The plot contains welcome surprises, and the large cast piques curiosity readers will wish more time was spent getting to know them.

However, the themes of love, the power of story, family influence, and holding onto belief are well rounded and add depth. While the pervasive magic and concept of the Fates as a religious system add interest, other fantasy elements are haphazardly incorporated without enough time devoted to building a cohesive world. The writing style fluctuates from clever and original to overly verbose and often confusing in its jumble of senses. The bargain they strike sends her on a dark and magical journey throughout the land. Evangeline desperately prays to the Prince of Hearts, a dangerous and fickle Fate famed for his heart that is waiting to be revived by his one true love-and his potentially lethal kisses. Despite inheriting a steady trust in magic, belief in her late mother’s homeland of the mystical North (where fantastical creatures live), and philosophy of hope for the future, her dreams are dashed when Luc, her love, pledges to marry Marisol instead. When her father passes away, Evangeline is left with her cold stepmother and kind but distant stepsister, Marisol. Equally maddening is Kat’s damsel-in-distress status she is less a character and more a goal until the novel’s very end.Īn exciting start to a mostly well-conceived sci-fi series that has room for improvement.Īfter praying to a Fate for help, Evangeline discovers the dangerous world of magic. This thread blends with the Company’s corporate-intrigue plot points deliciously, but the book’s place as series opener lessens the development in some frustrating ways. Simon journeys through this dangerous land and struggles against a chosen-one narrative thrust upon him by the game’s indigenous inhabitants and players alike. The Otherworld itself is fairly standard fantasy stuff, with knights, dragons, witches, wizards, and cities.

The authors sketch a believable, not-too-distant future, envisioning the evolution of virtual reality as a truly seductive life choice. When Simon discovers that the Company’s plans are less than virtuous he smuggles himself into the virtual world in search of Kat. After a disastrous accident leaves Kat unresponsive in a hospital bed, the famous Company behind virtual-reality tech such as the Otherworld offers to plug Kat into a new world using experimental, state-of-the-art technology. Simon and Kat have been best friends since they were preteens, but following a series of peculiar events the two white teens have not spoken for several months. A delinquent teen searches a virtual world for his best friend.

Jason segel books