obviously plenty of similarities, but there's plenty of bits that are Unique as well and you know just overall I I don't want to ramble on too much but Overall, I thought it was okay, and if you Enjoyed this newer format where it's shorter, and I don't go into quite as much detail then Go go ahead and tell me about it, and I'll do some some more of those angel things In this format, and if you don't like it, then I will just do like regular reviews or something with them Either way, I'll see you guys later Special thanks to all my patrons You guys are the best and special thanks to my $10 and up patrons including Aposavalanen, Ava Tuma, Brother Shantotis, Christopher Quinten, Deanna Dehim, Ambus, Emily Miller, Joel, Carcat, Kitsune, Liza, Ruta Kova, Madison Lewis Bennett, microphone, Sad Martigan, Tobacco Crote, Tom Beanie, Vacuous Silas, and Vaivictus. 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