Okay, so being the total dork that I am (picture Lightning of my avatar with glasses and most likely snorting), I managed to turn a shopping trip into a book-scavenging trip yet again. Ren and I started out just skimming for Death Note manga, but that escalated to study books, Ancient Egyptian historics on the Pyramids and yet another Darren Shan Demonata in my pocket.

And then I set my eyes on an enthralling cover art for one of the newsellers. Now, as much as I've had "Never judge a book by its cover" drummed into my head, that old addage does not apply to this book. The stark black-and-white imagery, hinted with just shading of red towards the author's name seemed to draw me over, and I had made the decision to purchase this book before even reading the back summary; the image of a young man, shirtless and sockless, with only faded Levi's low on his waist had me from the beginning, coupled with the fact that he arched towards the sky, with decrepit black wings emanating from his back. "A Fallen Angel ... A Forbidden Love"

Previous to picking up "hush, hush" I had never heard of new-author Becca Fitzpatrick, but I will be avidly keeping an outlook for the sequel to this attention-consuming paperback.

Seeing as the plot seemed to follow a line eerily similar to that of the controversial "Twilight". With many of my friends going goggled-eyed over the characters of Edward Cullen and the cardboard Bella, I was cautious of "hush, hush", so much so that Ren bought it and read it first. By the time she had finished it (about three to four days later, give or take)m I was hungry to get my teeth into a good story, having been deprived of time to read by school. Ren's home-made blurts of reviews and possible spoilers seemed to entice me further, and I managed to get a hold on the book the day before yesterday, setting it down with a condescending eye; the writing style seemed a bit naive to me, along with a quick introduction of the main character and a seemingly give-away by the prologue, I left it until the following evening.
Despite setting the book down a bit disappointed, I found myself wondering what would happen next throughout my schoolday.

Eating my words, I literally devoured the book in one day, staying up until 4am in the morning to finish the gut-wrenching, page-flicking and lightning-fast last fifty or so pages. Although paying for my late-night adventure into the world of Becca Fitzpatrick's outstanding thriller-come-romance-come-betrayal-come mystery with a few naps between and during classes, I have almost re-read the book a second time.

After the sparkling vampires and helpless damsels in distress of Twilight, I find myself hoping, if not praying that some adventurous producer will purchase the movie-rights to this outstanding novel. The well-paced book culminates in a flash of realization in the last fifty pages, where all that was cloudy or seemed somehow off was brought into the clear spotlight to take well-deserved bow before my connecting thoughts.
The future is Fallen Angels, my friends. That and the sensational history surrounding them; I beg anyone not to love this book; a film would only justify its small name to the fame it truly deserves.

I applaud Becca Fitzpatrick for this debut masterpiece; the seemingly-spoiler prologue isn't as it seems;the good guys aren't as good as they seem, but then I turn a page and I revise my opinion yet again. Is the bad-guy really good, or is he manipulating me as much as he does the main character of Nora Grey?

Written from the perspective of sixteen-year-old Nora Grey, a sophomore in Coldwater High, located in the fictional city of Coldwater along the Maine East Coast, "hush, hush" pulls you into Nora's life from the very beginning.
Her character is humbled by her best friend, Vee Sky's voluptuous figure and understated sex-appeal. In this, we can see similarities to Bella from the bane of my existence; Twilight. (Cue the cringe.) But one thing I will say, is I found Bella's character (and that of most people/sparkling vampires in Twilight) to be rather under-developed. Whilst Nora is noticeably not as developed as her own bane, the lead male; the sexy, swoon-worthy, intangible Patch Cipriano, it is clear to see that there is much more to come in the sequel of "hush, hush", entitled "Crescendo".

We are brought into Nora's life in the midst of her biology class and, through this class, we learn that Nora and Vee are very close, almost more like sisters that best friends, even though Nora's physical appearance in no way resembles that of her tall, a little-past-curvy, constantly-dieting friend we warm to Nora; she is thin-ish, with a high metabolism, and untameable dark hair akin to a tumbleweed.
Immediately, we can see a predictable plot develop when the none-too-bothered Coach/biology teacher decides to split Vee and Nora up, moving the "transfer" student to conveniently sit beside Nora. Patch is, in my opinion, immediately the starring lead in this novel, possibly outshining the main character herself.
He is cocky, up front about his attraction to Nora, always trying to get her to go out with him none too subtly. He makes a point of knowing everything about her, obviously having a secret agenda behind his fantastic facade. Whilst I enjoyed Patch's secretive nature and smart comments, it was his innumerable sexual innuendos that had me smiling and blushing about as much as Nora does. Reading from her perspective, it's easy to believe Patch is smiling up at me, daring me to trust him as he does with Nora.

