Deity Blog Tour Stop & Giveaway! Review: “Deity (Covenant #3)” by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: “Deity (Covenant #3)”

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Genre: YA, paranormal, romance, AWESOME

Publication Date: November 6, 2012 (Spencer Hill Press – North America)

Summary: “History is on repeat, and things didn’t go so well the last time. ”

Alexandria isn’t sure she’s going to make it to her eighteenth birthday–to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she’s a goner… and so is Aiden.

If that’s not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time “training”–which really is just Seth’s code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time–she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she’s caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed… and destroyed.

Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate…

☆: 5/5 stars – best book in the series so far!

Review: If I had any reservations with considering not continuing with this series, they were absolutely blown out of the water with “Deity”. I mean, wow. I literally could not put this book down. It’s as if Armentrout is a whole new author with this book in the series, and even though it still relies quite a bit on the Aiden/Seth/Alex love triangle, this book is truly Alex’s story, and is absolutely stunning. Feeling a little lost after “Pure”? Hang in there. “Deity” makes it all better.
Seriously, I’m not kidding when I say that this feels like an entirely new book when I read it. The world has expanded even more with more history on the Apollyon, rich with a new mythology that builds upon old Greek mythology by Armentrout, as well as a lot of politics from the pure bloods and the half-bloods. As this book focuses the most on the looming deadline for Alex’s birthday (and thus, awakening as the second Apollyon), we get a lot more on the other half-bloods around her, as well as more at the Covenant academy and more on other minor characters that we’ve seen or heard from, but we hear from the most in this book. Armentrout has shrunk the world of the Covenant down to Alex and her awakening and this book and in terms of worldbuilding, it really, really worked. Everything got very real, very quick, and it was just riveting.

As for Alex herself, she grows by leaps and bounds as a character and in terms of personal character arcs for everyone in this book, there’s real, significant progress with everyone in this book in terms of development, but Alex’s development takes the case. She finally starts waking up to her situation and how awful it just might be if she becomes, basically, what amounts to Seth’s extra battery. There’s a lot of seduction and lies from Seth, and a lot of hurting feels between her and Aiden, so even though I’m still not a huge fan of the love triangle in this series? Armentrout finally put it to good, solid work in this book. One thing that makes a great book is an author not afraid to torture or kill her darlings, and Armentrout does a hell of a lot of that in this particular installment in the series. I had feelings I didn’t even know were lurking after I finished the final page (another cliffhanger, but massive enough to keep me salivating for “Apollyon”). Many of the minor characters we’ve seen in prior books transition to the main cast in this book more or less seamlessly, all more or less in response to Alex fighting for her life (and on and off, fighting against her awakening). That was so gratifying to read, and it was something I wish “Pure” had had.
This book’s pace is incredibly fast, but not so much that you can’t keep up. There’s a lot of mystery still shrouding the Apollyon legend/threat, and a lot to be uncovered by Alex in order for her to make her decision. There’s a clock ticking for Alex, both internally (with her body starting to make her ready for her transformation) and externally (with the threat of death by assassination), and that pressure made for some really great tension with Alex’s internal development and her interaction with the rest of the characters.

Basically? Alex, you’ve come a long way, baby.

What was also awesome? Alex having a pretty frank talk with herself (and her friends) about the love triangle in terms of asking herself – in terms of what I’m feeling, is it love (Aiden)? Or lust (Seth)? She finally gets honest about the fact that she might be being used, and that truth gets repeatedly pounded into the skull of the reader. Usually I’m not for that method of writing, but it worked really well as the tension upped more and more with each repetition of that question.

In terms of the cliffhanger – yep, there is one, and it’s serious business. And it actually made me tear up because it was such a surprise (but that’s all I’ll say about it, as anything more would be spoilery). Usually I really am not into cliffhangers like this in series (because usually it feels like a cheap way out), but I’d say in this series, it was direly needed. And Armentrout delivers on this, and on so many other levels as well.

Final verdict? If you’re a fan of the series, you simply must continue with Alex, Aiden, Seth, and the rest. If you’re new to the series, you might be pretty lost, so I suggest you start book one, “Half-Blood”, before you get to this third book in the series. “Deity” is out now from Spencer Hill Press in North America, so what are you waiting for? This one definitely deserves a place on my best of 2012 list, so go ahead and check it out. It definitely deserves the read.

Now, for the awesome blog tour-y part! There are giveaways to be had, people! Thanks to Spencer Hill and Valerie @ Stuck in Books for sponsoring them. Note that I will not be delivering on these goods, but Spencer Hill/Valerie will be, so I won’t be choosing any winners.

For the first giveaway – a seriously awesome swag pack – it involves the TWITTER PARTY that Armentrout will be participating in on November 2, 2012 @ 8PM EDT (if you’re international and want to participate, I suggest using timeanddate.com to see what time the party starts in your area), and in order to participate, but be sure to include the hashtag #DeityJLA to keep up with the discussion. If you want more information on the party and the prizes, go on over to Valerie’s Deity Blog Tour HQ here.

If you’re interested and live in the US, you can enter to win a swag prize pack here. (International readers, you can enter separately at this link here.) These are rafflecopter giveaways, and wordpress won’t let me embed them here, so be sure to just click the links so you can enter.

For the second giveaway, this one is hosted by Spencer Hill Press and it’s INTERNATIONAL. What’s included? Swag, a copy of “Deity”, a t-shirt, $25 Amazon Gift Card (grand prize), and other seriously awesome stuff! You can go here to enter.

Finally, if you want more Deity Blog Tour goodness (and the other 69 blogs participating!), go on over to here for a complete listing of the shenanigans going on for this tour. I’m honored to be in such great company.