Review: Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush, #1) by Becca Fitzpatrick

Rating (Out of 5): ~4 (could be anywhere between 3.5 and 4.5, really)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Spoilers?: No.

Goodreads Synopsis:

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her...until Patch comes along.
With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment, but after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is far more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

Review:

I’m kind of unsure what to think about this book. I’m just… I don’t know.

I read this a couple years ago, when it first came out, and remember thinking it was amazing, but then a while after, I couldn’t remember anything about it. I wanted to re-read it when the second one came out, but a friend of mine had it, and I only recently got it back, and then only read it so soon because another friend of mine loves it and wants me to read the others. And then I read a few pages, paused it to read something else, and when I started it again, couldn’t remember what I had read already. For some reason, I read some of this book, am really interested and feel like I’m paying attention, only for all of the information to disappear as soon as I go to something else.

Some of that seemed to clear up, though, when I continued reading, which is nice, I guess.

Anyway, Hush, Hush is about Nora, a girl with some seriously conflicting trust issues, who is suspicious of but also attracted to, Patch, a fallen angel. Someone, or several someones, is(are) after Nora, and she doesn’t know who to trust or what to do about it, while also thinking that maybe she’s imagining all of it.

Nora was alright. At times I liked her, and other times I was frustrated with her, and thought that some of the things she said/thought were out of context or were dumb. And it frustrated me how she would go on about how Patch was maybe the one after her, but would then let him give her a ride. She would jump to conclusions, dumbly, without really doing much to fight him off. And I didn’t like how she never did much to fight anyone off, only ran and hid; and how easy it was for them to get inside her head. But I guess that’s better than her being somehow really strong and unknowingly fighting them off, as most other heroines seem to do, since that made her seem more normal, I guess; still, she should have been able to put up some resistance, once she realized.

I did kind of like Patch, even though he was mysterious in a bad way, and felt that him and Nora work together really well. Patch knows how to deal with her, and it’s good that he likes dealing with her. Because she’s frustrating and conflicting, and she’ll yell at him while feeling the complete opposite, and so it’s good that he will continue to push and not take what she says seriously, because she doesn’t mean it and needs someone to push her like he does.

Vee and Nora’s friendship also works rather well. Vee likes drama and sneaking around, and Nora probably wouldn’t get as much done without Vee, since she protests but gives in rather easily to her, as well

The relationships in this book seemed really well made. Some of Nora’s logic, however, did not. Like her looking through Patch’s things, and then jumping to a conclusion immediately, without anything to back it up.

I didn’t feel as much chemistry between Nora and Patch as I would have liked, either. I was expecting to feel more, too. Maybe just because of the fact that Nora was convinced (with reason that I won’t spoil) that Patch was trying to kill her, and then when he admitted to something (that I also won’t spoil), that probably lessened the attraction to me, since I just didn’t like it too much (some of it grew back, though, later). But none of that stuff seemed to make her lust go down, and that kind of irritated me. I’m hoping that the chemistry will be better in the next book, since they will actually be together in it.

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. It seemed… too good to be true, I guess? Like everything worked out too well, and I don’t like it. Plus, I wanted a different ending for Patch; hopefully I will grow to like it in the next book.

I should be reading the next one (and maybe even the third one) soon, since my friend has them and wants me to read them, and I am going to try to in the next couple weeks. I'm hoping for better romance and more information about all the angel stuff and Nora's part in it, and if Patch's place in it is going to change. So, look forward to that, I guess.