Back Cover of Hush, Hush

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. Not until Patch came 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 who 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 way 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.

Three Quick Points About Hush, Hush

• Point 1: The best kind of bad. The smokin’ hot half-nekkid angel guy on the front cover barely does Patch justice.
• Point 2: Nora disappears in the story. I mean that figuratively, of course. Her personality disappears. Sometimes she felt like a shrinking violet. (Not altogether a bad thing.)
• Point 3: The names made me cross-eyed. OK, some of the character names were so far out there, I had to stop reading, process, shake my head, then continue.

Full Review of Hush, Hush

Before reading the full review, please note that there may be some spoilers. I tried to keep it vague enough not to spoil the entire story, but be warned. If you’d rather not take any chances, skip the synopsis and go straight to the final thoughts.

Hush, Hush Synopsis

One afternoon during biology lab, Nora Grey finds herself being paired up with the new kid, Patch. At first sight, Nora sees her good grades slipping through the cracks because the last thing that appears to be on his mind is schoolwork. But she quickly learns that she has far bigger problems.

Patch is the epitome of bad boy: always dressed from head to toe in black (except when wearing the occasional blue baseball cap), long black hair, black eyes, and hard body. She knows she should stay away from him, but there’s an electric attraction.

It’s not long before Nora suspects she’s being stalked and begins to hear voices in her head that aren’t her own and sees things that feel real, but aren’t. Nora’s world is falling apart all around her and her best friend Vee starts to think she’s a little crazy.

Then the physical attacks start. Someone smashes into her car while driving, people around her begin to get roughed up, and Nora can’t make any sense of it. But she knows who the prime suspect is: Patch.

Soon Nora realizes she’s at the center of a conspiracy of angelic proportions and has the make a sacrifice to save her life.

Final Thoughts On Hush, Hush

Hush, Hush is told from Nora’s first person point of view. The problem I see all too often with this is the narrator becoming too whiny or needy or haughty in the most disenchanting way. That wasn’t a problem here because Nora’s personality slipped into the background so the focus was on the story. The unfortunate side effect was that Nora wasn’t exactly rocking my world as far as characters go.

Vee, Nora’s best friend, and Patch, fallen angel. Now there are two well drawn characters. I found myself wondering what was wrong with Vee half the time and screaming at her to get some sense the other half. Patch was an enigma. A spicy enigma. (By the way, that was a pun. You’ll understand when you see where he works.)

I even loved the waitress and the bag lady who make an appearance in the story while Nora is doing some snooping in Portland. Though minor characters, their personalities were larger than life and each made me laugh. Unfortunately, the same treatment can’t be said for Elliot or Jules. They were all over the place and what made it worse was that both of them were somewhat major players in the story.

As for the story itself, it worked for the most part. In some areas, mainly when we’re getting an education about the angelic hierarchy and angel indiscretions, the story lags. It doesn’t lag for too long and the action picks back up.

There were a couple holes that made me raise an eyebrow and ask, “Why didn’t he/she just __________?” (filling in the blank would equal a spoiler) or “Ski mask, really?!?” (i.e. some of the things that happened were just weird—not creepy or mysterious or spooky weird—plain weird.) Luckily, those holes were relatively tiny and didn’t spoil the overall story for me.

And let’s not get me started on some of the character names…one or two weirdly named characters? No problem, but there has to be a limit.

Everything is eventually resolved and the questions (well, most of them) are wrapped up in the end. A few bits seemed like contrived afterthoughts bordering on cheesy, but again, not badly enough to ruin the story. While I won’t be pining over Patch for years to come, it was certainly an entertaining way to pass an afternoon.

(Oh yeah…that allusion to an “ancient battle” on the back cover? You won’t find anything too epic. No pitchforks or smiting swords or even angel on demon war action. I’m loathe to say it, but think of this more as Twilight with fallen angels instead of vampires.)

(Since I’m reviewing based on the ARC, I’ll snag a final copy sometime today and update if the ending is vastly different from the current version.)

UPDATE: I’ve had an opportunity to get out and about and spotted a copy of Hush, Hush at Sam’s Club. After comparing the ending of the ARC and the final release, I can say that not too much has changed. The final bit of dialog was tweaked and extended by a couple more paragraphs to ratchet up the heat factor and melt the (previous) cheese factor. So, with that said, the review still stands.

Rating: Worth every penny [TPB] [B] (?)