Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Hush, Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 391
My Rating: 4.5/5

Nora Grey is a normal girl who is living a pretty normal life. That is, until she has to pair up with the new transfer student in biology class. Patch is a sexy and mysterious guy who loves to tease her. Except she hates his vulgar personality and it seems like he may be stalking her!

Although she tries to ignore Patch, she can not help but feel drawn towards him, even though he is bad for her. Life doesn't get any weirder than having a creepy but hot guy there, does it?

Oh yes, it does. With many close death calls and events that appear to only occur in her head, Nora must prepare for the truth and watch her back as danger and forbidden love ensues.

Seeing this title everywhere in the YA fiction world, one would have to expect that it would eventually appear on Stop, Drop, and Read! So what were my expectations before reading the novel? Since I read quite a bit of reviews, both good and bad, I decided to set my standards low. I wasn't sure I was going to like the novel. It has a pretty cliche plot and sometimes I do end up hating popular books. Surprisingly, it was way better than I expected!

First, the characters. If you asked what my opinion of Patch was for the first half of the novel, I would have responded with "douchebag and creeper" without hesitation. Many people said he was a jerk but I personally thought he was an idiot. Whenever he saw Nora, he was all (cue deep and sultry voice) "You don't want to know about my past, I'm dangerous." Like, he was pretty much egging her on to find out more about him. The whole time I wanted to take a bat and whack him on the head with it. If it wasn't for the fact he was such a good-looking dude, then Nora would've ran the opposite direction for sure. In fact, you would've too! In the end, I no longer cared for him as he was the reason for the novel's existence.

Nora on the other hand, I admired her guts. She did do some rash things but I understood (somewhat). I was glad that she had the ability to run away and defend herself instead of waiting for Patch to come along. She was also a good friend and I applaud her for coming in to rescue her best friend who was in danger. At times I wasn't very fond with the pairing of Nora and Patch; I thought they were better without each other in all honesty.

The beginning of the plot wasn't slow but not a lot of things happened either. Then as more pages were read, the more I kept coming back to it. It was like this mysterious force that urged me to pick it up every time (or what you call it, curiosity). What I love most is the author's ability to make exciting scenes. Sometimes for two random pages, I would find myself immersed into the story. While I was reading in the beginning, I kept thinking that the novel should have more action in it so it would be much more interesting. And then for the last quarter of the novel, I was hooked because the action did come along! With that, the rating shot up to 4.5/5!

Hush, Hush is a little bit on the cliche side. However, it is one addicting read! I personally think there isn't a need for the sequel but I guess I will look into it to see what will happen next.

P.S. Is it just me or does it seem like most typical young adult novels have the main girl and guy being stuck together in science class?

Review copy provided by Simon & Schuster.