Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout
♦publisher: Spencer Hill Press
♦release date: November 6, 2012
♦paperback, 360 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Covenant, book 3
(other reviews: Half-Blood, Pure)
♦source: from publisher for honest review
Spoiler alert: description and review may contain slight spoilers for books 1 and 2. Read those first!
"History is on repeat, and things didn't go so well the last time. "
Alexandria isn't sure she's going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she's a goner... and so is Aiden.
If that's not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time "training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.
But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she's caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed... and destroyed.
Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate...
Alexandria isn't sure she's going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she's a goner... and so is Aiden.
If that's not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time "training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.
But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she's caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed... and destroyed.
Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate...
Review: Well, what can I say. We're three books into the Covenant series (four if you count Daimon, the novella)...and I have yet to give any of them less that 5 cupcakes. Deity is so worthy of continuing that streak. There is just something so incredible about this series and about Jennifer L. Armentrout's writing. It just completely sucks you in. I think the thing I love most, while they must be read in sequence to even know what it going on, is that each individual book carries it's own story arc. There is no second-book-slump, no third-book-boredom. Each time you are pulled in somewhat gently, allowed to settle back into the Covenant world and setting, and then its all breath-taking action, heart-stopping shocks, plenty of emotional turmoil and swoon-enducing romance, and then it ends with the reader knowing there is more but feeling almost safe and calm...and then you're abruptly pushed over a cliff at the very last second. Deity, just like it's predecessors, was a thrilling roller coaster of a story, and I loved every second of it.
Alex is just as funny, just as passionate, just as tough as always. She goes through some pretty intense emotional stuff this time around---mourning Caleb, coping with being shut out from friends, dealing with Seth, hiding what happened during the daimon attack, and all the while her birthday and her becoming the Apollyon creeps ever closer. She gets an emotional bomb dropped on her with a mysterious letter that arrives. She seems to be the target of the head minister's cruel plans. And then there is Aiden. OH the romance in this is steamy. Armentrout gets my vote for most amazing YA romance writer---watching Alex and Aiden in this constant dance of denying their attraction to one another and telling themselves they can never be together just intensifies until it all comes crashing down. Their moments together are enough to get the heart pounding, but the descriptiveness stays just under the radar of what seems appropriate for YA readers, if that makes sense. I have to admit, that's one of the reasons I prefer most YA romance as apposed to adult romance---sometimes I like a few things left to the imagination. ;) This does that perfectly.
I loved all the new characters and "changing" characters in this installment. One of my favorite developments is the sort of metamorphosis of the relationship between Alex and her uncle, Marcus. Alex learns that things are not always what they seem. This time around she also learns the hard lesson of when to stop trusting and hoping for the best in someone.
Deity was gripping and emotionally charged from beginning to end. This series continues to be one of my absolute favorites. Book 4, Apollyon, is coming out April 2013---thank the stars it's not a full year's wait or I think I might have cried!
Ohhhhh my gawd.
ReplyDeleteDeity was amazing. And yes, the romance is steamy!
I was Team Seth. But after reading this, I became 100% Team Aiden. But let's see what happens in Apollyon!