Product Description

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.

With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1006 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416989417
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Hush, Hush has great atmosphere, and had me wondering where in the world -- or out of the world -- this story could go. If the guys had been this dangerous and delicious when I was in high school, I would never have wanted to graduate! I see more fallen angel stories coming from this talented writer."-- Sandra Brown, bestselling author of White Hot and Smoke Screen

About the Author
Becca Fitzpatrick grew up reading Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden with a flashlight under the covers. She graduated college with a degree in health, which she promptly abandoned for storytelling. When not writing, she's most likely prowling sale racks for reject shoes, running, or watching crime dramas on TV. HUSH, HUSH is her first novel. She lives in Colorado.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Prologue

Loire Valley, France

November 1565

Chauncey was with a farmer's daughter on the grassy banks of the Loire River when the storm rolled in, and having let his gelding wander in the meadow, was left to his own two feet to carry him back to the château. He tore a silver buckle off his shoe, placed it in the girl's palm, and watched her scurry away, mud slinging on her skirts. Then he tugged on his boots and started for home.

Rain sheeted down on the darkening countryside surrounding the Château de Langeais. Chauncey stepped easily over the sunken graves and humus of the cemetery; even in the thickest fog he could find his way home from here and not fear getting lost. There was no fog tonight, but the darkness and onslaught of rain were deceiving enough.

There was movement along the fringe of Chauncey's vision, and he snapped his head to the left. At first glance what appeared to be a large angel topping a nearby monument rose to full height. Neither stone nor marble, the boy had arms and legs. His torso was naked, his feet were bare, and peasant trousers hung low on his waist. He hopped down from the monument, the ends of his black hair dripping rain. It slid down his face, which was dark as a Spaniard's.

Chauncey's hand crept to the hilt of his sword. "Who goes there?"

The boy's mouth hinted at a smile.

"Do not play games with the Duc de Langeais," Chauncey warned. "I asked for your name.

Give it."

"Duc?" The boy leaned against a twisted willow tree. "Or bastard?"

Chauncey unsheathed his sword. "Take it back! My father was the Duc de Langeais. I'm the Duc de Langeais now," he added clumsily, and cursed himself for it.

The boy gave a lazy shake of his head. "Your father wasn't the old duc."

Chauncey seethed at the outrageous insult. "And your father?" he demanded, extending the sword. He didn't yet know all his vassals, but he was learning. He would brand the family name of this boy to memory. "I'll ask once more," he said in a low voice, wiping a hand down his face to clear away the rain. "Who are you?"

The boy walked up and pushed the blade aside. He suddenly looked older than Chauncey had presumed, maybe even a year or two older than Chauncey. "One of the Devil's brood," he answered.

Chauncey felt a clench of fear in his stomach. "You're a raving lunatic," he said through his teeth. "Get out of my way."

The ground beneath Chauncey tilted. Bursts of gold and red popped behind his eyes. Hunched with his fingernails grinding into his thighs, he looked up at the boy, blinking and gasping, trying to make sense of what was happening. His mind reeled like it was no longer his to command.

The boy crouched to level their eyes. "Listen carefully. I need something from you. I won't leave until I have it. Do you understand?"

Gritting his teeth, Chauncey shook his head to express his disbelief -- his defiance. He tried to spit at the boy, but it trickled down his chin, his tongue refusing to obey him.

The boy clasped his hands around Chauncey's; their heat scorched him and he cried out.

"I need your oath of fealty," the boy said. "Bend on one knee and swear it."

Chauncey commanded his throat to laugh harshly, but his throat constricted and he choked on the sound. His right knee buckled as if kicked from behind, though no one was there, and he stumbled forward into the mud. He bent sideways and retched.

"Swear it," the boy repeated.

Heat flushed Chauncey's neck; it took all his energy to curl his hands into two weak fists. He laughed at himself, but there was no humor. He had no idea how, but the boy was inflicting the nausea and weakness inside him. It would not lift until he took the oath. He would say what he had to, but he swore in his heart he would destroy the boy for this humiliation.

"Lord, I become your man," Chauncey said venomously.

The boy raised Chauncey to his feet. "Meet me here at the start of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan. During the two weeks between new and full moons, I'll need your service."

"A...fortnight?" Chauncey's whole frame trembled under the weight of his rage. "I am the Duc de Langeais!"

"You are a Nephil," the boy said on a sliver of a smile.

