Review: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: HarperTeen
Second in the Unearthly trilogy

For months Clara Gardner trained to face the fire from her visions, but she wasn't prepared for the choice she had to make that day. And in the aftermath, she discovered that nothing about being part angel is as straightforward as she thought.
Now, torn between her love for Tucker and her complicated feelings about the roles she and Christian seem destined to play in a world that is both dangerous and beautiful, Clara struggles with a shocking revelation: Someone she loves will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.
In this compelling sequel to "Unearthly," Cynthia Hand captures the joy of first love, the anguish of loss, and the confusion of becoming who you are.

Once you start this book it is impossible to stop. I read this book in a few hours and I was blown away it was even better than the first one and that's saying something. There was more plot twists that I totally didn't see coming, more romance that I adored and more characters that were so easy to love. Everything about this book was just more. 

Clara has some really hard decisions to make in this book and she goes through so much and I felt like she handled everything really well or at least as well as she possibly could. Oh Tucker how do I even explain my love for him? He has to be one of my all time favorite love interests and probably one of my all time favorite characters. He is just so real and perfect and adorable. The romance between Clara and Tucker is just as cute as it was in the first one but at the same time it was so heartbreaking. I feel like their relationship has so much more at stake than it did in the first one and they really had to come to terms with that. I know that for a lot of people this book made them like Christian a lot more but it wasn't like that for me. Sure I think he has some redeeming qualities but me being such a Tucker fan everything he does just really annoys me. Angela really aggravated me in this book. I didn't like her very much in the first one and she was the same if not worse in this one. I really liked Clara's mom in this book their relationship is just so amazing and we don't really see that very much in YA. I also really liked Clara's dad this is a small spoiler but we do see more of him in this one and his relationship with Clara's mom was so interesting to learn about. I love Jeffery and I feel so bad for him in this book and I want his story to end happy but I'm not sure it will. Overall I feel like the characters really grow in this book and I thought that was great.

I knew this book was going to break my heart but it honestly tore me to pieces. When I finished it I was in awe but also in pain. No matter what team you're on, no matter how you feel about the characters this book will make you cry and cry and cry. I just want applaud Cynthia Hand for making these characters that I feel so strongly about. Seriously I should not feel this strongly about people that aren't even real. I normally don't like the second book very much but I honestly think this was one of the best sequels ever. Even though there wasn't a cliffhanger the ending left so many things unanswered that I have absolutely no idea was is going to happen in the next one. I am going downright insane without it because I already know it will be amazing.
5/5 stars.

-Marissa