Throughout the novel, we warm considerably to Nora's character, learning of her father's murder and her own insecurities and paranoia. Reading the novel, I could feel her doubt about the secretive Patch, who seemingly showes up wherever she goes, even working in the restaurant Vee chooses. This trait becomes so pronounced that I pined for Patch when parted from his seductive character for too many pages.
I believe Patch Cipriano is what makes this book so utterly enticing; his secretive, yet dangerous aura seems to off-set Nora's good-girl personality, exposing a side of her even she didn't know she had. We feel for her when she tries to examine her feelings for Patch; she should be afraid of him, very afraid when she had a much better option for boyfriend-material in the prep-school transfer student, Elliot. Like Nora, we are intangibly drawn to the much more interesting Patch and his interest in high-takes gambling. She shouldn't trust him and neither should we, but we do; we fall head over heels for him within the very first chapter. Despite his secret agenda, we feel for Patch when he reveals a softer side, but also when Nora accuses him for innumerable things, all the time denying our Patch could do such things.

The introduction of two new characters mid-way through the story seemed hardly worth the trouble, since I thought I had already figured everything out, writing "hush, hush" off as a nice enough read. These two character convinced me more and more that I had given the story a little too much benefit of the doubt; they tied in conveniently at the right time to fill in a missing jig-saw piece. How wrong I was; my jig-saw puzzle was all together, only the pieces didn't fit each other, leaving large gaps here and there in the story.
The last fifty or so pages, crammed full of sexual-tension scenes, where I almost screamed at Nora to get Patch's shirt off (for my own benefit mostly) were by far, masterfully written.
Becca Fitzpatrick manages to tie all of her subplots together to conclude them in an unbelievable string of events. Throughout the entire book, what I thought was a certain ending is thrust above my head out of reach, whilst new possibilities appear to my left and right, causing me to re-examine what I know of Patch, of Nora, Vee, Elliot and Jules. Can I even trust Nora at this stage?

The ending is sublime, with all elements, no matter how small or fickle, making complete sense. Even the new characters have a purpose in this novel, not merely playing their part and being written out. A sensational read, and top of my list to re-read again and again.

Although Patch is what makes this book, his strong cocky personality may cause readers to resent him. If you don't read this novel with an open mind, then you're not going to enjoy it. I suggest to take Patch as he is, and don't try too hard to figure him out; that's half the fun in my opinion!!

Thanks to my friend's page on DA, I found this cool thingy. Go on, give it a try!!!

Here's How It Works:
1. Open Your Library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put It On Shuffle
3. Press Play
4. For Every Question, Type The Song That's Playing
5. When You Go To A New Question, Press The Next Button
6. Don't Lie & Try To Pretend You're Cool
7. Post Your Results


Opening Credits:
"Run" ~ Leona Lewis

Waking Up:
"Stigmatized" ~ The Calling

First Day At School:
"Bring Him Home" ~ Les Miserables

Falling In Love:
"Bring Me To Life" ~ Evanescence

Fight:
"My Life Would Suck Without You" ~ Kelly Clarkson

Breaking Up:
"Only Hope" ~ Mandy Moore

Prom:
"Dead Ringer For Love" ~ Meatloaf

Life's Okay:
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" ~ Miley Cyrus

Mental Breakdown:
"Red High Heels" ~ Kellie Pickler

Driving:
"Listen" ~ Beyoncé

Flashback:
"Apologize" ~ One Republic

Getting Back Together:
"Cry" ~ Mandy Moore

Wedding:
"Footprints In The Sand" ~ Leona Lewis

Final Battle:
"Calling All Angels" ~ Jane Siberry feat. K.D. Lang

Funeral:
"Walking in Memphis" ~ Lonestar

Hi huns!! Just here off Fanfiction.Net and well dn't really know why I joined, I think someone had a link to one of my fics here and I traced the  link back to their account here cos the person didn't really ask my permission but sure, what ya gonna do? Anyways, I thought it looked cool so I started up an account aswell, go me!!
Kas, :-)
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