"Fate has bound them together—and torn them apart. Now Daire and Dace face one final fight that will seal their destiny forever.
Daire Santos is the last of the Soul Seekers, and the only thing standing between the Richters and the destruction of everyone she loves. With her grandmother gone and Cade back in Enchantment, Daire must finally step into her destiny and lead the fight against the Richters. But what if that means sacrificing the person she loves most?
Bound to the Richters by blood, Dace struggles against the darkness growing inside him that threatens to claim Daire too. Though Daire refuses to give up on him, the choice may not be hers. An epic battle is on the horizon and the end of the world looms near. With such insurmountable odds stacked against them, is their love really enough to conquer all?"
Karma is a bitch. Yeah, I just used mild profanity in my review, which is rare, but I decided that that phrase is perhaps the best thing I can use to describe what happens in the book. Of all the characters, it is perhaps Dace who suffers the most. We can argue all night on who suffered the most.
Horizon is the final book of The Soul Seekers. For me, I thought that Horizon ended on a very flourished note. It's better than whatever song the last book of The Immortals series was playing. Six books get really boring unless you are JK Rowling. Then everything is fascinating. (Hope JK Rowling writes more books!)
For most of Horizon, Daire goes around trying to crack a hole in the Richter's armor. Obviously, she cracks it and we learned a lot about the inside relationships of the Richters. For the first time, I actually felt sad for Cade. Gabe? Screw him. Cade's and Dace's father? Screw him, too. Of all the Richters, I would say Cade changed the most. He is tied, of course, with his twin, Dace. Dace and Cade. You can't have one without the other. Or at least until Horizon's plot is done with the characters. What? Come on. Cade was expected to die from the very beginning of the series. It was expected. Or maybe the other possible way. Cade and Dace become one. But that possibility was slim to nothing.
I love the first chapter of the book. It's a great way of foreshadowing of what's to come. And my second favorite scene is the last chapter of where Daire sees the future. After that? Well, the major/final battle between the Richters and Santos was good. Although that small fight with Daire against Cade is a little bit....bittersweet.
Dace goes bad. Cade goes good. It is all very complicated, but you will see. Dace acts bad under the guise that he's protecting Daire (very sweet, but utterly stupid). Cade goes...um...there's no good way of saying it. Let's just say that he is trying hard to stay bad.
Overall, I think the entire book is good. The series is even better than The Immortals. Everything about this series is so pretty and beautiful. I can't wait for a series sequel (if Noel ever plans to write one).
Also, the cover is so pretty. All that fire...
Rating: Five out of Five
"Since arriving in Enchantment, New Mexico, everything in Daire Santos life has changed. And not all for the better. While she's come to accept and embrace her new powers as a Soul Seeker, Daire struggles with the responsibility she holds navigating between the worlds of the living and the dead. And with the fate of her boyfriend Dace in the balance, Daire must put aside her personal feelings and focus on defeating Cade, whose evil plans threaten everyone she loves and the world as she knows it.
MYSTIC is the third book in The Soul Seekers, a magnificent new series about a girl who can navigate between the worlds of the living and the dead, by #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël."
The cover for Mystic is really gorgeous, don't you agree? I really love the mixture of colors. The background is pretty, a total reference to the events in the book. Fated is the first book and sports the color of purple. It's an arrow pointing to fall/autumn. Echo, winter. Mystic points to springtime. It's a time of rebirth and new. Fall dies. Winter freezes. Spring grows. Green means growth and plants.
Okay, I'll stop ranting.
Let's talk about Dace and Daire. Dace is missing. Daire is dead. From a reader's point of perspective, everything looks quite gloomy. But remember that there's a reason why spring is spring of rebirth. Mystic is mostly about Daire preparing for the final battle. And the final battle is coming very soon.
What I love about The Soul Seekers (series, not the people) is the fact that love doesn't always come first. I know, I know. Love does take a huge role, but it's not as big as The Immortals. In the Immortals, I was nearly passing out because there was a love triangle and then a possible rectangle and a sick number of possible love interests. The basic line is that The Immortals started to spiral downwards and...yeah...out of control. Mystic wasn't out of control. In fact, Noel controlled the book and series better than The Immortals. I liked The Soul Seekers much more than The Immortals.
I think Mystic is the second best of the series. Fated, the first. Echo, the third. (Echo was a huge weird ride of crazy magic). Fated, the first book, will always be the best. It's the book where nothing is too complicated.
The plot goes crazy. For the major part of the book, Daire spends a lot of time trying to get Dace back. She must really want him back. Oh, well. I don't care. Anyway, the Phyre story arc gets really weird. The Cade arc gets even weirder. The worse arc is perhaps the Daire's grandmother arc. She dies by the end of the book, BTW. What? It wasn't unexpected. The previous two books were practically waving a flag towards her grandmother. She nearly dies. She nearly dies, but is saved. Come on. She is bound to die eventually. Don't be upset at me.
I never tire of listening to Noel's story voice unless she writes six books in a series and nearly gives me the sleeps.
Let me summarize. Daire is back. Dace is back. Daire's grandmother dies. Cade is kind of weak. Dace is stronger. And that's pretty much it.
Rating: Four out of Five
"She inherited a magical destiny—and a mission to stop a powerful family of dark sorcerers. She never expected to fall in love with one of them.
There’s still so much Daire Santos has to learn about being the last Soul Seeker….and about herself. As her magical training becomes more intense, so does her relationship with Dace. But when she learns that his connection to the evil Richter family goes far deeper than she ever imagined, she begins to question if love really can conquer all.
