Thank You for giving me the opportunity to read Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth. I am a huge fan of her Divergent series, and was so excited to receive this book from my wishlist. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this story. I found the pacing to be very slow. I struggled with connecting to the characters, and didn't find myself caring about them the way I needed to, in order to get wrapped up in their story. I was bored, and kept finding my mind drifting away from the plot, which made it difficult for me to follow along.

*Review to be posted on my blog 8/6/20*

**2.5 STARS**

Breakdown:
My Attention: struggled

World Building: urban fantasy, Chicago

Writing Style: writing flows well, I just thought the beginning was hard to get into because it takes the form of an investigation/reports and that usually kills my interest

Bringing the Heat: 🔥

Crazy in Love: nope

Creativity: ten years ago, there were 5 chosen ones who fought of the Dark One…here they are on the anniversary still dealing with the PTSD of what took place in that fight

Mood: not feeling it

Triggers: violence, PTSD, suicide

My Takeaway: Heroes can come out scarred.

I Liked:
*Sloane is an interesting, morally grey, character – she is spunky, blunt and angry. She’s dealing with a lot of stuff and mostly because she was one of the chosen ones 10 years who fought the Dark One. And it messed her up. She knows it messed her up even though her boyfriend Matt says this side of her, is “not” her. I’m glad we got into her head and thoughts.

*The premise about what happens to the heroes after they defeat the bad guy, is an awesome topic to explore. Some of them move on, some of them suffer from PTSD and don’t know how to accept who they are after what happened. I really liked how mental health issues were on display in this story.

*On top of the PTSD, these chosen ones became “celebrities” whether they wanted to be or not. They saved the world and was thrown into the spotlight. Matt navigated fame expertly, but Sloane despises it. I like how the author brought to light the issues heroes would have to deal with after saving the world.

*This story is imaginative and different. I appreciate that the story is thought-provoking.

Random Notes:
*This is an adult fiction book but for me it reads like NA (New Adult) or even could pass for YA at times.

*Sci-Fi/Fantasy is a challenging genre for me to delve into especially when there are a lot of flashbacks. It didn’t help me that the story unraveled slowly. The writing is good but it just didn’t hook me with the flashbacks.

*I couldn’t connect with any of the characters.

*Definitely a mood read kind of book for me – and I think I was in the wrong mood for this.

Final Thoughts:
Overall, this wasn’t for me. I’m a fan of the author’s previous work but this one was too slow for me and the flashbacks didn’t engage me. I did enjoy how the story explored how heroes deal with the aftermath of saving the world. I think fans of sci-fi will enjoy this one a lot.

Veronica Roth writes some really great strong female leads. I love the fact that sometimes she makes them hard to like and even unapologetically hard to love.

Sloane, strong, flawed, scarred, coming from a tough family life, still reeling from her battles and interactions with the Dark One finds herself going through the motions of normal life as much as possible, to the point that she is carried away on a tide of pretend normalcy.

Matt, THE Chosen one, is the designated leader of the group of five Chosen Ones. He is Sloane’s live in boyfriend, the diplomat in the group that trades on his demeanor and celebrity.

Esther, Insta influencer who left the group to care for her sick mother after the defeat of the Dark One doesn’t really bring much to the story other than fashion sense.

Inez, has a very, very small role in the story, to the point that she is entirely forgettable.

Albie, Sloane’s one true friend, was captured with Sloane and tortured at the hands of the Dark One, returned to normalcy with a drug addiction. The story begins in earnest once Albie takes his own life but his entanglement with Sloan and the Dark One continues to be revealed throughout.

Sloane can see that there is more to their story than they have been told by their handlers and is becoming more disenchanted the more she learns. Even thought everything she learns through her FOIA requests sickens her and yet, she can't stop reading them.

When a rift in dimensions sends the heroes into a parallel dimension, they find that those of them that are left have to battle another Dark One in order to save this dimension.

The identity of the supposed Dark One was immediately clear to me, the Chosen One in the new dimension was incredibly likable, as were his friends.

The pacing was a little slow and plodding at points. There is great setup for additional books in the series, holes to be filled both in the backstories of the characters, the ancillary happenings and the future.
Had the story been told in the 1st person or dueling 1st person perspectives, it would have added some depth to the story.

Overall, a good read, some great characters, some good witty repartee but a few less characters and some tighter pacing would have made this great.

3.5 Stars.

Based on the reviews I was a little nervous about reading this and liking it. I ended up enjoying this quite a lot. Caught my attention right away and kept it for almost the whole story.
I loved that it wasn't just your normal story about how a group of people defeated a bad guy, but dealt with the afterwards of it.

Enjoyable story with magic, battles and even Zombies! Great characters and world building. A fine fantasy that echoes our world and times.

This was a fabulous read. I enjoy Veronica Roth immensely and found this was matched up well with her previous writings. Definitely a must read and a book I would own.

