Heaven

Originally Reviewed At:Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 3 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: Publisher for Honest Review
Reviewer: Me


Let me begin by saying I have not read the previous novels in the series, Halo and Hades. With that being said, I was given an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and that is what I intend to do, state my extreme love/hate relationship with Heaven and why I couldn’t put the book down despite the various *eye roll* moments I had while indulging myself in this weird world of angels. I must also state that because I am going to briefly discuss religion it is not my intention to offend anyone’s religious or moral beliefs.







Heaven is the story of Bethany an angel who is deeply (or should I say obsessively) in show more love with a mortal named Xavier whom she is sent to guard (at least that’s how I took it seeing as I honestly don’t know because I haven’t read the previous novels). Somewhere along the way, the two fall madly in lust, I mean in love, and in this installment of the Halo series they decide to wed, taking vows before God in order to make their love official in his eyes. Over the course of the novel, several obstacles are thrown their way and Bethany and Xavier must prove that love does conquer all.



Now here is my issue with Heaven, there is a thin line between writing a novel which lightly touches on religion and writing a novel and interjecting your own beliefs into the narrative. I really enjoyed the overall story of Bethany and Xavier. However the deeper I dove into the wells of their love affair the angrier I became from all the preachy religious over and undertones.







Example #1:


“Have you no faith left at all?” my brother remarked in surprise.

“How can I, when God seems to have abandoned us?”

“That is when you need faith the most,” Gabriel said. “Not when everything is going your way, not when you have much to be thankful for, but when there is darkness all around. He is always there, He is always watching, and one way or another He will set you on the right path.” – (ARC page 214)



Example #2:



“Because the path of the righteous man was never supposed to be easy,” I whispered. “Those who are chosen by the Lord are given a hard journey. The reward will come later. And if He is the merciful Father I know, we’ll have eternal peace together. You just have to believe in Him. Believe in His plan and trust Him with your whole heart. I know it’s hard but look at the proof you’ve been given through my siblings and me. Most people have to go off blind faith, but not you. You’ve been given proof.” – (ARC page 295-296)







The vast majority of Heaven is written in this manner. In every chapter there is at least one paragraph devoted to letting the readers know if you do “a” and the results are “b” it doesn’t matter if you were right or wrong as long as you have faith, repent, believe and trust wholeheartedly in the Lord. Now, let me state clearly that I am a Christian and I understand what Adornetto was trying to accomplish (or at least I think I do). After all, she is writing a book about angels so there has to be some sort of moral compass in there somewhere. Even if I believe everything she wrote about faith and God that does not mean I want to read about it and feel as though I need to learn some type of lesson about my faith on every page. And this is exactly how I felt.



I firmly believe I should never be pulled out of a story for any reason because it diminishes my overall enjoyment. And I really, really, really, liked both main characters and I even enjoyed all the side characters. But I just cannot move past the fact that Heaven spent so much time on preaching to me instead of sucking me into a captivating story. I should never be able to determine what an authors beliefs are unless I am reading Christian Fiction or something of the sort. I should never be made to feel as though if I don’t agree with what the author is saying that my thoughts and feelings are wrong. It’s ludicrous! And it’s highly insulting. I am not even going to touch on the authors writing though I found her to be a little too wordy and use too many “tags” at the end of EVERY single instance of dialogue. Just know that it happens and it may be annoying to some readers.



Overall, Heaven rubbed me the wrong way but was also a great love story (see my dilemma). Had it not been for the copious amount of religion I may have scored this book at 4.5 or a 5. I think if Adornetto perfects her writing skills and can learn to master writing about religion without giving the readers Bible lessons she could write something extremely phenomenal. I recommend this novel to those of you who don’t mind books with a ton of religious undertones, and characters with obsessive personalities. For everyone else, well if you read it you will see. show less

Review originally posted http://hobbitsies.net/2012/08/heaven-by-alexandra-adornetto/

I read Halo by Alexandra Adornetto, and while I had problems with it, overall I did like it. I’m not usually into books about angels, but I love reading books/watching movies about heaven and hell fighting each other and what not, so I continued onto Hades, the second book. Which didn’t work for me. But with Heaven, I wanted to read it because I felt like I came so far in the series and I wanted to know how it all ended.

