Feature and Follow (9)

Time for a blog hop :-) Who's looking forward to Labor Day weekend? I am, because for once, I sort of get the holiday off (well I still have to carry a pager around).

Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read

Here are the rules to the blog hop!
To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

• (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
• (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers

• Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
• Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
• If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
• Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
• If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
• If you’re new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

 

Q: Best Cover? What is the best cover of a book that you’ve read and didn’t like?

Well, oops! I answered this exact question last week. But I guess now it's legit. I was so excited to get this book from Early Reviewer Librarything giveaways because I mean LOOK at that beautiful cover. But the book didn't really live up to it.

Goodreads book description:

Lately strange things have been happening to Daire Santos. Animals follow her, crows mock her, and glowing people appear out of nowhere. Worried that Daire is having a nervous breakdown, her mother packs her off to stay in the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico with a grandmother she’s never met.

There she crosses paths with Dace, a gorgeous guy with unearthly blue eyes who she’s encountered before...but only in her dreams. And she’ll get to know her grandmother—a woman who recognizes Daire’s bizarre episodes for what they are. A call to her true destiny as a Soul Seeker, one who can navigate between the worlds of the living and the dead. Her grandmother immediately begins teaching her to harness her powers—but it’s an art that must be mastered quickly. Because Dace’s brother is an evil shape-shifter who’s out to steal her powers. Now Daire must embrace her fate as a Soul Seeker and find out if Dace is one guy she’s meant to be with...or if he’s allied with the enemy she’s destined to destroy.

 

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. The first 100 or so pages dragged and I almost put it down for good. After reading some other recent reviews, I wasn't the only one and some people actually stopped reading it. Then, around halfway through the book, things start to get interesting. Daire's grandmother is teaching her some really neat things. I really enjoyed learning about Seekers, their powers, and their war with the Coyotes. But Daire throughout the book was a whiny, not very likeable protagonist. And the Cade/Dace split (not really into how their names rearranged are each other's) seems just too easy. Cade is just too evil and Dace is just too good. Put them together and HE would be a character worth reading about. I just can't stand two dimensional characters and then here we have two characters that are set up that way. However, I will say that there are some terrific supporting characters. Xotichl and Lita are both wonderful, well developed and unexpected. I would read a book about them.

While Fated has some beautiful prose especially about landscape and some great supporting characters, the main characters are not especially interesting and the plot drags for too much of the book. It's too bad because the backstory has a lot of potential. 

Don't forget to sign up for my three current giveaways!

1) International Giveaway of Signed copy of CS Einfeld's Neverdark OR A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Neverdark Giveaway

2) Prize pack giveaway (US only) of ALL FOUR of Antony John's books signed (Five Flavors of Dumb, Busted, Thou Shalt Not Road Trip, and the unreleased YA dystopian, Elemental)
Antony John Giveaway

3) US giveaway of either signed hard back copy of Insignia OR $10 Amazon Gift Certificate!
Back to the Books Blog Hop Giveaway