Review: Hades by Alexandra Adornetto

Book: Hades
By: Alexandra Adornetto
Publication Date: August 30, 2011
Publisher: Fiewel and Friends

Description: Heaven Help Her.
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.
The story that Alexandra Adornetto built in her New York Times-bestselling debut, Halo, comes alive in action-packed and unexpected ways, as angels battle demons, and the power of love is put to the test.

My Thoughts: Hades is an interesting book that portrays the many horrors of Hell and the way the Light can always overcome Darkness.

I was super excited to read Hades because I loved Halo. It was my first Angel book I ever read and i was amazed with the general cuteness of the book. Although I liked Hades almost as much, I must admit that I didnt feel as good about it as I did Halo. I'll start with the good things first.

Bethany and Xavier's relationship is stronger than ever and it's just so cute to see how close they are. It reminds me of Twilight the way they exist within their own little bubble and can't really live without the other (dont hate me fellow Twilight Fans, I understand this book CANNOT compete with the awesomeness that is Twilight). I also loved the portrayal of Hell. It was kinda cool in an odd way. For those of you that read the excerpt, you see that Hell is like full of clubs where people have to dance forever. They have swanky expensive hotels and more. It's like someone took the 7 deadly sins, wrote them on a piece of paper, shook them up in a hat, and this is what came out. A place of mess and  ridiculousness fit for all of the crazies. Oddly, I thought it was an interesting portrayal, albiet strange. Jake was as vindictive as ever, even taking things to interesting levels (I'd definitely have started falling for him if I was Bethany, and you know, not an angel...dont judge me). I also loved the nicknames like "Big Daddy" for Lucifer. Too hilarious. For some reason it makes me thing of Scary Movie 2 (strange, I know). Regardless, this book gave me quite a few giggles, and I enjoyed it. I especially like'd the random message I got from it that Light always beats out the Dark.

Although I did enjoy it, as you can tell there was quite a bit I didn't like about it. First, I found an error, WHICH I HATE!!!! I mean, if you have a nice, big time publisher and editers and stuff, you should at least not have any errors in the final product! (okay, it was only one tiny error, but still) Second, I hated Bethany in this book even more. She has been on earth for like a year now, and has dealt with many dark forces, why the heck is she still so naive. I mean come on, EVERYONE knows not to make deals with the devil, and even more so not to trust him to follow through. She's a freaking angel. Ypou'd thing that would be like the first lesson in Angel school or wherever they learn everything. The book was kind of boring at times and I zoned out a few times and had to reread full pages. Bethany barely fought back against her capture, she spent most of her time zoning out (Trying not to add spoilers here. Once you read it you'll know why) Furthermore, if she has some super special bond and can do all these things when she has the "connection" to Xavier and earth, why didnt she use it to do and say more things that could help everyone (okay sorry for the random spoilers, dont worry about it, if you havent read the book you probably-hopefully-don't know what I'm talking about). Next, you're in HELL, I'm sure things for her could have, and should have, been worse than they were. Thats all I'm sayin about that. Why the crap is Jake so delusional all the time, and why was there no real fight at the end? Finally, this ending was the epitome of cliffhangers. I'd at least like the first sentence of the next book or something to satiate me. I know thats a personal problem I need to get over, it's necessary and blah, blah, blah, but it still frustrates me.

Despite my many negative feelings about this book. I still liked it a lot. It was an interesting read and I will be looking forward to the next book, Heaven.

If you read Hades, let me know what you think so we can compare. I'm curious to know what others thought.