Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick Review

Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. A mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever (if that's possible) and what's worse, he seems to be spending time with Nora's archenemy, Marcie Millar.
Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Patch hadn't been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude, Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feelings that he is hiding something.
If that weren't enough, Nora is haunted by images of her murdered father, and comes to question whether her Nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death. Desperate to figure out what happened, she puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations to get the answer. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.

Published: October 2010

Pages: 427

Series: Second book in the Hush, Hush series

Rating: 3 stars

The base idea of this series interests me a lot. And the characters are mysterious and have some interesting secrets and hidden pasts that slowly unfold. However...they can also be a little annoying. Nora was really annoying in this book, she broke up with Patch and then the rest of the book was either jealous, bitter, or trying to make him jealous. Honestly she was a bit of a mess. I like the whole fallen angels and supernatural aspects to the story. Sadly the characters brought things down a little (mainly Nora) and there were also some cliches that had me going Really? 

So overall, this is an okay book and I probably will be picking up the third book to try...but at the same time be forewarned that Nora is very petty and a poor heroine, in this installment of the series at least. Patch can also be a bit eh as well and there are flaws to some of the character building or how unaware Nora's mom is at times. It's an engaging read though and there are several nice turns as Nora finds clues about her father's death. So, read at your own risk depending how much you think Nora will bother you. 

Getting Older and TBR Lists

The truth about getting older is that things change. They change drastically and you can even become a very different person then who you proclaimed to be at age eight. You'r perception of the world changes, your appearance is altered and among other things...you seem to have less and less time on your hands.

I've begun to feel this all to much lately. I never seem to have enough time to study as much as I should. Nor do I have enough time for my hobbies, reading included. Since I've gotten into high school (I'd say the change probably happened around sophomore year) my reading has dropped to an all time low. I've never not read this much, not since I learned how to read anyway. And it's because of that annoying little problem I have. There's not enough hours in the day to get around to everything I need and want to do.

Thus far, I've dealt with this by almost ignoring it. I still check out tons of books from the library and try to get around to reading, don't laugh, one or two books a week. Yet sometimes that's all that I manage in an entire month. Yes, I'm over here shaking my head at the horror too. So with that being the amount of books that I read (roughly estimated) you can imagine what happens as I'm still checking out a lot of books. I'm having to turn back in armloads of unread books.

I have some kind of weird mentality where I almost always finish a book if I start it. In the same way, it hurts to have to return a book that I didn't even start. And in a few terrifying cases, I've started the book and gotten a few pages or chapters in when it's due, all too soon.

So here I am, in this endless cycle of checking out book after book, yet only being able to finish a few here and there that I desperately wanted to read. It bothers me, yet I'm somehow unable to do anything to change or fix the situation. Then, tonight, a thought struck me.

This must be why people have TBR lists.

I've never really seen a great need for them for myself and if I ever do make any book lists, they're generally quite long and I never take them very seriously. Now, however, I can see how great they can be. It's like a shopping list when you go to the grocery store. In my family, my mom often likes to buy extra, possibly miscellaneous items that aren't on the grocery list. That has caused my dad to have to remind her to stick to the list and really try not to get anything extra. Now, in my mind, a TBR list is much like a shopping list. If I could limit myself to only checking out the books that I've preplanned to read, why then I could stop getting a bagful of books each trip to the library. Instead I could add that book that catches my eye to the list and simply wait until I get far enough through the other books on the list to read it.

And in this way I could finally break free of the cycle of books I've been checking out and turning back in without having read them. Not only will this keep my wandering eye in check, it'll also satisfy the part of me that loves lists and planning.

So, what do you think? Have you ever come to time in your life where you've been to busy to read? Or have you just gotten sucked into the internet and fallen away from the adventures and characters that used to lure you in so easily (because I've experienced that as well). Do you use reading lists? Do they help you or do you pace yourself fine without them? I wanna know ;)