In Hallowed, its only been a few weeks since Clara managed to save Tucker from the fire that she had been seeing in her visions. Its only been a few weeks since she found out that Christian is also an angel and has been having the same visions as she has been.

As Clara starts her senior year at Jackson High, she’s faced new visions: someone she loves is going to die. Despite being drawn to Christian, Clara thinks that its Tucker who’s the one being buried in her visions. Add on top of that the decision of where she’s going to be spending the next four years, and Clara is one stressed out girl.

As the year progresses, Clara learns more about Dark Wings and the history of angels, trying to figure out where she fits into everything.Torn between her growing attraction to Christian and her respect for Tucker, Clara must make a choice.

Hmm, this is going to be a tough review to write. There were many parts of this book that I really liked and overall I really enjoyed reading it. But there were several glaring problems that I just couldn’t ignore. But let’s start with the good stuff, shall we?

Despite being a paranormal romance, this book is grounded in a lot of real stuff. Clara is a very real girl with real problems. Her family is a family of angels, but they still have normal concerns like how late Clara’s allowed to stay out and the constant fighting between Clara and her brother Jeffrey. A lot of PNR YA novels get so caught up in the paranormal elements and sort of elevate the characters to beyond human status.

Clara sort of irritated me in this novel, but I think it was supposed to be that way. Jeffrey is constantly telling her that she’s selfish and only cares about herself and her purpose, and I got the same sense throughout the book as well. But by the end, she’s grounded once again and comes to realise her mistakes.

I had really hoped Hand wouldn’t do this, but like so many PNR YA novels, Clara just has to be speshul (yes, I know how to spell). In the end you find out she’s some super special type of angel (won’t spoil it too much for you) and this is the reason why she’s attracted to Christian because…wait for it…he’s speshul too! The reason why I loved the Tucker romance so much was because it was so real, without any of this destined lover stuff, which I’ve really gotten sick of. Clara liked Tucker because of who he was and not because of some mythical element.

Speaking of the love triangle, one thing that I did really appreciate was the fact that we learned a lot more about Christian. I never really understood Clara’s obsession with him in Unearthly, since I figured it was because of the vision. But as Clara spends more time with him, we get to learn a lot more about him and see what makes him tick.

Given that, its a given that Clara is going to fall for him. You can already see the set up a mile away, as clear as day. Its so obvious, especially since there is barely any Tucker in the story, and this made me sad, since I really liked him in the last novel. There are definitely some cute moments between them, but given how little ‘page-time’ he’s given, its no wonder Clara starts falling for Christian and pushes Tucker away. This was just way too predictable for me.

The ending was also a bit of an off-point for me. You think you know what’s going to happen in the end…and it happens. Clara keeps having visions about someone she loves dying through the story, and more than halfway through, she figures it out. And it happens. And she’s sad. There aren’t too many surprises or raising of stakes after this point. Don’t get me wrong, its sad, but I was hoping for something that would change the game.

Again, I really did enjoy reading this novel. Hand’s writing is clear and concise; I enjoy reading about Clara and her life. But the way the story was set up, in such a blatantly obvious way, made me lose some of my enjoyment of this sequel.

So for that: 3/5.

Thanks for reading,

Ikhlas