Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand
Series: Unearthly #2
Publisher: Egmont
Publication Date: January 2nd 2012
Source: Bought

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.

After reading Unearthly last month, I've been dying to get around to reading Hallowed. I had so many questions and suspicions at the end of Unearthly that I just HAD to find out what was going to happen next. Hallowed didn't disappoint. I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than the first book. I found the storyline more interesting and I felt more attached to the characters and grew to love them - including some of the new characters.

Clara is a stronger character in this book after everything she went through in the previous book. She's still struggling with what happened and trying to come to terms with it, but she manages to pull herself out of it when her mother tells her she might not be done. She had a hell of a lot to deal with and understand in this one. She's an incredibly strong and resourceful character. She's always trying to keep her friends out of trouble because she doesn't want them to get hurt, but sometimes it causes her to hurt them.

My love for Tucker kind of started to disappear in this book. I don't know why, but I just didn't feel as strongly towards him or about him and Clara in this one. He was his usual sweet and charming self, but I just didn't feel the same way about him as I did in the first book.

But, my love for Christian grew in this one. I don't know why, but I just started to prefer Christian in this one. Maybe it's because he can help and protect Clara. He's like her so he won't be in as much danger which means he's always there to protect her. Or maybe it's just because he turned out to be such a sweetheart in this one and he helped Clara through something extremely tough. So yeah, I'm 'Team Christian' now!

Clara was having some weird dreams in this one that she wasn't sure whether it was a dream or a vision, and it wasn't until she had a conversation with Christian that she realised she was dreaming about a funeral. Someone she loved was going to die. Clara spent quite a bit of this novel agonizing over who was going to die, and she thought she'd figured it out. But she was wrong, and it was so much worse that she thought. Then there was the fact that Samjeeza was practically stalking her because of what happened in the previous book - Clara went all badass on him again though! There was also all the stuff going on with Jeffrey. I'm seriously worried about that boy, especially after everything he's went though, everything we found out about him and of course, because of the ending. Also, Clara's father showed up in this one with a little surprise of his own! It was nice to see Clara and her father bonding and building a relationship. I do hope that they'll be able to maintain it.

I found myself close to tears quite a lot at the end of the book. It was extremely sad, but I did enjoy seeing those last moments and seeing everyone together. It was very sweet, but very sad. The last chapter was especially sad.

Overall, this was such an amazing sequel. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first book. The characters were better, the storyline was deeper and there was definitely a lot more going on. I'm really looking forward to seeing what's in store for these characters in the final installment of this trilogy.