Reviewed by Jo on
So when Erin starts dating Jason, Lani can’t believe she feels such a deep connection with him—and it may be mutual. The more Lani fights it, the more certain she feels that it’s her fate to be with Jason. But what do you do when the love of your life is the one person you can’t have? From Amazon US
When I received this book, I was so looking forward to reading it! Not only does the book sound incredible, but the cover is just beautiful, too. So, understandably, I picked it up to read fairly soon after receiving it, sure I was in for a brilliant read. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I was so very disappointed in this book, I actually feel quite sad about it; there was so much potential, and it all just fell pretty flat for me.
I’ll give some positives first. Lani and Erin are seriously interested in all things to do with fate. Lani will check her horoscope every Monday without fail. Each month, the girls look into a new method of finding out their fate; tarot, palmistry, numerology, dream analysis, the list goes on. When I was younger I was really interested in similar things, and to a smaller degree I still am. I never went to the extremes that these girls did – I never checked my horoscope religiously, or anything like that, but I did think it was all pretty neat, and so reading about it in this book was pretty interesting. Though, after the beginning, where it was explained how interested in all these things they were, it kind of dwindled off, yet Lani kept going on about things happening for a reason, and fate was behind all things, and it got a little tiresome.
That small part was pretty much the only thing about this book I liked. I wasn’t too keen on the characters. Lani felt a little boring to me; she’s a bit of an eco warrior, and although I do my bit for the environment in my own home, Lani’s whole life practically revolves around saving the world, and it’s just not something I’m interested in reading. Erin was ridiculous with her “We’re meant to be!” about her and Jason, and I thought she was a bit superficial. I didn’t feel there was much depth to Jason; other than that he likes mentoring younger kids and walking along no longer in use railway tracks, I couldn’t tell you a thing about him. The only characters that were fairly cool were Blake and Connor, but they weren’t in the book for a huge amount of time. There was practically no chemistry between Jason and Lani, or Jason and Erin.
Another thing I didn’t like about the book was the way it was written. So many times throughout the book I got annoyed during the dialogue. Lani is telling this story, and when she’s telling the reader what some said, more often than not, she will say “And Erin was like ‘Blah blah blah,’” or “Erin was all ‘Blah blah blah.’” It grated on my nerves. There’s also the fact that so much of this novel told, rather than shown. I can’t count how many times Lani would talk about how she, or her and Jason, or her and someone else, did something for an hour/a few hours/the rest of the day. I wasn’t counting as I was reading, but I can only remember actually seeing Lani and Jason kiss twice in the whole book. I just didn’t get to see much of what I wanted to see. Perhaps there would have been more chemistry between them if I actually got to see them do things for more than five minutes.
I was just so disappointed in this book, and it’s so frustrating. However, I am just one person; although I personally didn’t like it, you might find this a really good book. I would definitely check out some other reviews before writing it off completely. I may not have been a fan, but you could be.
From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 10 March, 2010: Finished reading
- 10 March, 2010: Reviewed