Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush, #1) in All Challenges All The Time

Nov 23, 2011 Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} rated it it was ok

Shelves: dark, fiction, i-am-a-book-goat, young-adult, present-day, 2015-outdo-yourself-reading-challen, two-stars, brb-bikini-kill-time, stalking-is-sexy-guise, creepy

Let's do the math:

At least the MC has a real BFF (+1). Vee is the worst BFF ever (and what the hell is the name Vee anyway?). (-2)

I will give the author credit when it comes to the BFF (as annoying as she is and is honestly the worst BFF ever) at least she exists in the plot, but the non-existent parent and housekeeper.

Sexist and incredibly inappropriate biology lesson. (-1) Also there seems to be non-existent classes other than biology. Which is fine actually if it's not relevant to plot.

Wow @ ...more

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May 29, 2011 Marissa rated it liked it

It reminded me of Twilight. I liked Twilight when I first read it, but now every time I think about it I just think about the movies and all the superfans. So when I thought this was like Twilight I got a negative feeling towards this book. Except now that I'm finished I don't think it was that bad. Yeah it had a lot of times where I thought isn't this the same as Twilight, like how they meet in biology and she has P.E. with a Mike character. It had the same settings, but then it kind of made it ...more

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Jul 04, 2010 Malin rated it it was ok

"Hush, Hush" has an absolutely gorgeous cover. It drew me in, it intrigued me, it convinced me that I had to read the book. Sadly, it is a poor imitation of another book with a gorgeous cover that enticed me a few years ago, Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight". I will freely admit that I'm still not entirely sure what made me read and re-read the first three Twilight-novels like an addict in frantic need of a crack-fix (I suspect there may be something soaked into the pages that makes your judgement we "Hush, Hush" has an absolutely gorgeous cover. It drew me in, it intrigued me, it convinced me that I had to read the book. Sadly, it is a poor imitation of another book with a gorgeous cover that enticed me a few years ago, Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight". I will freely admit that I'm still not entirely sure what made me read and re-read the first three Twilight-novels like an addict in frantic need of a crack-fix (I suspect there may be something soaked into the pages that makes your judgement weaken), but nonetheless, my inner fourteen-year-old took control, and I was hooked. So very hooked. Until "Breaking Dawn" came out, and I was cured. There are limits to how much I will suspend my critical faculties.

"Hush, Hush" is the story of Nora Grey, whose father was mysteriously killed a year or so back, and whose mother is mostly absent as she has to work lots to support them. Nora is sensible and studious, and has a bitchy friend who seems not to actually like her very much. I was never entirely sure why Nora and Vee were friends, but judging from her other actions in this book, Nora is just a sucker for punishment. One day, Nora is unexpectedly partnered with the new and mysterious kid in school, Patch Cipriano, in biology. He is in turns enigmatic, rude and downright threatening, and while Nora tries to get her biology teacher to let her switch places, she has no such luck. Nora is both attracted to and slightly scared by Patch, and things start getting weird and dangerous, and Nora is not entirely sure she isn't losing her mind. It suddenly seems like she's being stalked, she keeps having what appear to be strange hallucinations and near death experiences, new slightly-ominous dudes transfer to her school, and everything seems to circle back to the mysteries surrounding Patch.

Nora was an annoying, inconsistently written character. She is calm and sensible one moment, and TSTL (too stupid to live) the next. While supposedly smart and independent, she kept making some idiotic choices. Time and time again. Patch was actually a genuinely intriguing anti-hero, once more was revealed about him. Nora is a complete twit for continuing to seek him out, especially after it's been revealed to her by more than one person, Patch included, that he is really dangerous for her to be around. That's not his fault though, and in another story, he could probably have been quite cool.

As well as the obvious likenesses to "Twilight", this book reminded me of another angel love triangle book I read and reviewed some months ago, "Fallen". Both books are derivative of Meyer's book, and while I will freely admit that I understand why so many people hate and are disturbed by the Twilight-saga, I found the books very entertaining ( the fourth one is hugely entertaining in an entirely different way), and they continue to be a guilty pleasure of mine. Sadly, this also leads to a lot of inferior attempts by other writers to become the next Stephenie Meyer, of which this, and "Fallen", are examples. They are not awful, I finished both books, but neither delivered what their lovely covers promised. ...more

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Dec 26, 2010 Marla rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, romance, chick-lit, with-reservations, paranormal, young-adult, fantasy, zz-2012, angels, back-to-back

3.5 stars. I enjoyed this book. I apologize for comparing this book to other series books, but I think I would've liked to see a review comparing them.

I liked Nora better than Luce in Fallen and Bella in Twilight, but I cringe at the message she sends as a role model to teenage girls...your life as a top student was dull and unromantic, but meet a tall, dark and handsome Senior who reeks of danger and mystery and your life is filled with excitement and attraction, and don't worry about lying to ...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Jojobean rated it it was ok

Shelves: series-book-1, non-owned-books, set-in-us, angel-demons, 2009-publication, 2-star-ratings

I liked this book. It was good but not great. Teh story didn't really pull me in as much as I wanted it too. I liked reading about angels and author's different mythologies about angels and fallen angels. While this book did have some mythology on angels it wasn't nearly enough for me to keep me riveted to the book. I do like the way the angels in the book apparently have different jobs and ranking like guardian angels, avenging angels and angels of death. There was no where near enough informat I liked this book. It was good but not great. Teh story didn't really pull me in as much as I wanted it too. I liked reading about angels and author's different mythologies about angels and fallen angels. While this book did have some mythology on angels it wasn't nearly enough for me to keep me riveted to the book. I do like the way the angels in the book apparently have different jobs and ranking like guardian angels, avenging angels and angels of death. There was no where near enough information for my tastes on the nephilim, except that their bodies can be controlled by fallen angels for 2 weeks every year. I liked the story well enough but it was missing something for me.

