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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
I was stoked to get sent this beautiful literary nugget. I had not heard of it before it arrived but as soon as I set eyes on it I had some definite cover love and then I read the back! The back cover seems interesting, right? Well it in no way reflects the awesomeness of the actual novel.
Daire, is a spunky, no-nonsense girl, who is very rational and is always trying to figure everyone at. That is, until she moves to Enchantment, New Mexico. Where she learns about magick and how not normal she is due to her ancestral lineage. She is a soul seeker and the strongest one to have ever came about.
I have to point out at this point that her being the strongest seeker is a lot like a lot of other paranormal YA where our heroine just happens to be the best of the get-go. This doesn’t bother me too much, I just thought I’d point it out.
My favorite part about Daire is her ability to tell everyone how it is whenever necessary. I love her candor. I also like how we see her internal debates on what she wants to say but doesn’t. It just makes me like her even more.
Dace is THE boy of the book. He is quite literally the boy of her dreams. He is Mr. Nice Guy and a little shy. He’s alright. I just didn’t think his personality was that solid which made the romantic elements not as good as they could be.
Next point to point out, so many books have this love at first sight thing and I think it’s a little over done, even in this book.
Paloma, Daire’s grandma, is one of the best characters of the book. She is mysterious and keeps the story moving.
Minus having a so-so romantic element this books plot is so epically awesome that I’m still giving it four stars. I bet in book two a lot of the problems with one will be worked out. This book’s paranormal element with the magic and spirit animals blows a lot of what’s being put out now out of the water.
Daire, is a spunky, no-nonsense girl, who is very rational and is always trying to figure everyone at. That is, until she moves to Enchantment, New Mexico. Where she learns about magick and how not normal she is due to her ancestral lineage. She is a soul seeker and the strongest one to have ever came about.
I have to point out at this point that her being the strongest seeker is a lot like a lot of other paranormal YA where our heroine just happens to be the best of the get-go. This doesn’t bother me too much, I just thought I’d point it out.
My favorite part about Daire is her ability to tell everyone how it is whenever necessary. I love her candor. I also like how we see her internal debates on what she wants to say but doesn’t. It just makes me like her even more.
Dace is THE boy of the book. He is quite literally the boy of her dreams. He is Mr. Nice Guy and a little shy. He’s alright. I just didn’t think his personality was that solid which made the romantic elements not as good as they could be.
Next point to point out, so many books have this love at first sight thing and I think it’s a little over done, even in this book.
Paloma, Daire’s grandma, is one of the best characters of the book. She is mysterious and keeps the story moving.
Minus having a so-so romantic element this books plot is so epically awesome that I’m still giving it four stars. I bet in book two a lot of the problems with one will be worked out. This book’s paranormal element with the magic and spirit animals blows a lot of what’s being put out now out of the water.
When I read the synopsis for this book I wasn't sure I would like it. Alyson Noel's Immortals series and I just didn't hit it off so I was skeptical of reading this book. However, I decided to push away those feelings and just go for it, especially since I met the author and heard her reading an exert I just had to get my hands on this book some how. I do love the cover. I think it goes amazingly with the theme of the book with the crows flying high in the back ground and the purple. So perfect for this book.
That being said I had no idea what to write after I finished this book. The beginning of the book was a little confusing, as are most books in the beginning so that wasn't to bad. However, to me the main character Daire was so unlikable to me. She complained about almost everything, and then during her "transformation which seemed totally unlikely that she would make one she was still annoying to me. I just couldn't find it in my heart to like her. Now that being said all the other characters in this book were completely amazing. Even the antagonist who is totally, completely evil in every sense of the word was well written. The plot line was fun to read, although I thought there was too much description and not enough dialogue. Just me though some people like that. My favorite character was definitely Xotichl with all her amazing quirks she was an extremely funny character to read about. I would recommend this book, just because like I said it's a good book, I just didn;t like the main character. You might! Which would be totally awesome cuz Alyson Noel is an amazing writer, and from what I've seen and read on her blog an amazing person. So even though this wasn't my favorite book of all time it was, alright.
Favorite Quote: was on page 192 I loved that entire page just do to the fact it reminded me of my boyfriend and I.
"How long have you guys known each other?" I ask.
"Forever," he says. "I can't remember a single day day without her."
