Fated to Walk Between Worlds

Alyson Noel's Fated, the first book in the Soul Seekers series delves into the three worlds: Lowerworld, Middleworld, and Upperworld. We know all three worlds exist, but only the Soul Seekers can walk amongst all three. But for a girl who has never even had a home, how can you imagine the weight of generations worth of traditions resting on your shoulders?

Daire has always lived on the road with her Hollywood make-up artist mother. She travels the globe, but has never truly known what it is like to have a home. When she finds herself on the wrong side of the paparazzi with an insincere, sexy movie star, her mother seeks out the last resort. She ships Daire off to her paternal grandmother, the grandmother Daire has never met. But there is more to Paloma's life than just the small, Native American world around the town of Enchanted. She carries a secret Daire has to know.

Daire's family are all Soul Seekers, ones who can walk between the worlds. When her father died suddenly, the chain of succession was broken and now Paloma must teach Daire about her heritage. Unfortunately, time is running out and the Richter family is getting closer to success with their evil misdeeds that involve an unnatural resurrection of their ancestors. Paloma isn't strong enough to stop them, so Daire is the only one who can. But she has only just learned about her heritage. She can't possibly stop such a plot, could she?

The first 150 pages of this bok were pretty slow, I am afraid. They travel with Daire through her time with her mother to her learning of the Soul Seekers through her vision quest. I think if that whole part had been condensed, the story would have moved faster and held my attention better. I assume now that that is all out of the way, though, it means the subsequent books will also be faster paced. But still, it made it difficult to slog through the beginning of this book. I actually had to put it down for a while and pick it up a week or so later when I had the concentration to force myself through it. By the time I did so, I had barreled through the slow parts and got to where Daire fights Cade Richter, but even that action wasn't nailbiting. Interesting, but nothing stupendous. 

I am going to keep going with this series because I think it has potential, and now it also has the benefit of an upward swing, but I sincerely hope it goes with that forward motion. I think it is tough for a series when the first book is so slow and bogged down by back story, especially for a struggling reader. Not only are they not going to finish it, they also aren't going to get to the next story to where all the good stuff is. However, I love the Southwestern Native American aspects of this story. It is nice to see different cultures represented in YA books!