Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck
I immediately picked this one because I had fallen so in love with Obsidian. Jennifer L. Armentrout's craft is one I really enjoy. I haven't talked much about author's crafts much on this blog - I think it's because a craft is very hard to pin-point because every person's is different. It's like a finger print - identifiable to one person. I really enjoy hers.

On to the book - I am very much into the "forbidden love" situation and this story does not disappoint. Alex and Aiden are two different characters. He's older (early 20s - which is nice because it brings an understandable maturity - as opposed to the 17 year old boy being too mature) and Alex is a strong girl - trying to figure out the cosmic scheme of things. Aiden, because of his past situation, volunteers to help Alex train so that she can still attend school in the fall. It's kind of shocking to everyone because Alex is a half-blood. He's very aloof to her except when she does something wrong and then he just gets annoyed.
Slowly the love flames, fan.

There is another factor, the great Apollyon. He's this second-coming and positively arrogant - and likable. I can't say much about him because I don't want to spoil anything, but he is a very important part in the book - well - I think he is going to be more crucial in the second.