Book Review: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick [Audio]

Title: Crescendo
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Genre: Teen Fiction, Fantasy
Publication Date: October 19, 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
ISBN-13 Book: 9781416989431
Publisher Audio CD: Simon and Schuster Audio
ISBN CD: 9781442334199
Source: I checked out both the book and the audio from my local library. This is my honest review!


Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After surviving a near death experience, Nora Gray hopes that life can return to normal.  All she wants for the summer is to avoid her nemesis Marcie Miller, spend time with her hot guardian angel boyfriend Patch, and pass summer chemistry.  What she gets though is far from what she had hoped.  Patch starts acting weird and hanging out with Marcie and after a huge fight he and Nora part ways; leaving Nora reeling and her mother setting her up with the new guy in town, Scott Parnell, who may have more to hide in his shady past than even Nora is prepared to deal with. 

Crescendo takes up right where Hush, Hush left off.  Nora and Patch are back again, but not everything is going as smoothly as Nora had planned.  Something is up with Patch and he isn’t sharing, and suddenly Marcie Miller is butting into her life and making it miserable. 

We met most of the characters in the first novel, so we didn’t need to go into a lot of detail with this one.  We still wonder what Marcie’s grudge is against Nora, and eventually do get more insight into this dysfunctional relationship.  Vee is back and as flippant as ever.  I think one of my major complaints in the first novel was that Vee seemed so oblivious to Nora’s feelings.  That is still somewhat true, but in the end Vee is always there for her—the one person she can count on in a pinch. 

Scott Parnell is a new character in this novel, and something definitely isn’t right with this bad boy.  Even Nora’s mother senses it.  Scott is definitely hiding something that will keep the reader anxious to find out exactly what is going on with him.

Nora was a bit of a frustration to me in this novel.  I had very little sympathy for her problems with her relationship with Patch because so much of it was her own doing.  She jumped to a conclusion and then shoved Patch out of her life based on her false assumptions.  I guess though that is what makes these relationships interesting. 

I must admit this novel had some surprises in store for me.  There were some aspects of the plot that I had figured out ahead of time, but Fitzpatrick was still able to pull a few surprises.  Not bad for a middle novel, and in some ways more fulfilling than the first.

The audio version of this novel is produced by Simon and Shuster Audio and read by Caitlin Greer.  Greer does an excellent job narrating and her voices feel true to the characters.  As with any female narrator, the guys come out a little stretched, but Greer still makes them believable.  The audio is definitely worth a listen if you don’t have time to pick up the book, and is very well done. 

Overall, you definitely need to read the first book in this series Hush, Hush to understand what is going on in this novel.  I will say though, for a middle book this one stood up pretty good and kept this reader interested.  This is a must read if you wish to continue with the series—and the cliffhanger at the end will have you clamoring for book three Silence.

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