Book Review: Fated by Sarah Alderson.

Product details:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK.
Release date:  January 5th 2012.
Paperback, 320 pages.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Ages: YA
Source: Received from publisher for review.

What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?

When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.

But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray - is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand years between humans and demons is about to reach a devastating and inevitable conclusion. Either one or both of them will die before this war ends.

If your life becomes bound to another’s, what will it take to sever it?

Fated, the page-turning second novel from Hunting Lila author Sarah Alderson, introduces us to Evie Tremaine, a small town girl who dreams of escaping her boring life and her cheating ex-boyfriend. It’s a case of be careful what you wish for though, when Evie is set upon by a band of dangerous demons, amongst them Lucas Grey, a guy who makes her forget all about her ex, but who is also on a mission to kill Evie, who we soon find out is no ordinary girl, but the last in a long line of purebred demon hunters.  Evie says goodbye to her mundane lifestyle as she finds herself at the center of an age old battle between demons and hunters, where every day is a fight to the death.

As in Hunting Lila, Alderson’s writing is fast-paced, addictive and intense here. Fated is a roller-coaster ride of a book, and while it was all good fun, sometimes I wanted things to slow down.  I wanted more from this book, especially in terms of world building a characterization. A lot of the time I felt like I was playing catch-up here, meeting characters that I never really got to know, in a world that was alien to me. I need to be able to connect with characters, and while Evie is pretty much a kick-ass protagonist, and Lucas is the ultimate hottie (Alderson writes great book boys!), I felt like I just got to know them on the surface, so I didn’t entirely buy into the fact that they were willing to die for each other after one hot make-out session. It was all a little bit too like insta-love for me.

Overall, Fated is a fun paranormal read with full on action, and exciting plot twists, but it was missing that extra special something that I needed to fall in love with it.