Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Summary (UK version back blurb):

Falling for the fallen...

I knew the names of all my classmates...except one. The transfer... He sat slouched one desk back, cool black eyes holding a steady gaze forward... His eyes sliced into me and the corners of his mouth tilted up. My heart fumbled a beat and, in that pause, a feeling of gloomy darkness seemed to slide like a shadow over me. It vanished in an instant, but I was still staring at him. His smile wasn't friendly, It was a smile that spelled trouble. With a promise.

I pre-ordered this on August 31, that shows how excited I was for this book. I had high expectations mostly due to the reviews I read. I really wanted to love this book and get sucked in but that wasn't the case, sadly. This book was a page-turner but for me, it was mainly due to the fact that I expected it to turn a different path.

Vee, Nora's bestie was the most annoying character I've ever come across due to her sexual jokes and bad decisions which lead to Nora worrying over her and putting herself in danger. But I guess that was needed to move the story along. The mysterious Patch, Nora's biology class partner, well, he's a character who you either like or dislike. I fell into the latter. He is too stalkerish (he appears in places where Nora happens to be, of which includes an empty underground route), arrogant and cocky, in my opinion. Nora's feelings for him kind of came out of the blue one night, which was a surprise to me after she rambles on how much he scares her throughout the book. I felt the romance was not developed enough, it was so sudden. It seemed she liked the danger of being with a bad boy and not Patch and his inner person/personality.

A redeeming point is that the mystery in this book was really great. I got a sense of fear when it came to a mysterious guy in the ski mask who stalks Nora. Questions pester you to be answered. Who is behind the mask? Why is she being followed? Suspense was weaved into the whole book and the last 50 or so pages kept me turning non-stop. The action scenes were few but they were written really well that I could picture the situations clearly, especially the climax scene towards the end.

Overall, this is quite a good quick read.

★★★