Crescendo is the sequel to Hush, Hush, the story of the infuriating Nora and her fallen angel lover boy Patch. Right from the start there was a lot about this novel that irked me. They may seem like little things, but they add up to the reading experience of the book as a whole. I'm going to remember those little things. Well, most of them, hopefully. 
 At the start of Crescendo, Patch and Nora have been happily dating for two whole months. Wow! Good on them. There's been a lot of making out and...I don't think much else. Nora keeps blowing off her best friend to spend time with Patch (something like: I'm not going to answer her call because I'm not going to see Patch again until TOMORROW NIGHT. Must make the most of our time! That sort of stuff) and she's SO IN LOVE WITH HIM and SO HAPPY. Just in case you didn't know. So that's irritating enough to read as it is. Then Nora does stupid stuff like antagonize the mean girl, then go and cry when the mean girl is mean - what did you expect, Nora? And it's not like you were being nice (I could hear your snotty tone). That's just background stuff. The big thing comes when Patch drives her home, they're making out in his Jeep, he's saying he wants to be with her forever, she comes out with 'I love you'. Then he's gone. He leaves. Some more stuff happens, Nora gets mad for no reason, Patch is being mysterious and the next thing you know, they break up. I know what you're thinking. They're so much in love, how can this happen? Well Nora has a flair for melodrama, in case you hadn't realized. And that's pretty much why. 
 There's a lot of back and forth of 'I love Patch' 'I don't trust Patch' 'but he can't be with anyone else' 'I'm going to break into his house' etc and unfortunately there's a lot of stuff with all these extra characters such as Scott and Marcie that overshadows the much cooler plot that seems to be neglected because of Nora's obsession with Patch - the fallen angel/Nephilim storyline! I enjoy these books much more when that is the main focus as opposed to Nora's little games she tries to play with Patch. Because you know what Nora? People who love each other do not hurt try to hurt each other, no matter how hurt they may be themselves. Which to me only further cements how silly and immature Nora is. But I get sidetracked. This book gets a raised rating of 3 stars, as opposed to 2.5, because there was more cool angel stuff in it, loved the little twists even though they were a little predictable. I think I would enjoy this more if Nora wasn't our heroine. I also think she should stop breaking into houses. Not cool, Nora. I don't care if your ex-boyfriend is seeing someone else, and you broke it off so you shouldn't either. 
 The other problem is there's a few too many characters we're not supposed to like, as if Nora is getting attacked by everyone on all sides. She's not that special! Also there is a tendency for one bad thing to happen or revealing information learned, then moved on from in the next chapter. I think I'm done. Oh wait, one last thing. There's a few inconsistencies I picked up, like in the first book Nora's dad was dead, yes, it was sad but more about how her and her mum were now on their own. But in this book, even a hamburger makes Nora think of her dead father. So you didn't miss him then but you do now? 
 I just realized this review was mainly complaints. Sorry about that - it's one of those books. Onward to book 3, hopefully we get some more angel stuff!