Title: Halflings
Author: Heather Burch
Series: Halflings #1
Published: February 1 2012 by Zondervan Publishing
Length: 228 pages
Warnings: Angels,
demons, romance 13+
Source: Netgalley
Other info: This is
Heather’s debut novel. There is an ebook prequel, 11:15, The Making of a Halfling,
and the sequel Guardian should come in September.
Summary : After
being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost,
seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three
mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her,
misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their
deepest secret—and the wings that come with. A growing attraction between Nikki and two of her protectors presents a whole
other danger. While she risks a broken heart, Mace and Raven could lose everything,
including their souls. As the mysteries behind the boys’ powers, as well as her
role in a scientist’s dark plan, unfold, Nikki is faced with choices that will
affect the future of an entire race of heavenly beings, as well as the
precarious equilibrium of the earthly world.
Review: This gets
off to a very quick start. We meet Nikki, who is being attacked by wolves. Or
something. Then we get to a group of boys, Mace, Raven and Vine, who are
actually Halflings- beings with one human and one angelic parent. Nikki is
being drawn into a world that she didn’t know existed, where she has a bigger
role than she thought.
It’s a very quick read. The chasing at the beginning
definitely drew me in, and was a fast start for
something that could be great to come. The idea of Halflings is also
quickly introduced. So far, so good.
The beginning-middle bit, I found to generally be quite
slow. I didn’t really understand why all these things were happening, what the
point to them were, and how it fit in with the start. It picks up again when we meet Damon, who
turns out to have a bigger part later on in the book.
There’s a bit in the middle that I didn’t really like. Why?
It was a Twilight-style confrontational scene “I know what you are”. I don’t
think it was really that necessary, it was a slight rip-off, and we could have
learnt more about the angel-lore in Halflings in another way.
The angel-lore itself was quite good. it’s not too different
from what we get in other novels, but it was still interesting. The romance, well, most of it was in the
middle, so I turned off for that.
The ending definitely picks up. A lot. I won’t
say what happens, because that might spoil it, but if you get past the slow
middle section, you’ll enjoy it.
Nikki is a strong character at times, and at others,
slightly annoying. We get a good sense of her character without seeing too much
of her, and when she wasn’t being all Bella-Swan-ny, I quite liked her.
The action scenes were definitely the best thing about
Halflings. Not only was something actually happening, they were well written
and interesting.
I’ve read 11:15, which would get 3/5 too, and would like to
read Guardian, but I’m not overly wild about it.
Overall: Strength 3 tea of a somewhat confusing and
boring book, but with enough good parts to
keep me interested and give it this rating.
Interesting! I haven't heard of ts one before and your reviews very honest... I might give it a go but ask you w he the middle bit gets good again and skip ;)
ReplyDelete