Halo (Halo Trilogy, 1) Paperback – August 30, 2011

I loved, loved, loved this book!!!!!! I fell head over heels in love with this book!!! There are so many negative reviews about this series, that I put it off and put it off. I never should have done that. Once I started reading it, I couldn't find anything I didn't like. This book captured me, and I fell in love with the world the Alexandra created. All of the characters were amazing, especially Xavier and Gabriel.Three angels came to Venus Cove to balance out the evil with good. Ivy and Gabriel has done this before, but it was a new experience to Bethany. She has never experienced anything like that before. She starts school and meets a friend named Molly. Also, Xavier starts paying attention to her which makes other girls jealous. All is good for awhile with the angels helping the town. Bethany and Xavier also fell for each other. Everything was perfect until Jake showed up. Bad things started to happen especially when Bethany turned him down. He was doing whatever it took to make her his.Xavier won me over from the beginning. I absolutely fell in love with him. After Emily died, he put a wall up and wouldn't let anybody in. That all changed once Bethany came to town. Watching that wall break, and seeing the new light in his eyes was so touching. He can protect me anytime. The romance was to die for!!!! I loved all of their scenes together. I only wish that they would have gotten to go to the prom together. I didn't understand why the angels couldn't heal him.I loved Bethany as a character. I got to enjoy experiencing new things as she experienced them for the first time. She isn't like the other angels. She connects to humans and Earth more easily than they do. It was nice watching her grow through the story. She started off so fragile, but then became strong.I loved her brother and sister, Gabriel and Ivy. I can't wait to see what happens with them. They seemed to ease up in the story. They even started liking Molly and Xavier.I can't wait to read Hades to get some more of Xavier!!! Of course, I want to know what happens next. I am already in love with this series!!! The characters and the story was beautifully written. I recommend this to all who love angel stories with an amazing romance!!!!

I found that the book had a perfect amount of romance without making everything look awkward, annoying or tacky. Xavier is the perfect boyfriend and Bethany is the ideal Damsel-in-distress who turns out to have some hero in her. I found that it was PACEful but not slow at all, perfect for a quiet day and even though that i found some of the mistakes Bethany (An celestial knowledge bestowed angel) made were sometimes childish and annoying but the solutions made up for it. the book physically looks amazing to say the least, the sleeve photo is POWERFUL and the book cover looked cute and simple, but ever so appealing. The style is very dreamy, with everything addressed in an almost surreal way, the angels are a little bit too over described with their looks and luminescence and what not, but then again they're angels, people would do that if that happened. It is sad that the book got so much negativity, because the angel genre has been lately exploited maybe people got bored of said genre and thus, failed to acknowledge the inner and different beauty this book has to offer. Pity.

Among all of the young adult fantasy hit series and trilogies that I've read, this one is my very favorite. This was written by an author who was actually still in her teens at the time and she deserves much credit for touching on those issues in a more realistic way. Secondly, Adornetto has admitted to basing the character of Angel Bethany (Church) on herself, which was smart since teenagers are still developing into the world and still don't really know that much outside of it. And third, instead of having the main characters ascend onto Earth exclusively to fight against the Dark Agents, Adornetto has them also has them blend in and do works in their community simultaneously. Archangel Gabriel is assigned as a music teacher and Angel Bethany as a student to Bryce Hamilton, a local Catholic high school in their fictional coastline town called Venus Cove.Against Heaven's rules, Angel Bethany shortly meets and falls for a fellow student named Xavier Woods who is the captain of the school and also plays several sports. What's worse is that Xavier returns these feelings and is willing to sacrifice his very life for her even though he's only human. Shortly, thereafter, another new student who claims his name is Jake Thorn and that he's from England arrives and also poses as a student. From the beginning, Jake gives the air of the polite bad boy yet it doesn't take a rocket scientist to sense that something is seriously off about him and in a very negative way. To make matters worse, he seems to share Xavier's feelings for Angel Bethany and tries to lure her to him.It doesn't take much to win my respect but I am absolutely in awe of Alexandra Adornetto. That she had the courage to take on something so potentially controversial yet something that just touches to core of the heart at such a young age. After all, she was only a senior in high school herself when she wrote Halo.