Half-Blood
2011 • 316 pages

Ratings28

Average rating3.7

15

Here's the thing: I was told that Jennifer L. Armentrout's Covenant series was “Vampire Academy with Greek mythology” or “Vampire Academy meets Percy Jackson,” which interested me enough to make this the next series of Armentrout's that I read. I was not expecting how similar this was to Vampire Academy though, all the way down to its premise and plot.

Let's compare, shall we?

• We have our pure-bloods/Moroi, half-bloods/Dhampir, and daimons/Strigoi.
• Daimons/Strigoi are made by biting and consuming the blood of pure-bloods/Moroi.
• The half-bloods/Dhampir are looked down upon by the pure-bloods/Moroi, and are made to spend their lives serving and protecting them.
• Our story opens up with the female main character having run away from her school with another female character.
• Said female main character is saved by her love interest and brought back to the school.
• Female main character is accepted back at the school if she behaves, because female main character is a known rebel/party girl.
• Female main character's (who is an underage teenager) love interest is her adult mentor.
• Female main character is super special because she's an Apollyon/Shadowkissed.

...shall I go on?

Even with all of the similarities, I was hoping that maybe the mythological aspect might save it, but nope. The topic of the gods/Hematoi and their mythology are barely approached in this book, at least not enough to influence the overall plot. One of the characters even says that the pure-bloods can't get in contact with the Gods anymore.

Am I still going to continue with this series? Probably. Partially because I want to see if the next books copy the rest of the Vampire Academy series, and partially because this was entertaining just enough— but I don't mind calling out Jennifer L. Armentrout on this copycat book.

And my enemies-to-lovers dark romantasy loving heart really, really wants Alex and Seth to end up together but I think we all know she's gonna end up with Aiden bye.

January 23, 2024Report this review