Hush, Hush by Beca Fitzpatrick

Call me crazy, but I actually enjoyed this book?

...I know, right? I feel like it's almost not allowed. 90% of my friends hated it and tried to warn me away when they saw me starting the book. "Don't do it," they said, "it's not worth it," they said. But sometimes you have to ignore your friends and do you.

HUSH, HUSH gets a bum rap and part of that is the fact that the hero in this book is an abusive, rapey, psychotic douchenozzle, AKA my favorite kind of hero. But I think part of it is also because it kinds of reads like a sexed-up version of TWILIGHT, only with angels instead of vampires, and it came out at a time when TWILIGHT and copycats were literally over-saturating the YA market and the movies were coming out and the fangirls were everywhere and there was literally no escape.

Nora Grey is an ordinary girl... until she meets Patch Cipriano, a mysterious and dangerous boy who seems interested in her, and not in a good way. After some courtship (read: stalking), Nora realizes she might be attracted to Patch (read: in mortal peril), but he might also be trying to kill her (read: it's true love). And maybe some other people might want to kill her, too. You know, for funsies.

As I said before, I like douchenozzle heroes, so I didn't have a problem with Patch. Objectively, I know he is a bad man and people like him suck IRL. But in fantasy land, as a fantasy romance hero where the reader draws the lines of consent by picking up the book and deciding when to put it down of their own volition? Yeah. This is basically the dark romance I was expecting TWILIGHT to be. It was Gothic, slow-burn action with plenty of danger and sexy parts. Nora is a better heroine than Bella; she has more of a personality and isn't afraid to talk back or defend herself.

I liked her friendship with Vee, even if it was immature and kind of silly. Vee is a curvy girl whose personality revolves around making lewd comments about boys and eating. I feel attacked. But their banter was great and you got the sense of their friendship in a way that a lot of YA books at this time failed, miserably. Just look at the friendship ex machina that was Jessica in TWILIGHT.

Honestly, I thought this was a great dark love story for teens. I read and enjoyed FALLEN, too, but this is better than FALLEN. Those angels were too broody and acted like they were using Wuthering Heights as their courtship bible. This was more like Dogma-- angels gone wild, with a dash of sass. I would definitely read the sequels if they popped up on Kindle Unlimited like this one did. I guess the moral of this review (if there is one??) is that you can't always trust your friends.

...But I knew that. ;)

JK, I love you.

4 out of 5 stars