**This review is also posted at The Bawdy Book Blog** 
 Okay, so this was one tough review to write. But stay with me, try not to judge and hear me out. 
 I liked Half-Blood...no, no, I LOVED Half-Blood. It was a phenomenal story and I couldn't stop turning the pages. It was comprised of the perfect ingredients that make a YA/Paranormal Romance and I ate it up. Jennifer Armentrout's characters were vivid, imaginative and funny and I had a blast reading from Rose's Alex's point of view. She was a strong, independent, occasionally reckless and ALWAYS snarky half-breed. She also has a thing for brooding men. 
 The story-line was great: you have Hematoi (aka Pures), halfs who act as their guardians (aka Half-Bloods) and you also have the dark, "turned" group called Daimons. In order to become a Daimon, one must drain the essence of a Pure or Half-Blood, down to the very last drop, and then feed their Daimon blood to them. Then, voila! Daimon! 
 Alex is a halfie who has been on the run for a few years, away from the Covenant (the school and community of her kind where she lived, learning to be a Sentinel) when she's caught and brought back. 
 Hey, does that sound familiar? It should. Because it was just like Vampire Academy, save for a few pesky details. And I am going to illustrate how, right here, in a handy-dandy guide: 
 *btw, I've marked the guide as a spoiler, because there are spoilers for both the VA series and Half-blood. Nothing major, but still click at your own risk. 
 V denotes Vampire Academy 
 C denotes Covenant Series 
 (view spoiler)[ 
 V: Moroi are pure-blood vampires 
 C: Pures are pure-bloods 
 V: Dhampirs are half-human, half-vampires 
 C: Halfs are half-bloods 
 V: Strigoi are Moroi and Dhampires that have been turned 
 C: Daimons are Pures and Halfs that have been turned 
 V: Moroi can control elements, like air, water, fire, etc 
 C: Pures can control elements, like air, water, fire, etc 
 V: Rose is a Dhampir, aka half-Vampire and half-human 
 C: Alex is a Half-Blood, aka half-Pure and half-human 
 V: Rose was on the run for 2 years and got caught, eventually being brought back to the school 
 C: Alex was on the run for 3 years before getting caught and being brought back to the Covenant and school 
 V: The Dean decides to give Rose another chance but she needs to prove herself by "catching up" in her training 
 C: The Dean decides to give Alex another chance, but she needs to prove herself first by catching up in her training 
 V: Rose was training to be a Guardian, guards of the precious pure-blood Moroi and the vampire society 
 C: Alex was training to be a Sentinel, a guard for the Covenant society 
 V: Rose falls in love with her older, dark and brooding trainer, Dimitri Belikov (which is taboo) 
 C: Alex falls in love with her older, blonde and brooding trainer, Aiden St. Delphi (which is taboo) 
 V: Dimitri breaks open an old, tattered western novel while making Rose workout during her training 
 C: Aiden breaks open an old, huge book while making Alex work out while training 
 V: Rose has a close male friend, Mason 
 C: Alex has a best friend, male, named Caleb 
 V: Rose decides she needs to leave to kill Dimitri when he turns Strigoi 
 C: Alex decides she needs to leave to kill her mother when her mother turns Daimon 
 V: Adrian Ivashkov, a Spirit user, is eccentric, persistent and interested in Rose. He is also able to control multiple elements. 
 C: Seth, the Apollyon, is eccentric, annoyingly persistent and interested in Alex. He is also able to control multiple elements. 
 V: Rose and Dimitri have sex in a cottage. 
 C: Alex and Aiden nearly have sex in HIS cottage. 
 V: Rose is a snarky rule-breaker 
 C: Alex is a snarky rule-breaker 
 (hide spoiler)] 
 If I stretched, I could probably go on, but you get my point. 
 Now, I'm not claiming that the Covenant series is a complete rip-off of Vampire Academy. Some of the details were different. Half-Blood is based in Greek lore and mythology, not I'm-gonna-bite-you-and-suck-your-blood-muahahaha Dracula 'ish. But a lot of the basic details and plot-line were almost identical and I did have a problem with that. Even the MC's voice sounded like it could come from Vampire Academy's Rose Hathaway. It didn't make me mad, but I was disappointed, because I have heard nothing but great things about it. I did not, however, hear that it was like Vampire Academy and I'm sort of amazed by that. How did anyone miss this? Or did everyone just choose to ignore it? It really beats the hell out of me. 
 Despite all this, I'm going to continue with this series. Another blogger, when I mentioned the astounding similarities, said it goes in a different direction with Pure, the follow-up to Half-Blood. And since I really liked Half-Blood, I'm not going to give up yet (but of course I liked Half-Blood; I liked Vampire Academy!). I just hope I'm not reading the same books twice.