The Chosen Ones is a great book. It took turns that I never saw coming. It started out with not quite knowing what the plot was going to unfold into, but it took a turn I was pleasantly surprised with. The characters are well developed, especially for a book one and I can still see the opportunity for growth as the story continues. If you are a fan of Roth's, I highly recommend The Chosen Ones. 4.5 stars

Author #Veronica Roth has her first adult novel ‘Chosen Ones’. Back is Sloane along with Matt, Ines, Esther and Alvie. Those that have followed the Divergent series will enjoy this novel. Older and faced with new problems but characters the audience has grown to love this novel is a wonderful read.
Thank you,
#Netgalley, #Veronica Roth and #Huffington Post

Unappealing characters and storyline. Hard to suspend belief and very painful to read. Not worth a tight budget.

I have always admired Veronica's work and writing. I have love Divergent dearly, and I have defended it since I read them, so when HMH granted my wish to read this book in exchange for an honest review, I felt excited to read myself to sleep.

When it comes to Chosen Ones, I was excited to read it. The book was entertaining, but something didn't fully click with me. Her writing is incredible, but sometimes it was a bit difficult to keep up with the novel. One moment, there are scenes of action, and then you "flip" the page, and the pace changed so much that you have to go back to make sure you understand what is happening.

An element that I think is distracting are the poems, stories, letters, and pieces of other "books" in between the main story, I scan through them as most of them did not add much value to the story.

The author wrote this book intending to have you hooked since the beginning. Veronica's decision to narrate the story of the heroes 10 years after they fought is intriguing because you want to know what the mystery is, or what messed them up so much, but, again, Roth changes the story-line and narrates the story in another timeline. Once in this new timeline and pace, I find the story to give some disappointing and predictable turns.

Besides this, I hold my ground saying this book is entertaining and with some potential. I am not sure how the sequel will turn out, but I will love to see it for myself.

An incredibly destructive force randomly attacks the earth until five young people defeat it. But did they? Ten years later, they remain unsettled and tragedy strikes. They find themselves in a new world, but who can they trust?

Veronica Roth has joined the ranks of YA authors moving into the adult market. Her latest novel Chosen Ones is described as follows: A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.

Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended.
I begged for this book based on that description, what an exciting premise! I was happy to get a review copy and days later I won a print copy from the publisher (so double thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
To start, I was immediately drawn into the storyline. Sloane, one of the chosen ones, is angry and empty ten years after helping defeat the Dark One, even as an angry character though, I found her intriguing and relatable. She lived through experiences that left her with significant trauma and—along with the other Chosen Ones—is now facing a public resurgence in interest about her. With the ten-year anniversary of the battle against the Dark One coming up, those who fought him have come together again, but one is going to die and the rest are about to be thrust into a situation they could never have imagined.
Part one was so full of emotion and was easily lost in my empathy for these characters and what their lives have become since being forced to defend the world. Part two for me, was a bit of a letdown. There was a drastic change in the story line, and it turned into a very different book. I’m not a huge sci-fi fan (if that’s a spoiler—sorry) and this had a definite sci-fi feel for me starting in part two. The overall story was still unique and there were several intense moments, but it didn’t progress at a pace that’s as fast as I would have liked. The one thing I found completely unique and frightening were the Drains, used by the Dark One.
Overall, Chosen Ones was engaging and unique, but didn’t give me the impact I’d hoped for.

*I received a copy of Chosen Ones from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

AAAAAAAAAA I LOVED THIS BOOK! The premise was SO INTERESTING and I was so intrigued by every character! I really love the dynamics and the story, and it felt like such an unusual character study for something that I hadn’t really seen much of in the past. My only real complaint is that I wish it had been MORE character study, and the plot was a teensy bit predictable, but the characters and their situations made up for that predictability a thousand fold.

The Chosen Ones was a little hard for me to get into but once the story started moving, I really enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing what comes in the next one.

<i>"...written for an adult audience..."</i>

I genuinely fail to see how this is written for an adult audience, which was basically the biggest selling point for me. At times I had to remind myself that these characters are adults, and not teens dealing with the usual tropes of magic, evil, world domination and the likes of which I've read one too many times.

Reading big YA names trying their hand at NA/Adult is always something I'm into, especially when I have read their YA books, I just want to see if the same element I loved in their books transfers to a more "adult" audience.

I didn't in this case? For a mature YA that gives no fucks, this was an okay read, super slow and it keeps on dragging and dragging until it reaches a crescendo but the road to that is a very long one to be honest. I read this is parts over the course of a few months and that should tell you all you need to know.

(I'm still surprised this is the final cover, I thought it was a fancy ARC cover for Netgalley, definitely not the final one but oh well.)