Chauncey had a profane retort on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it. His next words were spoken with icy venom. "What did you say?"

"You belong to the biblical race of Nephilim. Your real father was an angel who fell from heaven. You're half mortal." The boy's dark eyes lifted, meeting Chauncey's. "Half fallen angel."

Chauncey's tutor's voice drifted up from the recesses of his mind, reading passages from the Bible, telling of a deviant race created when angels cast from heaven mated with mortal women. A fearsome and powerful race. A chill that wasn't entirely revulsion crept through Chauncey. "Who are you?"

The boy turned, walking away, and although Chauncey wanted to go after him, he couldn't command his legs to hold his weight. Kneeling there, blinking up through the rain, he saw two thick scars on the back of the boy's naked torso. They narrowed to form an upside-down V.

"Are you -- fallen?" he called out. "Your wings have been stripped, haven't they?"

The boy -- angel -- whoever he was did not turn back. Chauncey did not need the confirmation.

"This service I'm to provide," he shouted. "I demand to know what it is!"

The air resonated with the boy's low laughter.

© 2009 by Becca Fitzpatrick

Chapter One

Coldwater, Maine

Present day

I walked into biology and my jaw fell open. Mysteriously adhered to the chalkboard was a Barbie doll, with Ken at her side. They'd been forced to link arms and were naked except for artificial leaves placed in a few choice locations. Scribbled above their heads in thick pink chalk was the invitation:

WELCOME TO HUMAN REPRODUCTION (SEX)

At my side Vee Sky said, "This is exactly why the school outlaws camera phones. Pictures of this in the eZine would be all the evidence I'd need to get the board of education to ax biology. And then we'd have this hour to do something productive -- like receive one-on-one tutoring from cute upperclass guys."

"Why, Vee," I said, "I could've sworn you've been looking forward to this unit all semester." Vee lowered her lashes and smiled wickedly. "This class isn't going to teach me anything I don't already know."

"Vee? As in virgin?"

"Not so loud." She winked just as the bell rang, sending us both to our seats, which were side by side at our shared table.

Coach McConaughy grabbed the whistle swinging from a chain around his neck and blew it. "Seats, team!" Coach considered teaching tenth-grade biology a side assignment to his job as varsity basketball coach, and we all knew it.

"It may not have occurred to you kids that sex is more than a fifteen-minute trip to the backseat of a car. It's science. And what is science?"

"Boring," some kid in the back of the room called out.

"The only class I'm failing," said another.

Coach's eyes tracked down the front row, stopping at me. "Nora?"

"The study of something," I said.

He walked over and jabbed his index finger on the table in front of me. "What else?"

"Knowledge gained through experimentation and observation." Lovely. I sounded like I was auditioning for the audiobook of our text.

"In your own words."

I touched the tip of my tongue to my upper lip and tried for a synonym. "Science is an investigation." It sounded like a question.

"Science is an investigation," Coach said, sanding his hands together. "Science requires us to transform into spies."

Put that way, science almost sounded fun. But I'd been in Coach's class long enough not to get my hopes up.

"Good sleuthing takes practice," he continued.

"So does sex," came another back-of-the-room comment. We all bit back laughter while Coach pointed a warning finger at the offender.

"That won't be part of tonight's homework." Coach turned his attention back to me. "Nora, you've been sitting beside Vee since the beginning of the year." I nodded but had a bad feeling about where this was going. "Both of you are on the school eZine together." Again I nodded. "I bet you know quite a bit about each other."

Vee kicked my leg under our table. I knew what she was thinking. That he had no idea how much we knew about each other. And I don't just mean the secrets we entomb in our diaries. Vee is my un-twin. She's green-eyed, minky blond, and a few pounds over curvy. I'm a smoky-eyed brunette with volumes of curly hair that holds its own against even the best flatiron. And I'm all legs, like a bar stool. But there is an invisible thread that ties us together; both of us swear that tie began long before birth. Both of us swear it will continue to hold for the rest of our lives.

Coach looked out at the class. "In fact, I'll bet each of you knows the person sitting beside you well enough. You picked the seats you did for a reason, right? Familiarity. Too bad the best sleuths avoid familiarity. It dulls the investigative instinct. Which is why, today, we're creating a new seating chart."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Vee beat me to it. "What the crap? It's April. As in, it's almost the end of the year. You can't pull this kind of stuff now."