Xotichl laughs, gives his shoulder a playful slap. Head tilted in my direction when she says, "We met last year. It was love at first sight. But unfortunately, my mom doesn't quite see it that way. She doesn't approve."
I look at Auden, taking a quick mental inventory. He's cute, sweet, and obviously lives to breathe the same air as Xotichl- what could possibly be the problem?
"I'm in a band..."
(I'm ending the scene there. There is more, but you will just have to check out the book it find out more.)
That being said I had no idea what to write after I finished this book. The beginning of the book was a little confusing, as are most books in the beginning so that wasn't to bad. However, to me the main character Daire was so unlikable to me. She complained about almost everything, and then during her "transformation which seemed totally unlikely that she would make one she was still annoying to me. I just couldn't find it in my heart to like her. Now that being said all the other characters in this book were completely amazing. Even the antagonist who is totally, completely evil in every sense of the word was well written. The plot line was fun to read, although I thought there was too much description and not enough dialogue. Just me though some people like that. My favorite character was definitely Xotichl with all her amazing quirks she was an extremely funny character to read about. I would recommend this book, just because like I said it's a good book, I just didn;t like the main character. You might! Which would be totally awesome cuz Alyson Noel is an amazing writer, and from what I've seen and read on her blog an amazing person. So even though this wasn't my favorite book of all time it was, alright.
Favorite Quote: was on page 192 I loved that entire page just do to the fact it reminded me of my boyfriend and I.
"How long have you guys known each other?" I ask.
"Forever," he says. "I can't remember a single day day without her."
Xotichl laughs, gives his shoulder a playful slap. Head tilted in my direction when she says, "We met last year. It was love at first sight. But unfortunately, my mom doesn't quite see it that way. She doesn't approve."
I look at Auden, taking a quick mental inventory. He's cute, sweet, and obviously lives to breathe the same air as Xotichl- what could possibly be the problem?
"I'm in a band..."
(I'm ending the scene there. There is more, but you will just have to check out the book it find out more.)
Ik weet niet wat ik van dit boek moet denken.... het was voor mij een grote teleurstelling er zat zoveel potentie in het concept. Jammer dat het zo is uitgewerkt en dat er helemaal geen diepte of spanning in het verhaal is toegevoegd.
Actual rating 1.5
I am very sorry to say this, but Fated is, in many ways, crap.
When I started this book, I'd never read anything from Alyson Noel before, and since I heard both good and bad things about her, I didn't really expect anything from this novel. It should just entertain me.
It didn't.
In fact, if your eyes can fall out from too much rolling them, I wouldn't have mine anymore. If I had bought this book (which I haven't, it was the copy of a friend), I would have shred this to pieces. If you could go into a book and do whatever you want there, almost the whole cast would be dead by now. Except Paloma - because wise old granny - and Cade - because bad guy and because Daire hates him.
So, we have Daire (how the hell are you supposed to pronounce this? I always say 'Deh-r', but I'm pretty sure that's not correct. Whatever), who has creepy visions, for example of crows and heads and everything. So far, so good. I liked her - until I figured out she was an enormous b*tch, a Mary Sue (she can learn things others need years to learn in weeks!) and all in all completely unbearable.
Then Daire is sent to her grandmother Paloma, one of the only decent characters in this book, and finds out she's a soul seeker. (Or seeker. In German it was Suchende which means seeker, but you know, 'soul seekers #1' and everything...) I still have no idea what exactly a soul seeker is. They have a connection to animals and nature, they are... Dunno, powerful? And they have Spirit Animals?
We find out that Daire dreams of a guy with long hair (why long hair? Is that, like attractive? Because it isn't. Semi-long hair is fine, but long as in LONG? Nnope.) who's absolutely gorgeous. Thank god Noel states that on every page. We could forget it! *gasp* No, that is something you've gotta remember. *cough* The two of them make out and everything, and then someone comes who looks like the long-haired GORGEOUS guy. Just with short hair and eyes that seem to absorb light. Cliché villain? Check! Blutrose finds him instantly cooler than the cliché love interest? Check! The Mary Sue main charakter hates him instantly? Check!
To Daire's and long-haired GORGEOUS guy's, whose name is Dace by the way (two things: first, I'd rather call him Gorgeous Handsomesson. Just in case you forget his hotness. And his name reminds me of 'dice', which is funny because I always imagined him as one. *shrug* Noel's fault for giving such strange names.), credit, the anti-Gorgeous-Dice Handsomesson, who's name is Cade and who is said character's twin brother - yeah. Call twins Cade and Dace. Very creative, indeed. - tried to kill his brother in a dream. But still.
