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kbourgon's review
4.0
Choice of the Traveler is a fun, fast-paced story of friendship and fighting your demons, both literally and figuratively. If you enjoy stories of found family, world traveling, and slightly awkward flirting, you should pick up this book right away.
The author does a wonderful job of developing multiple characters while keeping the main focus on our Traveler, Betha. Friendship and trust are huge themes in this story due to the nature of the Traveler’s powers. One of the best parts of this book is the relationship between Betha and her best friend, Angie. They love and support each other no matter what, and this relationship is only strengthened when Betha gets her newfound powers. It is also fun to follow Betha as she adjusts to her new life and forms bonds with new characters throughout the book.
Where the protagonists are very well developed, it would be nice to get a little more backstory on the main villain. We do find out more about the demon world near the end of the story, so this will probably play a larger role in the next book.
This book is a great start to the series and lays a foundation for stories on plenty of other worlds. I am excited to follow Betha’s future adventures!
The author does a wonderful job of developing multiple characters while keeping the main focus on our Traveler, Betha. Friendship and trust are huge themes in this story due to the nature of the Traveler’s powers. One of the best parts of this book is the relationship between Betha and her best friend, Angie. They love and support each other no matter what, and this relationship is only strengthened when Betha gets her newfound powers. It is also fun to follow Betha as she adjusts to her new life and forms bonds with new characters throughout the book.
Where the protagonists are very well developed, it would be nice to get a little more backstory on the main villain. We do find out more about the demon world near the end of the story, so this will probably play a larger role in the next book.
This book is a great start to the series and lays a foundation for stories on plenty of other worlds. I am excited to follow Betha’s future adventures!
eiravanora's review
3.0
3.5 Stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I love the world that the author has created; a society of shapeshifters, elves, angels, vampires, trolls and humans, living together and forging alliances. Then there's the Travelers; humans that have special abilities to travel through portals to distant worlds. I love a good found-family fantasy story as much as a multi-race society and this one just hits the spot for me. Enough tender moments to show their bond as well as well-written fight scenes. I love the overall premise and plot of the story. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series. The story is also fast-paced and moves along easily.
However, there's the issue of too much 'telling not showing' and there were some inconsistencies which made the flow a little jarring, while some scenes were written in a way that seemed forced. Regardless, it did its job of telling a good story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I love the world that the author has created; a society of shapeshifters, elves, angels, vampires, trolls and humans, living together and forging alliances. Then there's the Travelers; humans that have special abilities to travel through portals to distant worlds. I love a good found-family fantasy story as much as a multi-race society and this one just hits the spot for me. Enough tender moments to show their bond as well as well-written fight scenes. I love the overall premise and plot of the story. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series. The story is also fast-paced and moves along easily.
However, there's the issue of too much 'telling not showing' and there were some inconsistencies which made the flow a little jarring, while some scenes were written in a way that seemed forced. Regardless, it did its job of telling a good story.
theannotatingbabe's review
4.0
Choice of the Traveler has a really interesting premise. I enjoyed learning about the world through Betha’s eyes. Many times in fantasy we learn about the world through the main character asking questions even though they should already know the world, and that wasn’t an issue here. Though it was a bit slow in the beginning once Beth’s discovered her hidden talent, the story really took off. For me the action didn’t stop, and we were just constantly on the go, and I really enjoyed myself!
I listened to the audiobook on a long drive and absolutely recommend it to anyone who loves audiobooks!!
I listened to the audiobook on a long drive and absolutely recommend it to anyone who loves audiobooks!!
panda44's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
manonastrid's review
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I love the premise of this! Leylines, Others, heaven, hell, etc. I did feel there were some pretty big gaps. It would have been a 5 star read if there had been more of the story fleshed out. Betha is human, and her mother has early onset dementia. Betha has to sell her home to afford to place her mother in a home. After the sale, Betha goes to St. Luna's where her best friend is. From there, the story progresses very quickly. Betha isn't what she seems althought that is news to her and her best friend. Now, the fate of Terra lays on her shoulders along with a somewhat unlikely team. As I said, there are a few areas I would have loved more details and the time line is a little choppy and it felt as though I needed a deeper knowledge of this world in order to really understand everything happening. Overall, a fun, quick read and I will definitely keep reading the series!
prisoner_of_books's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I would describe this book as The Medoran Chronicles but more paranormal, probably closer to what I imagine the Shadowhunters books to be like! It has shapeshifters, elves, angels, demons, vampires, trolls and humans who all live in an acquired peaceful society, with the occasional demon invasion. With an amazing found family demon-fighting squad and one girl who is supposed to save them all with her unknown magic.
The more I think about this book the more things I find I loved about it! The author wrote the characters so well and I loved all their personalities and relationships. I am definitely a fan of the multi-race societies that come together to form an ultimate fighting team, with the chosen one who has undiscovered magic! I mean that's like the plot of my favourite series. This book did this plot in such a unique way! I absolutely loved the whole idea of the Traveler and their anchors like it was such a cool idea and the author just wrote it so well!
Not to mention she wrote the characters into this experience so well! All the characters were great and the relationship and bond between Angie and Betha was such a great thing to read about! These coming of age, and discovery of self themes are definitely YA but I enjoy them and again just loved the whole dynamic between the main characters, I also loved how we got multiple perspectives from a whole range of characters throughout the story. It definitely helped with setting up the world and plot, although the main villain and demon concept was not delved into as much, but I have a feeling it will be in the next book.
One thing I will say is that the writing style is a little simple and took me a while to get used to, I don't really know how to explain it in another way. Just a little jarring and didn't flow as well as I thought, also the start was a little forced and did make me cringe in sections.
Anyway I do think this was a good read and recommend it to people who love the deep friend relationships between characters and want a new refreshing type of magic coupled with a found family demon-fighting group and a whole cast of diverse supernatural races.
The more I think about this book the more things I find I loved about it! The author wrote the characters so well and I loved all their personalities and relationships. I am definitely a fan of the multi-race societies that come together to form an ultimate fighting team, with the chosen one who has undiscovered magic! I mean that's like the plot of my favourite series. This book did this plot in such a unique way! I absolutely loved the whole idea of the Traveler and their anchors like it was such a cool idea and the author just wrote it so well!
Not to mention she wrote the characters into this experience so well! All the characters were great and the relationship and bond between Angie and Betha was such a great thing to read about! These coming of age, and discovery of self themes are definitely YA but I enjoy them and again just loved the whole dynamic between the main characters, I also loved how we got multiple perspectives from a whole range of characters throughout the story. It definitely helped with setting up the world and plot, although the main villain and demon concept was not delved into as much, but I have a feeling it will be in the next book.
One thing I will say is that the writing style is a little simple and took me a while to get used to, I don't really know how to explain it in another way. Just a little jarring and didn't flow as well as I thought, also the start was a little forced and did make me cringe in sections.
Anyway I do think this was a good read and recommend it to people who love the deep friend relationships between characters and want a new refreshing type of magic coupled with a found family demon-fighting group and a whole cast of diverse supernatural races.
hillarysbookhaul's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
3.75
Betha is a human in an other world. The others are Fay, angels, demons, trolls, shifters (like Angie) and many others. Angie is Betha’s best friend and they are in college living their best college life until Betha gets news that changes her life forever. That change is further progressed by a demon attack and sets Betha on a course that no one could have predicted… well unless you’re a seer.
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