Coach hinted at a smile. "I can pull this stuff clear up to the last day of the semester. And if you fail my class, you'll be right back here next year, where I'll be pulling this kind of stuff all over again."

Vee scowled at him. She is famous for that scowl. It's a look that does everything but audibly hiss. Apparently immune to it, Coach brought his whistle to his lips, and we got the idea.

"Every partner sitting on the left-hand side of the table -- that's your left -- move up one seat. Those in the front row -- yes, including you, Vee -- move to the back."

Vee shoved her notebook inside her backpack and ripped the zipper shut. I bit my lip and waved a small farewell. Then I turned slightly, checking out the room behind me. I knew the names of all my classmates...except one. The transfer. Coach never called on him, and he seemed to prefer...

Customer Reviews

Dud
This was a case of a bad book ruining a fantastic front-cover. I was lured into buying Becca Fitzpatrick's debut YA novel, `Hush Hush', because of the wonderful cover art by photographer James Porto. I was also persuaded to purchase by Borders clever marketing that stacked the book beside Stephenie Meyer's `Twilight' and a sign that read; "if you liked Twilight, you'll love `Hush Hush'".

The books prologue has a noblemen being confronted by an angel who mysteriously insists on meeting with the man every Cheshvan (the start of the Hebrew month). The Angel's parting message to the nobleman is the information that he is a Nephilim, the product of a human/fallen Angel coupling. Intriguing, true - but after that tempting prologue there is no mention made of the Nephilim until more than halfway through the book. The biggest problem with `Hush Hush' is the lack of supernatural storyline. It's false advertising - the beautiful front cover has an image of an angel and the tag line `A fallen Angel... A forbidden love'.

It puts the reader in an odd position - the cover and tagline lets us know what supernatural characters are to appear, but we are forced to read Nora's none-the-wiser POV. There's no suspense for the reader, we know what to expect - angels - but we have to sit through Nora's confusion and her amateur sleuthing into Patch's past. And it is amateur - Nora's big break in the mystery comes in the form of a Google search; she literally types `angel wing scars' into the search engine. And what prompted her search into fallen angels? - a carnival ride called the `Archangel'. If that's not a sledgehammer to reader's intelligence, I don't know what is.

One of the reasons `Twilight' worked so well was because, in conjunction with the Edward/Bella romance, there was the added mystery of animal attacks in Forks. The mystery angle upped the stakes for Edward and Bella and offered a respite from the romance, which would have come across sweet and cloying if not for the respite in storyline. In `Hush Hush, the added mystery is clearly an after-thought compared to the Nora/Patch romance. The storyline of a mysterious ski-masked man following Nora is occasionally thrown in for good measure, but other characters reactions to Nora's tales of a spooky stalker are utterly contrived and unbelievable. And then the story behind the masked stalker is hastily wrapped up - there's not even a scene drawing that storyline to a close, rather it's explained through another character's summary. Sloppy. The mystery storyline is further battered by the fact that Fitzpatrick has her bad-guys breaking the number one rule in the villain handbook. Never, under any circumstances (and no matter how large your ego), give away your evil intentions and motivations while you are in the process of carrying them out. Fitzpatrick literally has her cardboard-cut-out bad guys giving away all their evil intentions while holding Nora hostage.

The connection to `Twilight' is dubious - one of the reasons for comparison is the fact that Nora and Patch are thrown together by a random biology seat-swap that turns them into lab partners. I wonder if Biology attendance has doubled in High Schools, since YA fiction would have us believe this is the perfect setting for budding teen romance. Ah, the sound of beakers clinking - like wedding bells. The smell of dissected frogs - a sweet and heady bouquet. And who can resist a man in a white lab coat and protective goggles?

The biggest 'Twilight' connection is that of a mortal human girl falling for a supernatural (replace `vampire' with `fallen angel') but whereas `Twilight' made this big reveal quite early on in the book, it's not until page 294 (of 391 pages) of `Hush Hush' that this plot twist (but not really because there's an angel on the book cover and the words `fallen angel') comes to the fore. The fact that readers have known from the get-go that Patch is a fallen angel makes his big exposure pretty uneventful. It's not until page 294 that Fitzpatrick delves into the Nephilim myth, which is actually pretty interesting. But when you read all the interesting myth and lore regarding fallen angels, it makes you wonder why Fitzpatrick didn't just start her book at this point - why have 294 pages of Nora wondering about Patch's mysterious past when as readers we've known all along that he's a fallen angel.