I don't really know how I feel about Nora. I mean I like how she is studious and into her school work because that's not really seen a lot in books. Usually the good girl meets the bad boy and everything is not important any more. At least in this book Nora held on to things other than Patch but we'll see how that goes in the rest of the books. Nora did annoy me too. Sometimes the way she talked was so not believable. She used proper sentences and big words and it just seemed forced and fake to me. The way she described herself put me off on her right away. She said "I'm a smoky eyed brunette with volumes of curly hair that...." I mean who even thinks of themselves like that? That was too much for me. Someone's too full of herself. And add to the fact that she's not really a brunette but an auburn hair color. I love auburn hair and I found it ridiculous how she corrected and insisted to patch that it was brown. I also found Nora to be hilarious at times which softened me to her. I loved when she said to Vee (When they were at Victoria Secret and Vee was trying to find a bra) "They're called sports bras and they have a nasty side effect called the uniboob". That had me rolling on the floor. One thing I didn't like about Nora was her indecision about Patch. She had so many doubts about him, she kept saying something was off and wrong about him, that she was afraid of him, that he's annoying and irritating but the next thing you know she's with him all the time and they're kissing and whatnot. Its like "Oh your scary and your wrong for me but come here and lets me stick my tongue down your throat". I mean come on. Just decide, do you want him or not and if you do they shut up about how wrong, scary and dangerous he is. Sheesh

At first I really didn't like Patch. And what's with the name Patch? When I read his name throughout the book I kept thinking of the dog Patch from 101 Dalmatians. Can we please have some regular names here? And what the hell kinda name is Vee and Kjirsten? Really? Anywhoo back to Patch. I totally didn't expect him to be a bad boy and an ass at that. Don't get me wrong, I love bad boys but I hate guys who are cocky and that was Patch. He was so into himself, kept referring to sex and thinking he's God's gift to women. Please. And he was so mean to Chauncey in the beginning of the book. If he was in my class and did what he did to Nora to me, I'd punch him in the face. I won't deny that he's hot or anything, but his cockiness turned me off to him. However, as the story went on, I got to like him more and more as he showed his caring and gentler side when he was with Nora. I liked how protective her was towards her and the infrequent sweet moments he had with her. I loved Patch's sarcasm and his humor. I was on the floor laughing during that whole scene in biology class where Patch was explaining to the teacher about what he looks for in a mate and how he knows if his target is sharing his feelings. When he used Nora as his example and was describing how she was feeling in front of the whole class it was epic. I could not stop laughing. So by the end of the book I gotta say I do like Patch. And his name grew on me too. I just gotta say though that his fall from Heaven was for the stupidest reasons. But hey, if he didn't fall, he wouldn't have met Nora and we wouldn't have a 4 book series about them. lol.

My thoughts on some of the other characters: Elliot was an ass. I knew something was up with him from the beginning. He was creepy. Vee, I liked. She was funny, over the top dramatic and I loved the way she put Nora in sticky situations. I liked how she is a loyal friend to Nora and watches out for her. Even though we only met him for a short while, I liked Rixon. I hope we see more of him in the later books.

The romance was the same as usual. Girl meets hot guy and falls instantly in love but tries to deny it to herself for as long as she can, while the same exact thing is happening to the guy but we don't hear about it. I don't get these romances. Yeah sure the world is filled with hot guys. But I;m not gonna fall in love with every hot guy I see. Especially if they annoy me as much as Patch annoyed Nora. Once thing I liked about this book though was that the word love was not thrown around willy nilly. Both Patch and Nora never said "I love you" to each other or confessed their love for each other to other people in this book. Sure Chauncey said Patch loved Nora but no one who matters said it.

So the big question since these books came out has been Hush Hush or Fallen. Whenever I hear one of these books mention, I also hear "Well which one did you like better Hush Hush or Fallen?" or "you should read ______. Its better". Here my vote: for me Fallen is wayyy better. To me it has more mythology, more action and an epic love that spanned centuries. For me its just better. However I encourage everyone to read both books and decide for themselves which is better.

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Nov 28, 2011 Megs rated it liked it

I'll come right out and say it. I didn't love this book. I went in having read amazing reviews of it, but it fell short for me. Here's why:

1. Patch - I think I lack that female gene that makes me attracted to bad boys. Well, that's not exactly true, but I definitely wasn't a Patch fan. I guess I like my bad boys a little more "I'll stop at nothing to achieve my goals, then torture you for fun, all while looking amazingly hot in a suit" and a little less sexual harrassment-y. So what if he has a ...more

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Oct 13, 2009 Jamie ~ Bad Boy Inspector rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-young-adult, subject-pn-angels-fallen

This book was GREAT!! It kept me on the edge of my seat till the very end. The writing is superb and the characters are very enjoyable. I can't wait until the next one. ...more

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