Hades by Alexandra Adornetto

Rating: ☆☆☆
Release date: Aug. 30, 2011
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Format: hardback
Source: library
Pages: 424
Series: --
Challenge: --
Summary: 

Bethany Church is an angel sent to Earth to keep dark forces at bay. Falling in love was never part of her mission, but the bond between Beth and her mortal boyfriend, Xavier Woods, is undeniably strong. But even Xavier's love, and the care of her archangel siblings, Gabriel and Ivy, can't keep Beth from being tricked into a motorcycle ride that ends up in Hell. There, the demon Jake Thorn bargains for Beth's release back to Earth. But what he asks of her will destroy her, and quite possibly, her loved ones, as well.

I was a little hesitant to read this after being disappointed by Halo, but I was surprised to find that I enjoyed Hades a lot more than I thought I would. As with the first, I found myself being annoyed with Bethany. She still seemed really helpless, especially how she got "tricked" into the motorcycle ride. I didn't really understand, with her being a divine being and all, why she couldn't just jump off once she realized something was wrong? I mean, maybe she was glued to the seat or something, but that really annoyed me. (And yeah, if there was an actual legit reason, then I apologize in advance. I must of missed that part. :))

Aaand one more thing that bothered me was how Bethany couldn't even figure out she was in Hell. I understand that angels don't exactly make trips to Hell every other week, but I still don't get how she couldn't have put the pieces together.

In the middle and towards the end, she showed a little bit more guts, though, which I guess makes up for all the other stuff about her that bothered me. For the most part, I tried to ignore her helplessness and it ended up more like a minor annoyance. I did end up liking her a lot more towards the end of the book.

One thing I liked was the pacing. Hades has a much faster pace than Halo did. I actually really liked how the book was going, and there really were not that many dull moments. The fact that we get to see both what's happening with Bethany in Hell and what's happening to Xavier and her family ensures that the book never really gets slow. If there's a lull with one character, then Adornetto allows us to see what's happening with the others. I thought this was a pretty effective method to use to keep the book from getting boring.

I also really liked how the danger in this book focuses more on a global view. Whereas Halo was all about Bethany and her family coming to rescue the town, this one had an issue that would impact the whole world. There was more of a sense of urgency in this one, which made the book much more exciting than the first.

I definitely thought this was an improvement over the first. Now hopefully, the third book will be even better!