moraa
Written on Nov 9, 2019
Strange things have been happening to Daire Santos. Animals follow her, crows mock her, glowing people appear from nowhere. Worried that Daire's having a breakdown, her mother sends her to stay with the grandmother she's never met, who lives on the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico.There Daire crosses paths with Dace, a gorgeous guy with unearthly blue eyes.
Her grandmother recognizes Daire's episodes for what they are - a call to her true destiny as a Soul Seeker, a person who can navigate between the living and the dead. Guided by her grandmother, Daire must be quick to learn how to harness her powers, because Dace's brother is an evil shape-shifter, out to steal them.
Daire must embrace her fate as a Soul Seeker and discover whether Dace is the guy she's meant to be with . . . or if he's allied with the enemy she's destined to destroy.
- ISBN10 0312664850
- ISBN13 9780312664855
- Publish Date 22 May 2012
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 26 May 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Griffin
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 352
- Language English
Reviews
ammaarah
Written on Jun 1, 2015
"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.
Suz @ Bookish Revelations
Written on Jun 3, 2012
Daire Santos is a Soul Seeker who is able to traverse between the world of the living and of the dead. Almost as soon as she discovers this hidden gift, she is tasked with learning how to harness her new found powers. This is something that Daire has to master pretty quickly because Dace's brother, an evil shapeshifter, is vying for her power and will stop at nothing to claim it for his own. Daire has no choice, but to embrace her power and seek the answers to whether or not Dace is the one she's meant to be with or if he's with the enemy she's meant to destroy. The story that develops between these two quickly starts to turn into a story of love and trust.
At first glance of the premise for Fated, the story itself seems to be quite promising. Alyson Noel's idea behind the Soul Seekers is intriguing and definitely attention grabbing, if nothing else. Readers will find themselves wanting to gobble up as many details as they can, regarding the history and the mythology behind how the Soul Seekers came about and what exactly they can and can't do with their powers, and why it's important to never let evil shapeshifters steal them. Daire is a likable and easy character to connect with. It was admirable to see how brave and determined to take on her destiny of being a Soul Seeker, despite the few annoying flaws she did possess.
Dace is a wonderfully developed and charming character, of his own merit. He has such a warm and likable disposition about him and it's endearing to see just how much he does does really care for Daire. Their romance is sweet and fun to read about and readers will either enjoy them or not. Cade, on the other hand, had this alluring bad boy swagger going on that appealed to me on a more personal level. There's just something about a swoon worthy and irresistably bad boy that gets my blood to pumping.
Those who found themselves enjoying Alyson Noel's previous paranormal romance series The Immortals, are sure to enjoy this novel quite a bit as it explores new territory and brings a whole new world of mythology to the table in the form of animals and spirits. It is chalked full of wonderfully fun mystery, interestingly developed mythology behind the Soul Seekers making them and the Native Americans one of the more interesting aspects of the novel, and beautiful magical enchantment. It is quite an enjoyable and light read, for those who are looking for something easy to read.
Stephanie
Written on Apr 19, 2012
First off, Daire got on my nerves for the first half of the book. She ran away from her problems a lot and was always in denial. Even when she was having these visions, she refused help from people who proved that they could help her. She got much better once she comes to terms with her powers, but before she learns anything, and even when she starts learning, she was a little annoying.
The one thing that really slowed down my reading was all the information dump. When Daire's Grandma, Paloma, is explaining everything to Daire, there's these long paragraphs that really explain everything, which I was happy to be getting the information because I found the mythology to be very interesting, it was just too much at once. And it happens quite often throughout the story.
There didn't seem to be much of Daire going out into this new world that she knows, it was more of Daire being told what she can do and what she's gonna have to go out and do. There wasn't much action. Without giving too much away, I felt like we were working up to a big action scene in the end, but I felt a bit let down.
Also, I couldn't stand Daire's mom, Jennika. Since Daire calls her mom by her first name, I felt like Noel was trying to portray that their relationship was a little distant, but then Jennika becomes the overprotective mother who won't even bother listening to Daire because she 'knows what's best'. And the insults that Jennika says about Paloma really made me dislike her more.
I really liked all the other characters. Dace especially, most likely because he was a sweetheart the whole time. Though I thought there would be more romance, but there wasn't. There wasn't much lead up to Dace and Daire getting together. At all, really. They meet each other at school, have a few conversations, which Daire made sure to push Dace away, and then Dace helps Daire a little and all of a sudden they're together. There wasn't much to it at all, which left me a little disappointed.
Other than that,I really did like the story, despite those few things.