I wish `Hush Hush's' ending had been the books starting point - because Fitzpatrick does come up with an interesting conclusion for Nora and Patch... and the possibilities of that storyline intrigue me far more than the entirety of `Hush Hush'. If there is a sequel I would be interested in reading it.

You really can't judge `Hush Hush' by its cover (though it is very, very pretty). Though readers know the supernatural outcome from the get-go it's beyond frustrating to read the female protagonist plod along unawares. And don't be fooled by the marketing hype proclaiming `Hush Hush' to be the new `Twilight' - fallen angels are not the new vampires and `Patch' isn't nearly as dignified a leading man name as `Edward Cullen'.

A Roller Coaster Ride...
Hush Hush sweetheart...I found this novel in the Barnes and Noble and picked it up because of the hypnotic cover and my love of fallen angel stories. I sat at the small, round tables donning the Starbucks and began devouring the book right away. An hour and eighty pages later, I knew Becca Fitzpatrick's introduction to the unexplored territory of fallen angels hit the mark in my hook factor.

But, Hush Hush left me with a sensation similar to riding a new, well advertised roller coaster. I just wasn't sure how I felt after plowing through Nora and Patch's story in one sitting. The story follows the somewhat unbearably gullible Nora, her best, at times annoying friend, Vee, the object of infatuation, Patch, and two new kids on the block, Elliot and Jules, through an introductory style plot where the setup rings of a sequel. The chemistry between the main characters, Patch and Nora, was fair because he kept putting her down in every imaginable bad boy manner. By the end of the novel, I felt as if Nora deserved better and didn't care very much for Patch at all. The novel's slippery execution through Acts I and II are vindicated at the end if you stick with it.

-Spoiler alert-

In my opinion, some portions of Hush Hush felt formulaic. Much of the love triangle rivalry reminded me of the ending scene of Evermore. As other readers pointed out, there were many phrases Patch used with Nora that gave me the feel of Twilight déjà vu. By the time I got to where the intruder broke into Nora's house, I'd begun to feel the weariness associated with too much mystery and not enough revelations, literally.

Overall, I did enjoy Hush Hush's coverage of my favorite subjects. For me, this is where the ambivalence factor comes to play. Though the characters seemed somewhat detached, the plot line has great potential. Maybe Patch will redeem his over the top, bad boy ways in the sequel. Nora just might pop him one next time he humiliates her in class. As previous reviews have indicated, the reader will either love or hate this novel. Pick it up and see for yourself.

I really want to love this book.
***Vague spoilers***

I really, really wanted to love this book and pretty much only continued to read through to the end because I hoped things would get better. The fallen angel concept seemed new and exciting but wasn't done justice. You don't get any of the fallen angel stuff until close to the end. Some of the events were too planned or too convenient. Certain traumatizing events weren't as big a deal after the fact when they very much would be. Some things seemed pointless. Did Nora have to be anemic? Maybe that will play a larger role in the next book? Otherwise, it did nothing for the story. The bulk of the characters weren't developed and I was really disappointed with Vee's character because she ended up annoying me more than anything. I've read a lot of out-of-this-world stuff, bought into them, and enjoyed them but I just couldn't see the logic in the decisions the characters were making at all. The wig and sharkskin heels? Patch wanted to leave Nora alone to make sure things were safe when clearly the people who wanted to harm her needed her alone. And why is it so much easier for Nora to find the trouble while it takes Patch forever and we don't even know what he's doing or where he is (even though he's in the same exact location) while horrible things are happening to Nora. The plot twists, though unpredictable, only made me continually question why instead of taking me by surprise. And throughout the book there were many questions left unanswered so you find yourself turning the pages with impatience more than interest.

I especially looked forward to the love story but I just couldn't buy into the idea that they both really loved each other. In fact, throughout the entire book I never got the sense that Patch had any deeper feelings for Nora other than wanting to get in her pants. It seems like that's all he wanted from any female mentioned that was linked to him except for the few times he showed some concern for Nora's safety and well being. The supposed electric moments that occurred between Patch and Nora never happened for me because the moments happened so many times and in weird places. It was overkill and it made it hard for me to fall in love with the bad boy. And I still don't really know much about Patch (and any other character for that matter) and what makes him who he is after almost 400 pages with him.

I'm the type to start and finish a series, good and bad, so they're still going to get money out of me. I'm hoping the second book is much better because I still want to love this series and believe that It has the POTENTIAL to be amazing.