Heaven by Alexandra Adornetto got off to a rocky start. I am not a big fan of the sappy, forever loves in young adult books (or anywhere, probably) so I had trouble swallowing it all. I thought I was going to like Heaven less than show more Hades.

But honestly, Heaven did start to pick up after the marriage. Bethany and co have lots of drama and action going on running from the Seven – there’s a lot of downtime in there too, especially some days/weeks spent in a cabin, but ultimately I cared enough about what would happen to push through the slow parts. I don’t know much about angel myth or anything, but I thought Heaven brought in some interesting elements I haven’t seen in other YA angel books.

I enjoyed all of the scenes with Bethany and Xavier in college. Granted, most of it felt like filler, but it added little extra storylines with Molly that I enjoyed. And we got to see what Xavier was like when he wasn’t 100% Bethany all the time, where has other friends and stuff.

And there was totally a twist in there towards the end of Heaven that I didn’t see coming. It definitely blew my mind and I almost wish it had been explored more thoroughly.

Essentially, I did enjoy Heaven by Alexandra Adornetto. The whole series isn’t one of my favourites, but I think, overall, it’s an enjoyable series for what it is. So if you got as a far as Hades and are unsure about continuing on, I do think Heaven is a satisfactory ending to the series with interesting conflict, although it could do with a lot of trimming. show less

I have the ability to suspend reality and just go with the flow, therefore I was able to enjoy the entire series. Most of the teens I work with really like the series. The description of Heaven was the hardest to buy. There seem to be some pretty awful angels doing their own thing in Heaven and God is too busy to notice. I know God allows humans free will, but the worst being I encountered seem to be the Sevens.

FROM AMAZON: The angel Bethany and her mortal love, Xavier, have already pushed the boundaries of Heaven with their relationship. In this conclusion to the Halo trilogy, the two take their love to the next, forbidden, step: They marry. At a time when they believe nothing will come between them again, they are faced with their show more most daunting challenge yet: the Sevens, a military order of angels designed to maintain balance in the universe. These soldiers won’t stop until their job is done - capture the wayward angel and send her home.

Secrets, exile, and unexpected allies flavor the rest of this intense love story and adventure. Beth discovers there is only one way back to Earth, but the cost is higher than she - and listeners - ever imagined. If she can survive, she can prove to Heaven and Earth that there is nothing stronger than the power of love. show less

SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!!!

I'm very impressed by Alexandra Adornetto, 20 years old and already written a YA trilogy. I honestly couldn't tell that she was that young. Turns out she is a pretty good narrator as well, reads her own books as a pro.

So I audioed this, heard the whole trilogy in a couple of days. I like the world AA build and I liked most of the characters.
In the end I felt like AA had a deadline or something...I wanted a big reunion after our little angels 2 years in heaven away, not just Xavier. And Xavier...why didn't he fall to his knees crying, fainting..I don't know, sometimes he was a bit to cool i think. Blame the angel in him?
Molly was one of my favorites and I show more felt really disappointed not to see what really happened to her in the end, the beach wasn't enough.
Same with Gabriel and Ivy...away on business. And what really happened to psycho Wade, why was Ivy missing? Maybe I missed something.
Fun read but lacking in the end. show less

Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. But she is the most human, and when she is romantically drawn to a mortal boy, the angels fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone―especially herself―from the Dark Forces.
Is love a great enough power against evil?

After being separated when Beth was in Hell, she and Xavier want to make sure they can be together forever, so they decide to get married. This turns out to be not such a great idea as now the Sevens, Heaven’s military order who seek out renegade angels, is after them.

Read the rest of my review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/heaven-alexandra-adornetto/

okay, not as good as book one and two