Fated (Soul Seekers, #1)

by Alyson Noël

[Stephanie]

I had a few problems with Fated, which is why it took me forever to read the book.

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.