I really tried with this book, I thoroughly enjoyed the Divergent series, but this book was really slow paced, and found myself not wanting to pick it up each time.

I didn't really connect with the characters and found them a bit dull, they were all dealing with various issues ten years after "the dark one"

I didn't like the style of writing (it went back to a letter style and just put me off)

In the end I had to walk away, Having said that, I will try and pick it up again in the future - maybe I've just read too many fast paced thrillers recently and this one just slowed things down a little too much for me.

Turning the 'Chosen One' trope on its head, Roth was able to create a universe exploring the dark side of having defeated a major villain and how someone might deal with the fallout. The world-building was done amazingly well, combining urban fantasy and science fiction (alternate universes). At the beginning I found myself wanting more of the original defeat of the Dark One, but as the story gained steam I was pulled further into Sloane's story. Sloane showcased the gritter side of human personality, and her struggles were humanizing. I wanted the best for her, and for Mox.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this advance copy.

I had never read anything by Veronica Roth before but I have heard great things about her books so i decided to give this one a try, especially since it was her first adult book. I enjoyed the more adult themes and the ideas interested me a lot but overall, I just wasn't very impressed. It wasn't bad but was very slow and hard for me to get into and not very memorable.

E-book/New Adult Fantasy: I want to thank NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this in lieu of an honest review because it really kept my interest.

I didn’t like Divergent. I can’t even tell you how it ended, and no, I haven’t seen the movie. But like Twilight, which I didn’t like, I loved The Host. This was the same way. I didn’t love it, but I really sympathized with the characters. The plot was one that I guessed, but I still wanted to see how it all ended.

When I first started it, the setting and characters were pretty much cartoons in my head, but by the end, it was more like City of Bones: A dark, strange world with those who know how to wield their magic and those who do not. If you’ve ever watch Buffy and then Angel, you will understand the subplot of young adult going to new adult and then seeing that the world is not black and white, but gray. Sloan has to get to this point. Out of five teenagers who saved the world, two of them still have a bad case of PTSD. Sloan is the “it girl” who saved the world and just cannot get it together. She is hounded by the public (think JFK Jr. trying to leave his apartment) and not only has no usable skills, but doesn’t want to learn. Haunted by nightmares of the battles with no family left, she is a lost soul whose only identity is her Ken boyfriend & compatriot. Now what? Well, that is the other 95% of the book.

I finished it in just a few days. I am hoping this will be my new City of Bones and Infernal Devices that I was so obsessed with.

Veronica Roth's Chosen Ones could best be described as a thriller/fantasy/SyFy chimera. What happens to our heroes after the villain is vanquished and the curtains come down? In this book, Sloane Andrews (named for Ferris Bueller's girlfriend) deals with PTSD and grief in the (10) years after her moment in the sun. She's still asking questions about why she was chosen, about Project Ringer, about her handler Bert, & her connection to a certain powerful artifact. Sloane's life is clearly coming towards a boiling point, as she increasingly resists the social pressures to behave as expected of a world hero.

From 2004 until 2010, the world was in chaos & being terrorized by a mysterious villain known as the Dark Lord. A prophecy foretold (5) Chosen Ones; teenagers who will defeat the Dark One and save the world. They spent their formative years in relative isolation, training and fighting for their lives, and experiencing a lot of real trauma like the loss of their brothers and fathers. It took finding ancient weapons (in Sloane's case Kochei's Needle) to finally win the day. The (5) may have defeated the Dark One and saved the world, but some of them are barely keeping it together.

It's fair to say that the only (2) who seem normal, are team leader Matthew Weekes, and Esther Park who cultivated fame with her Insta! app. Albert Summers and Ines Mejia are tired of the constant celebrity status and have all but shuttered themselves off from the world. Sloane has to look at her life and the fact that the Dark One took an special interest in her, going as far as kidnapping her and making her choose who lives or who dies. Sloane and Matthew have been together for 10 years, but they're not exactly living the good life.

After one of the 5 dies too soon, she, Matthew, & Esther find themselves thrown into an alternate realm called Cyrielle where they once again are urged to help fight against this realms dark villain. The Drain is here which means the Dark One is very much still alive and not dead as the (5) thought for 10 years. Even though Sloane has a strong affinity for magic, she also remembers that her powers cost the lives of dozens of innocents. She doesn't take too kindly to Aelia or Nero who basically kidnapped them and brought her here. She also finds that fate has grabbed Sloane by the throat and won't let go anytime soon.

Chosen Ones examines the humanity behind heroism. It opens the back door and asks the reader to question what being a hero costs in a world that is shockingly similar to our own, but with a magical twist. Newspaper clippings, government documents, and other extracts break up chapters to share information that Sloane, the main character, couldn't provide without being too expository. I'm not sure why a second book is necessary, but apparently this series is far from over. There are some tricky surprises at the end of this book, so, maybe I'll read the sequel as well.