Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Name: Pure (Covenant #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Pages: 329.

Publication: 3rd April 2012.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✩

Buy It: Kennys | Amazon | Easons (ROI)

"There is need. And then there is Fate... 

Being destined to become some kind of supernatural electrical outlet isn't exactly awesome--especially when Alexandria's "other half" is everywhere she goes. Seth's in her training room, outside her classes, and keeps showing up in her bedroom--so not cool. Their connection does have some benefits, like staving off her nightmares of the tragic showdown with her mother, but it has no effect on what Alex feels for the forbidden, pure-blooded Aiden. Or what he will do--and sacrifice--for her. 

When daimons infiltrate the Covenants and attack students, the gods send furies--lesser gods determined to eradicate any threat to the Covenants and to the gods, and that includes the Apollyon... and Alex. And if that and hordes of aether-sucking monsters didn't blow bad enough, a mysterious threat seems willing to do anything to neutralize Seth, even if that means forcing Alex into servitude... or killing her. 

When the gods are involved, some decisions can never, ever be undone."

Review.

This is a hard review to write without any spoilers. Anyone who is in with the Young Adult genre knows the name Jennifer L. Armentrout. She has taken the world by storm with both this Covenant series and her Lux series.  I will warn however, a little of your soul may die while reading Pure, sequel of the highly praised Half-Blood.

Pure is a game changer for the series. Not only for the story within the series itself but also for the quality of the writing. Pure lives up to the high expectations I as well as most of the YA world had. Daimons are attacking students on school grounds, the Gods are not happy, people are put in live and situations and Alex has probably blurted out something she should not have said. Oh, yes, the Covenant series is back. 

Most of the characters are back in Pure including Alex, Aiden, Seth, Caleb, Marcus and so on.

Alex is still her kick-ass self who still does not know when to keep her mouth shut or her fist down. So yes, she is still getting into a lot trouble. It's why I love her. She stands up for what she believes in and despite being a very rash individual, she is smart. She also has some great one-liners in Pure some of which did actually make me laugh out loud. 

Aiden. Poor, poor Aiden. He is always trying to do the right thing. Although I find Aiden a little too uptight and shy to appeal to me as a love interest, he is DEFINITELY not shy when fighting but I find his personality a little lack in spontaneity for my taste. Well, he is bland compared to Seth. With this being said, Aiden is still a wonderful character who balance's Alex out in the right ways. My heart does go out for him. You can tell he is aching because of the Breed rules and you can see how much he genuinely cares for Alex. I also applaud him for standing his ground.

I love Seth. I do. No, really, I love him. I am really glad he played a bigger role in this book. He is so many kinds of awesome. I love his humour and battles of wit and retort with Alex. Seth is also rude, egotistical and obnoxious and that makes me want him even more. Does that say something about my taste in men, that I would choose Seth over Aiden? I know, I make Seth sound like a one-dimensional comical relief character but truly, he is not. We see more of Seth and other sides of his personality including a few scenes in his POV at the end of the book. 

Romance plays an integral part of Pure, a lot more than it did in Half-Blood. Alex does a lot of thinking about boys in this book. The romance aspect takes a few twists and turns as well has hitting a few bumps throughout the book. I will tell you who I 'ship' if you have not guessed. I kinda want Alex and Seth together despite being a ticking time bomb. However with that being said, if they would become an actual couple, would they lose the hilarious war of words they have on a daily basis? I hate when that happens in books.

I know in my review of Half-Blood, I said I was not sure I enjoyed the whole Apollyon dynamic of the book mainly because I did not know much about it but I must say, I found it really interesting in this book especially how being Apollyons affects Alex and Seth individually and Alex and Seth as a whole.

Pure has a few plot twists and turns and one main shocker which had me repeating "Oh, Miss Armentrout, why did you do what you did? Haven't you broken my heart enough?" And then saying ugh, WHY, many times over. Many times over.

Final Thought.

Pure is a fast-paced book full of action, humour and romance. There is battles between daimons and our heoine, battles of love and of course, battles of wit and retort. There is no doubt about it. The Covenant series is a MUST READ. I am already anticapting the third novel, Deity, which is expected to be out 6th November 2012.  

February Releases.

Here are five of some of the YA releases out this February:

The Rivals (The Mockingbirds #2) by Daisy Whitney.
Sequel to The Mockingbirds.
Publication: 6th February 2012.

Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan.
Publication: 8th February 2012.

Pure by Julianna Baggott.
Publication: 8th February 2012.
Find my review of Pure here.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley.
Publication: 14th February 2012.
First Publication: 1st August 2010.
Find my review of Graffiti Moon here.

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen.
Publication: 14th February 2012.

February Releases: Part 2

The Disenchantments by Nina LeCour.
Publication: 16th February 2012.


Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano.
Sequel to Wither.
Publication: 21st February 2012.

The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg.
Publication: 21st February 2012.

Oppression by Jessica Therrien.
Publication: 28th February 2012.

Partials by John Wells.

Publication: 28th February 2012.

Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pure by Julianna Baggott.


Information.
Pages: 448
Publication: February 8th 2012/Grand Central Publishing 
Pre-Order it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kennys (Free WW shipping)
ARC supplied: Publishers at NetGalley. 


"We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . . 
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again."

Review.
When I first began reading my ARC of Pure, I will be honest, I wasn't really feeling it. I found it difficult to connect with anything that was going on. I was also a little bit confused because I felt as if I was just thrown into this devastated world in the Prologue but once I was a few chapters in, everything fell into place for me.


Pressia is in her own right the heroine of the book. She has just turned sixteen, something that I failed to remember because she speaks so maturely. She has seen more than enough of sadness for only being sixteen years. That said, Pressia is courageous and she is a fighter. She does not let anyone take advantage of her yet, she is also kind and helpful and willing to give up her life for the ones she loves. She stands up Bradwell, the third main character who begrudgingly helps to Partridge's mother for as he puts it "his own selfish reasons". So, to me, Pressia is a heroine.


Partridge, however, has only seen what happens in the Dome. He has read about the Outside and although he has not lived through what Pressia has, he has had his own battles to fight. With his mother presumably dead, a brother who has committed suicide and an absentee father, Partridge is lonely. I liked Partridge. Even if he was a little naive, he was smart enough to know that he would not survive on the Outside by himself. I enjoyed reading Pressia's and Partridge's interactions, as if they understood each other on another level.


The book is told in an omnipresent manner but from different characters points of view. This is included El Capitan, a soldier whose brother is fused to his back and who seems to be fighting his inner demons. There is also Lydia, a potential ally/love interest who is in the Dome. I liked reading about where Lydia was in the Dome. I thought she was a loyal and brave friend to Partridge. 


Baggott is very good at one thing and that is tying up plots at the end. The book ended neatly, with many of the subplots intertwining with the main plot. If you read the book closely, they are clues to the surprises that emerge throughout the book. This, in my opinion, is a sign of truly good writing, to be able intermingle plots in a way that does not seem out of the blue for the reader.  

Although the concept of Domes in dystopian fiction isn't anything new, it is the world that she creates outside the Dome that is so engrossing. Baggott has created a sinister and cruel place  even border-lining on creepy where everyone carries a scar from the detonations. People are fused with each other as well as solid objects. I think it is the descriptions that Baggott writes about these people is what up the creepy factor of the book. Sometimes I had trouble imagining the creatures which is new for me, so I would love to see Pure turned into a movie or a graphic novel to see how other people imagined the Outside world.


Pure is a book of survival and hope set in a haunting world which will have you captivated page after page.


Rating: 4/5.