Fated (Soul Seekers #1)

I’m at Target staring at the empty spot where the book I drove here for should be. It’s close to 10:00 p.m. , and I don’t have the energy to frantically look behind all of the other books on the isle like I normally would, so I do a quick sweep with my eyes for an appealing cover and land on Fated.  The girl on the pretty purple cover makes me want to run to Forever 21 and buy dream catcher earrings. I pick up the book, read the back blurb, and I’m sold. Oh, and look! All three books in the series are here. I grab those, too and feel the instant surge of endorphins that comes with buying things. This story promises mystery, magic, and an intoxicating love affair. Seems like a safe buy. Five chapters into Fated, and I’m scolding myself for buying a book based on the cover.

Let me start out by listing the things I LOVED about this book. The cover and chapter transition pages are beautiful. There is a very cool few pages dedicated to Animal Spirit Guides and their meanings, and there is one particular passage at the beginning of the book that I found moving and sublime:

       ” I am the hydrogen in the very water I float in.

Daire, our female MC, is on the verge of 17 and has spent her life globe-trotting with her single mother who works as a Hollywood makeup artist. Daire has had a somewhat lonely, unattached existence since her father passed before she was born and her and her mother’s lifestyle keeps them from setting down roots and spending time with family. Daire has always known she was different and while on an assignment with her mother in Morocco, strange things start happening that leave Daire on the verge of insanity. Daire’s strange unwindings and outbursts drive her mother to contact Daire’s long estranged paternal grandmother for some answers, and hopefully a cure. Thus, our story really begins and Daire is shipped off to New Mexico to live with her stranger of an abuela against her better wishes.

Daire discovers that she is from a long line of powerful seekers and has the potential for magick beyond her wildest dreams. Book one of the Soul Seekers takes us through Daire’s journey learning about her powerful gifts and destined future. In between vision quests in caves and dreams that feel more like waking life, Daire meets Cade and Dace. Twin brothers who represent good and evil and will play a fundamental part in Daire’s life as a seeker and last defender of her bloodline.

The books setting made me want to buy a table top cactus and cover up on my couch with a southwestern style afghan while sipping sage root tea. The mysticism and anecdotes Daire’s grandmother passes down to her had me intrigued, and I was excited to see how the story would unfold. One hundred and seventy-five pages later, I was one bad Carlos Castaneda like trip away from bailing. Daire’s character had no real depth, and despite the model on the cover, I kept imagining her as Kristen Stewart. If you’ve read my other reviews, you know how I feel about hot brothers in stories. Cade and Dace didn’t even have a chance to earn a spot on my closet boyfriend list. These brothers stayed flat on the page for me, and the chemistry between Daire and Dace (the good twin) seems to materialize out of nowhere near the end of the story. I felt robbed and misled after what the back of the book cover promised me. The pacing seemed slow as a desert tumble weed, and there were more than a few gruesome descriptions I wish I could vision quest right out of my head. I wish this book would have read better for me, but I don’t think I will continue with the series. There is not a doubt in my mind that Alyson Noel is a marvelous magician with words, but I think I’ll spend my time on her Immortal series instead.