Dace is painfully aware that he wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the Richters’ dark magic—and now his brother Cade is determined to use his love for Daire against him. Dace is willing to sacrifice anything to protect the girl he loves —including his own life. But will Daire allow it? And what if defeating Cade costs not only his life, but his soul too?"
Now this series is just getting ironic. In Fated, we learn of a separate group that isn't with Ever and the Immortals but set in the same universe. First in Fated, Dace and Daire are meant to be, or at least in their minds. Now, the world is bent on breaking them apart. Yeah, the cruel world and I have no sympathy (which is even sadder).
Echo digs deeper into the strange bond of Cade and Dace. (Anyone notice that when you switch the places in the consonants of Cade or Dade's name, you get the opposite twin's name. Damn, I wonder if that has anything to do with the book or the author is just simply twisting our minds). We see the stranger sides of Dear Old Dad Mr. Richter and the evil (just plain evil) side of Cade. Background info: Echo is another word for Cade/Dace, who are echoes of each other. (And this isn't fully explain until the first quarter mark of Echo, so yes, it's a spoiler.)
Echo is trending on the border of "I'm going to follow the same path of the Immortals" and "I want to make a new path." I am always wondering if this series, The Soul Seekers, is going to turn out like the Immortals. It's teetering on the edge and I'm suspicious of similar characters and parallel events.
The plot of Echo is always moving; although I'm annoyed by how it is being moved. (By the grandmothers.) Yep, by the elderly people like the grandmothers. They give all the advices, and (as usual) the young and stupid people (like Cade and Dace, just to mention a few) always don't listen. Is there ever a time when young people make good choices? Oh, I guess everyones on...oh wait, that doesn't happen in Echo. Drugs aren't exactly what controls young people in Echo, but it's power that controls everyone's minds.
Hmm...I don't really like any of the characters. Sometimes I just wish that authors don't make their characters/love interest seem so pretty and outrageously gorgeous (like Vogue gorgeous). Anyway, the characters in the book are annoying and super egotistical (Cade, Dace, etc.) Daire's okay, but she's pushing the limits. (Isn't it annoying how Daire and Dace look so similar in spelling? These names had been tripping me up in my reading. I always confuse one for the other.)
Rating: Two out of Five
"Until now, he's existed only in her dreams -
but fate is about to bring them together.
I shove through the crowd, knocking into girls and bouncing off boys, until one in particular catches me, steadies me.
I feel so secure, so at home in his arms.
I melt against his chest-lift my gaze to meet his. Gasping when I stare into a pair of icy blue eyes banded by brilliant flecks of gold that shine like kaleidoscopes, reflecting my image thousands of times.
The boy from my dream.
The one who died in my arms.
Strange things are happening to Daire Santos. Crows mock her, glowing people stalk her, time stops without warning, and a beautiful boy with unearthly blue eyes haunts all her dreams. Fearing for her daughter’s sanity, Daire’s mother sends her to live with the grandmother she’s never met. A woman who recognizes the visions for what they truly are—the call to her destiny as a Soul Seeker—one who can navigate the worlds between the living and dead.
There on the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico, Daire sets out to harness her mystical powers. But it’s when she meets Dace, the boy from her dreams, that her whole world is shaken to its core. Now Daire is forced to discover if Dace is the one guy she's meant to be with...or if he’s allied with the enemy she's destined to destroy."
Now, I'm a partial Alyson Noel fan when it comes to The Immortals. For the first two books, I was starstruck and absolutely in love with it. Then comes the rest of the gang. Ugh! I was so bored for most of the time I'd spent reading it. The only time I was interested, for the last four books of The Immortals series, was the time when the main character almost, almost died. Unfortunately she didn't, so I wasn't spare the dread and boredom for the remainder of the books. (What a terrible shame. I hated her and her personality. Not the author, the character.)
Anyhoo, Fated is, so far, a good book. (Then again the first book in The Immortals series was good too, so that's saying something. What if The Soul Seekers follow the same pattern?) This one appears to be so much better than The Immortals. I think I might stick around a little longer. It's intriguing; there's something delicious about it. (Okay, that just sounded creepy.)
(Did I just say Anyhoo? OMG, the advertisements from tv must be getting into my head. Noooo!)
Ignore my subconscious thoughts. (Parentheses.) They like typing themselves into this review and all reviews. Anyhoo (Progressive must be so proud), the plot of Fated is brilliant and so twisty. Fated carries the same trend of The Immortals Series. The character succeed or they think they are successful, then the enemy turns out that he has something wicked under his sleeve. Yeah, I think that pretty much sums it up.
Noel's writing is trained and well written. I have absolutely no problem with it although I'm slightly annoyed by how she orders the chapters.
The ending of Fated is going to ruin me. What did evil twin of Dace mean by "Echo"? Seriously, "Echo", "Echo", "Echo." What is it?
Characters:
Daire (Noel has to name her characters a bit better. I kept on thinking that Daire was Dace and Dace was Daire) is violent and crazy. Or at least to me, at first. It turns out she isn't crazy, after all, but instead a soul seeker. (And it upsets me how the author doesn't tell me exactly what is a Soul Seeker. What is it, anyhoo?) Daire is one of those characters who is begging to be slapped in the head. (Damn it, Daire! Why can you not believe it when there's tons of evidence pointing in that direction?)
Dace (now that a hottie) fairs a lot better than Daire. He's the only one who seems to have a sense of mind. (Mind or brain, either way). While Daire is off running around doing who knows what (like doing the opposite of what Grandma tells her), Dace is actually doing something productive.
Rating: Four out of Five
