The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegen (ARC REVIEW)

(how awk. I spelled her last name wrong and I'm far too lazy to go change it)

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance - Publisher: EgmontUSA - Publication Date: September 27, 2011 - Pages: 439 - Source: NetGalley

Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger—she is an Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx’s biggest threat.

 

A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant—God’s promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he’s finally found the girl he’s been searching for: Sasha.

 

With the threat of Eryx always looming, Jax knows he has to keep Sasha safe and win her over.  But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life? (Goodreads.com)

First of all, I'm not sure that the cover has much relevance to the story. When I saw it, I expected there to be a beautiful ball that Sasha attended - hence the ball gown. But no. Sasha is indeed blond, but she doesn't wear a big fancy dress. The only dress she wears is red and and it's not big and fancy. Just sayin.

Anyway, EgmontUSA is really on a roll with their covers, because this was another story that I was immediately attracted to due to the cover. However, this reading experience wasn't nearly as unpleasant as my last one. I'll admit that in the beginning I had a lot of troubles enjoying this because of the GI-FREAKING-NORMOUS info-dump that left me more than a little confused. But I pushed through it because the premise still intrigued me and I was certain that the details would become more clear as the novel progressed. After reading it, there are still some things I wonder about, but not enough to make the novel unenjoyable.

This book didn't really start getting good until about page eighty when we begin to learn more about the other characters and the lost souls. Once that happened, the plot kind of slowed down and gave me time to catch my breath before diving into the next catastrophe. I was really able to enjoy the natural flow rather than having everything flung at me all at once.

There were a lot of parts in this book that were very plot convienant and definitely made me roll my eyes. Like people buy the lies without a second thought and somebody just so happens to be in the right place at the right time, but that sort of stopped after the first hundred pages as well. So, I warn you if you're going to read this to just push through because it gets better!

One thing I must point out is that this is more of an older YA novel, best for teens sixteen and older. Since some of the novel takes place in Jax's point of view, there are quite a few thoughts that made me feel a bit uneasy. There is a lot of lust and sexual content and references to rape.

The writing wasn't bad. It was a little inconsistent since there were some parts where the writing was amazing, and other parts where it wasn't as great. I feel like Sasha's voice changes a bit throughout the novel. Some may pin that on character development and the changes that occur to her throughout the book, but there were some parts where I was thinking that it didn't sound like Sasha at all.

And speaking of Sasha. I actually didn't hate her character. There were some parts where she made me angry or she annoyed me because her logic didn't make sense or she kept blabbering on about Jax. She wasn't a particularly save-the-day character, but she also didn't ALWAYS rely on Jax to save her. I mean, she can hit people with her mind powers and she even put someone in a choke hold. But even putting those things aside, she's still a pretty tough cookie. There's a lot of painful yet important questions that needed to be asked and she had to be the one to ask them. I also liked that she stayed true to herself and her moral qualms. She made decisions for herself. She didn't just take the backseat while her boytoy made all the decisions for her. And while she's not the overtly sarcastic kind, there are definitely lines that'll elicit a chuckle or two.

As for Jax, I didn't particularly adore him at first, but after a little while I really began to love him. There is a minor case of insta-love for him, but it's almost acceptable because at the same time it's not really love. Sasha was the only person that could save him, and for that he completely admired her and wanted to be with her, but he didn't really know what love was. Like I said before, some of his thoughts made me uncomfortable, but they were to be expected considering he's a man...He's actually really sweet, even when he wasn't trying. By the end of the novel, I was taken with him.

There was no love triangle in this book, which a lot of people will be thrilled about! But their relationship was far from perfect.

I loved all of Jax's brothers. They were funny and oblivious. I especially loved Pheonix. There was one line in particular that had me cracking up:

Phoenix sat up and turned toward him. “You better be real careful, Jax. If she ever finds out, she’ll hate you for being an invisible creeper who spies on her when she’s alone."

And there's a part towards the end where all the brothers do something so awkward and utterly hilarious, but I can't say it without revealing something major.

There were parts that were a little too Twilight for my taste. And, usually, I hate when people compare books to Twilight, but I mean, seriously:

“You’re not answering. Does that mean you are afraid?”

“No. Should I be?”

This book relied a lot on religion, which was something I probably should have anticipated. And since I'm not exactly bible-savvy, that was probably one reason I was so confused! But.....the unique twist that this book has is pretty awesome.

I'm pretty sure that this book is going to be a part of a series, but it does a pretty decent job at standing alone. The ending was a tad bit confusing, but really cute. I'd probably read this book again in the future.

• Uniqueness. As I mentioned earlier, this book has a super cool twist to the typical angel-good-vs-evil thing.
• The age difference. There was a GINORMICOUS age difference between Sasha and Jax, considering he is an immortal, but it's not something that is highlighted a lot in this book. And it's not all that creepy that Jax is into Sasha, because there's a legit reason he wants her, and she's not JUST a whiny teen.
• The good bad guy. Okay, I'm not actually sure whether I like this or if I'm disturbed by it, but Lucifer, AKA the devil, is portrayed as a pretty okay guy in this book.
• Character backgrounds. Every character had their own unique background and tragedies and all of them were interesting to learn about, sometimes a bit confusing.

If you liked...

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Fallen by Lauren Kate

(I hate to say this) Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

then you'll like The Mephisto Covenant as well!

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