Could you live your whole life feeling empty?
A New Life
Seventeen-year-old Tracy Bachman feels that something is missing in life. Despite a normal upbringing, she can’t help but yearn for more. That is why she decides to transfer to a new boarding school, in a move that takes her all the way across the country.
An Unforgettable Adventure
When Tracy arrives at her new school, she expects an ordinary enough life. But what she finds there instead changes her in ways she could never expect.
A love interest she did not ask for. A power she does not know she holds. And a clique of mysterious, popular girls hell-bent on entangling Tracy in their affairs.
A Hidden Purpose
The girls Tracy meets all know she is different. Beneath their easy smiles lies a friendship laced with dark intentions. Will Tracy understand what they want in time to protect herself? Or will she find herself hopelessly ensnared in their web of secrets?
A Forbidden Romance
A suggestive glance. A secret rendezvous. In the midst of everything else, Tracy finds temptation in the very boy she is prohibited from speaking to. But as she pushes herself away, she falls right into the arms of another…
A Mystical World
Slowly, Tracy starts to understand that beneath her school’s veneer of splendor lies a dangerous, secretive world brimming with supernatural powers. And before she knows it, she finds herself deep in the heart of that cryptic, mystifying world.
All expectations are thrown to the wind as Tracy struggles to balance love, friendship, adventure – and her newfound power. But will she be perceptive enough to realize that there are those who would use her for that power, lurking closer than she can believe?
Chosen is different than anything I’ve ever read, to say the least. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I liked it, and more than likely I will read the sequel if for no other reason than to find out where Swan is going with this story.
I can’t really say too much about the book without giving anything away, but I will say this: the beginning was very slow going. Details are obviously necessary to help the reader imagine the setting and characters of the book, but overuse can take away from the actual storyline. The beginning was overloaded with descriptions that, in my opinion, took away from the story more than added to it. There were also parts in the book left me confused as to why they were there in the first place. Like drawing attention to a particular character, describing him and and the main character’s interaction with him in such a way that I was positive that he was going to be a big deal. Nope. The way Swan talked him up, I expected to at least see him later on in the story. Wrong again. He may have a pivotal role in the next book, but in this one, his character could have practically been omitted.
I admit, I was a little bored in the beginning, but my curiosity was piqued enough to continue reading. About one-third of the way through is when the book really picked up and I kinda couldn’t put it down. I loved the originality. I was riveted by the turn of events and the fact that some “friends” were, in fact, enemies. I want to know more about the characters and and their motives and intentions. I have so many questions that I hope she answers in the next book. I really hope she hits the ground running with the second book. If she does, it could be really good. If not…well, let’s just say I probably won’t be reading the third book.
Swan’s writing style was very wordy at the beginning, but evened out later on. She’s pretty young, I think, for an author, and it almost seemed like she was trying to prove herself by using unnecessarily large words. Words like “abashedly” and “surreptitiously” and “fruition”. While these are all great words, I don’t think they really belong in a young adult book. Especially since the main character doesn’t even talk like that later on in the book. Also, in the first chapter and a few of the seceding ones, the tone was almost like Tracy was sitting us down for story time, using phrases like “but I digress” and “but I’d be remiss if I didn’t give the bullet points now”. I felt more like Tracy was telling me a story of something that had happened to her, rather then reading a book about a character named Tracy. However, later on in the book, it no longer felt like like story time, but that I was reading a book with a cast of characters. It was confusing and inconsistent.
Overall, it was a pretty good book, and its originality was refreshing. I give it three stars.
Chosen on Amazon: Chosen (The Seeker Saga, #1)
