Friday, April 10, 2015

REVIEW: Sentinel (Covenant #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Sentinel
Series: Covenant #5
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Published: November 2nd 2013
Format: Paperback | Pages: 297
Genres: YA, Paranormal, Mythology, Urban Fantasy, Romance
Source: Amazon
★★★★★ (5/5) Stars!!!

Jennifer L. Armentrout | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

It's a beautiful day for a war.

As the mortal world slowly slips into chaos of the godly kind, Alexandria Andros must overcome a stunning defeat that has left her shaken and in doubt of their ability to end this war once and for all.

And with all the obstacles between Alex and her happily-ever-after with the swoonworthy Aiden St. Delphi, they must now trust a deadly foe as they travel deep into the Underworld to release one of the most dangerous gods of all time.

In the stunning, action-packed climax to the bestselling Covenant series, Alex must face a terrible choice: the destruction of everything and everyone she holds dear… or the end of herself.



I honestly do not think that I will ever be able to think of this book and not have at least a few tears build up in my eyes. It was heart wrenching and really packed a punch in the feels. But it was also beautiful and amazing and I am just so full of emotions. I'm not ready to be back in the real world right now, where these characters and these places don't actually exist. I just want to crawl back into my mind and wrap myself up in everything Covenant and stay there for a while. I hate...hate saying goodbye to such an amazing series. But since I have to, all I can say is Sentinel was the most amazing and perfect sendoff there could have been. There isn't an ounce of disappointment in me. I have never truly been as happy with how a series ended. Ever.
The closest furie's smile was edged with unimaginable cruelty. "The gods have heard Apollo's pleas and have responded."
The thing that will always have me turning to a JLA book without question or hesitation is the fact that she excels at both world building and character creation. When you're in the moment and you're reading one of her books everything feels so real. Like how it was reading this series for me, I felt like at any second Apollo could just pop up beside me and scare the ever loving crap out of me. I know, wishful thinking. But you know what I mean right? She has that thing... that spark, that really pulls you into her stories and allows you to feel and see everything.
"Do you know what I think about when it's quiet, Alex? I think about all the bad things I've done."
I was all over the place through this series when it came to my feelings on Seth. I started out on the first two books being 100% Team Seth. Sure, he was cocky. Like cocky to the point that you'd find yourself thinking, "if he opens his mouth one more time...I'm gonna hit him!" But still there was just something about him that I gravitated towards from the moment he first came around. By the time I finished Deity my feelings were reversed and found myself instead wishing horrible things would happen to him. In a lot of ways he broke my heart and I wasn't sure if it would be possible to like his character again. So imagine my surprise to find myself reading Sentinel and finding some redeemable qualities in him and feeling like maybe there is hope for Seth after all. He still did a lot of horrible things and he's not perfect, but he's also not the monster I was ready to brand him as either. I'm sorry but I cannot help but love Seth.
A throat cleared behind us, and then Apollo said, "Seriously, you two? It's not like you're keeping a god waiting or anything."
Even though I got that loving feeling back for Seth, the guy has nothing on Aiden St. Delphi. It's like every time I moved on to the next book in this series I would be blown away by how amazing and sweet and just wonderful this guy is. If he didn't show kinks in his armor every now and again I would honestly think this guy was too good to be true. I love how Alex and Aiden balance each other out and can read each other so well. There were so many Aiden and Alex feels. So. Many. Forbidden romance is one of my favorite tropes to read about. I loved how when people would give them dirty looks and openly stare Aiden would just squeeze her hand or something in a reassuring way and Alex would do something crazy pants like she is and flip them off. Gods I love Alex!
"We are!" Deacon shouted from inside the Expedition. "I've already got the first road game picked out, so freaking hurry!"
There are so, so many amazing characters to this series though. So many. The one who comes closest to the way I feel for Aiden and Alex is Aiden's younger brother Deacon. His nonstop energy and enthusiasm along with his charm and how freaking hilarious he is are just so endearing. I swear there must be something in the St. Delphi gene pool because there's just something about those boys. They're totally opposite for the most part, Aiden is the serious and responsible type whereas Deacon is the goofy and life of the party type. Both perfect in their own ways. Like I said though, there were so many amazing characters. Too many to go on and on about each one and I both love and hate when that happens. Having that many lovable characters makes it hard to accept that, in books like these, not everyone is going to make it to the end.
"And now it's happening again. We are going to war for you―for the gods. People will die. My friends and the people I love could die! I could die!"
This book wasn't exactly an easy one to read either. There is so much going on. I mean we're dealing with gods and war. It is intense and I was so freaked out for most of this book. I would be reading and even when nothing was happening...yet, my stomach would be a huge bundle of knots. I was dreading the possible chaos and death and destruction that could be every time I turned a page. I couldn't have been more on the edge of my seat. And that's the thing about paranormal/urban fantasy type books by JLA. She will bring you to the brink where everything is going to hell and characters will have to go to the extreme to try to put everything back together again. Things that have the potential to make the already intense and scary things go from bad to incredibly worse. Call me crazy, but I love feeling like that. Like, how could there possibly be hope? Because it makes the end results just that much sweeter.
The lopsided smile on Apollo's face spread. "Well, I would never kiss and tell."
The thing is though, it's not all fear and sadness and chaos. I'm always amazed by how much her books can make me laugh out loud. I'm not just talking some quiet little chuckle to myself. We're talking the kind that just bursts out of you. I love that just about every possible human emotion I could feel, I'm sure I felt when reading this series. There's this huge part of me that is kicking my own behind for taking so freaking long to put forth any effort to read it. I mean, I could have been feeling this bookish high a year ago! Oh well, at least I'm finally feeling it now. These feelings are something that aren't going to be going away any time soon.


My Alex and Aiden Song:





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