Then there are a few insignificant scenes I can't remember anymore, Daire meets first Cade, then Dace in real life, becomes a true soul seeker and takes the name Santos, blah blah blah, until we finally get to some kind of showdown. I'm afraid it's not that showdowny, but Paloma gets sick and they have to save her and really, I have no idea what happened then. At the end, Daire and Gorgeous-Dice Handsomesson get together, even though they know about nothing about each other. (I don't think anyone would wanna date Daire if they knew her.) That's sooooo romantiiiiic, isn't it? Ai luv Daire &'nd Dace 2getha cuz there soo in lurv w/ each other. Ai hop they staay 2getha 4eva!
I won't even say something about Noel's writing style. It's cheesy, she uses three words to describe something when only one is necessary, and most of the novel used fragments. That. Causes. Headache. And I have no idea where my brain went, actually... I think I saw the melted remains dripping into the kitchen sink. Not sure though.
Damn. Now I DID say something about her style.
So, really, do yourself a favor and don't read this. I have no idea if all the facts in this review are correct since I read it in march, but I read my original (German) review again, so I guess everything should be okay. Oh, and feel free to hate on me, that makes me feel popular xD
I am very sorry to say this, but Fated is, in many ways, crap.
When I started this book, I'd never read anything from Alyson Noel before, and since I heard both good and bad things about her, I didn't really expect anything from this novel. It should just entertain me.
It didn't.
In fact, if your eyes can fall out from too much rolling them, I wouldn't have mine anymore. If I had bought this book (which I haven't, it was the copy of a friend), I would have shred this to pieces. If you could go into a book and do whatever you want there, almost the whole cast would be dead by now. Except Paloma - because wise old granny - and Cade - because bad guy and because Daire hates him.
So, we have Daire (how the hell are you supposed to pronounce this? I always say 'Deh-r', but I'm pretty sure that's not correct. Whatever), who has creepy visions, for example of crows and heads and everything. So far, so good. I liked her - until I figured out she was an enormous b*tch, a Mary Sue (she can learn things others need years to learn in weeks!) and all in all completely unbearable.
Then Daire is sent to her grandmother Paloma, one of the only decent characters in this book, and finds out she's a soul seeker. (Or seeker. In German it was Suchende which means seeker, but you know, 'soul seekers #1' and everything...) I still have no idea what exactly a soul seeker is. They have a connection to animals and nature, they are... Dunno, powerful? And they have Spirit Animals?
We find out that Daire dreams of a guy with long hair (why long hair? Is that, like attractive? Because it isn't. Semi-long hair is fine, but long as in LONG? Nnope.) who's absolutely gorgeous. Thank god Noel states that on every page. We could forget it! *gasp* No, that is something you've gotta remember. *cough* The two of them make out and everything, and then someone comes who looks like the long-haired GORGEOUS guy. Just with short hair and eyes that seem to absorb light. Cliché villain? Check! Blutrose finds him instantly cooler than the cliché love interest? Check! The Mary Sue main charakter hates him instantly? Check!
To Daire's and long-haired GORGEOUS guy's, whose name is Dace by the way (two things: first, I'd rather call him Gorgeous Handsomesson. Just in case you forget his hotness. And his name reminds me of 'dice', which is funny because I always imagined him as one. *shrug* Noel's fault for giving such strange names.), credit, the anti-Gorgeous-Dice Handsomesson, who's name is Cade and who is said character's twin brother - yeah. Call twins Cade and Dace. Very creative, indeed. - tried to kill his brother in a dream. But still.
Then there are a few insignificant scenes I can't remember anymore, Daire meets first Cade, then Dace in real life, becomes a true soul seeker and takes the name Santos, blah blah blah, until we finally get to some kind of showdown. I'm afraid it's not that showdowny, but Paloma gets sick and they have to save her and really, I have no idea what happened then. At the end, Daire and Gorgeous-Dice Handsomesson get together, even though they know about nothing about each other. (I don't think anyone would wanna date Daire if they knew her.) That's sooooo romantiiiiic, isn't it? Ai luv Daire &'nd Dace 2getha cuz there soo in lurv w/ each other. Ai hop they staay 2getha 4eva!
I won't even say something about Noel's writing style. It's cheesy, she uses three words to describe something when only one is necessary, and most of the novel used fragments. That. Causes. Headache. And I have no idea where my brain went, actually... I think I saw the melted remains dripping into the kitchen sink. Not sure though.
Damn. Now I DID say something about her style.
So, really, do yourself a favor and don't read this. I have no idea if all the facts in this review are correct since I read it in march, but I read my original (German) review again, so I guess everything should be okay. Oh, and feel free to hate on me, that makes me feel popular xD
"For a moment, I'm just Daire - a girl straddled between two bloodlines. One I was given - one I must earn." (Daire Santos)
I’ve read two books from Alyson Noel’s Evermore series and I didn’t enjoy them at all. When I saw the gorgeous cover of Fated in my school library, I stared at it for a whole minute and the shallow part of my brain (the one that judges a book by its cover) decided that I was going to take this book out.
The first thing that I decided to do in this review is show some MAJOR LOVE for the gorgeous front and back cover and the illustrations for each chapter. I loved the idea of the Raven’s stemming from the models hair in the back cover. I felt that they were so fitting when it came to the story.
Fated had some serious pacing problems. This book took me more than a month to read. I would read the book, get bored, put it down and then pick it up when I had nothing else to do. This book started off with a tortoise pace, got interesting, got really boring and the whole process kept on repeating itself. The plot was almost non-existent and this novel took up more pages than it was supposed to. I was elated to finally complete this book!
I feel as though I don’t know where I stand with anything in his book because it wasn’t explained enough, or I didn’t understand things well enough. The main character is Daire Santos. She starts to see things that aren’t really there and she goes to a grandmother that she has never met before in order to “fix” her insanity. Here she learns her destiny. She comes from a long line of Soul Seekers. After completing this book, I feel neutral about Daire, but I do feel that she did grow as a character.
Due to the Evermore series (Alyson Noël's previous book),I expected a bunch of insta-love romance between Daire and Dace. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. The romance in this book is overshadowed by the non-existent plot and the pacing problems that existed throughout this book. I’m currently wondering whether that was a blessing in disguise. I also don’t know how I feel about the romance, except for the fact that Dace seems too good to be true and that …uhm… yeah… that’s about it.
The setting of the book was really amazing. Its set in Enchantment, New Mexico and from the way that the story is written, I could see that Noel put in plenty of research to make this part off the book as realistic as possible. I also loved the concept of the spirit animals,the vision quests, the elements and the souls. I feel that this idea had potential and if it was expanded upon, the book would have been a success for me.
My expectations for the book was extremely low, so in that regard, this book kind of exceeded my expectations. I’m going to pick up the next book because the whole Echo thing sounds intriguing. But after a month of struggling through this book, I’m glad to say that it is over.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
I recommend this! I found this to be a fun, entertaining read. It has short chapters and an interesting plot. If you like YA books with paranormal vibes and a bit of romance, this is probably for you!
I’m looking forward to reading the next book very soon!
I’m looking forward to reading the next book very soon!
I've had this book on my shelf for more than a couple years. This summer I made a promise to myself that I'd give the books that have been sitting on my shelf for more than a year a go.
I was excited to start this book but was very disappointed about 40-50 pages in. It just wasn't what I was expecting. Although I didn't enjoy Fated as much as I would've liked, I am not going to give up on the series completely and try to give the second book a chance (it does have a higher rating). Let's hope it's not as big of a disappointment!
I was excited to start this book but was very disappointed about 40-50 pages in. It just wasn't what I was expecting. Although I didn't enjoy Fated as much as I would've liked, I am not going to give up on the series completely and try to give the second book a chance (it does have a higher rating). Let's hope it's not as big of a disappointment!
At sixteen Daire's life starts to change when she begins having terrifying visions. Everyone thinks she is crazy until she gets an unexpected call from her long lost grandmother revealing their family heritage.
The story was overall pretty interesting but the writing style made the book seem exceptionally slow and hard to get through. I know Daire is only sixteen and I do remember those grumpy, moody years but he attitude completely turned me off. I couldn't really connect with her character and I didn't end up really liking her.
The story was overall pretty interesting but the writing style made the book seem exceptionally slow and hard to get through. I know Daire is only sixteen and I do remember those grumpy, moody years but he attitude completely turned me off. I couldn't really connect with her character and I didn't end up really liking her.
