In the past, I liked Veronica Roth, but her works have always been hit or miss with me. However with CHOSEN ONES, she definitely showed off her writing chomps. I like the trend of traditionally YA authors diving into the Adult fiction scene. I enjoyed the characters, the plot, and the subverted tropes of "the chosen ones." Her worldbuilding was fantastic. I hope she gives us more books from this age category.

This story took me on a wild ride. The beginning was kind of slow for me, and I was a little confused at first, but once I got into Sloane’s story, I was hooked.

While Sloane is one of the Chosen Ones, she is incredibly flawed. She isn’t comfortable with either her power or life after the defeat of the Dark One. She tries to do what she is supposed to do, but really just wants to be left alone.

We briefly meet all of the remaining Chosen Ones, though only get a deeper look at Matt and Esther, and even that is through Sloane’s eyes. And while Sloane would rather avoid magic and work through things on her own, both Matt and Esther embrace magic, embrace the life of being Chosen, and don’t understand Sloane’s trauma.

When the three face a new battle, their difference of opinion divides them, allying Matt and Esther with people in power, while Sloane finally finds someone who understands and accepts her in Mox, a questionable outsider. Sloane has to rethink all of her preconceived notions about her past and her own power and she tries to save the world.

I loved Sloane, flawed though she is, and really enjoyed the way her character developed throughout the story. I thought the ending was perfect and am interested in seeing where things go in the next book of the series.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through Net Galley and the publisher {Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt} in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I requested this from Netgalley because I recognized the author’s name but could not think of what she wrote. (It was the Divergent series!) This is her first novel “for adults” , but it still reads very much like a YA novel with slightly older characters. I almost quit reading multiple times during the first 20%, but kept going in hopes it would get better. Every time I was about to put it down something just interesting enough would happen that I kept going in optimism. It felt like the author had created these interesting characters and then did nothing with them. The book takes place 10 years after the main group of characters saves the world, but of the allusions to things that had happened a decade before didn’t feel like slowly revealing backstory, but like I’d missed the first book in a trilogy and was trying to start with the second. And then… around 30% in something totally absurd happens. I read one more chapter before I realized I was just hate reading at that point and finally gave up. I very rarely do not finish a book, but this is going to remain forever at 35% unless I get very, very bored and decide to try again.

Title: Chosen Ones
Author: Veronica Roth
Pub. Date: April 7, 2020
Rating: 4

This will be a spoiler free review. Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review. I split my reading of this book between audio and an eARC.

The first novel written for an adult audience by the mega-selling author of the Divergent franchise: five twenty-something heroes famous for saving the world when they were teenagers must face even greater demons—and reconsider what it means to be a hero . . . by destiny or by choice.

This has been sitting on my NG shelf for a while now, so I opted to download the audiobook off Audible because I’ve been so damn busy.
I’d heard a lot of really good things and I’ve been a fan of everything else Veronica Roth has written. So needless to say, my hopes were a little high.

And I’ll be honest, I was a little bored at the beginning. I didn’t really like Sloane and I was really not a fan of the asshole reporter that interviews her at the beginning. I really wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but I knew it needed to give it a little more time. So, I did.

Then I understood the hype I’d seen around this book. I ended up really loving the way the story was told. I loved how the formal documents/documentation interviews of what happened were included.
For the audiobook, I especially loved that it had a full cast and the characters really came to life. With the full cast, it felt more like having a movie playing in the background as I just listened to it.

I didn’t see a bunch of the little plot twists coming, but I definitely had my suspicions about the big one. I liked that I was right and found the ending to be enjoyable, but also a little anticlimactic. The middle of this book was fantastic. The plot was engaging and fun, the character arcs and development had me caring so much and all in my feels – Sloane’s journey, phew. I loved that this was a fresh take on the whole trope of Chosen Ones and how within each of them – Sloan, Matt, Albie, Ines and Esther – we see various consequences and coping mechanisms for dealing with everything they had to go through.

I loved the background information we got in the form of the formal documents/documentation interviews. I thought that it added a nice touch, and was an interesting and unique way of giving the necessary information.
Overall, this book is great. I really enjoyed it and I’m so glad that it lived up to the hype I’d heard about it. I’m really interested in seeing what Veronica Roth does with book 2 of this series. Chosen Ones definitely reads as a standalone, but I enjoyed it enough that revisiting this world (assuming we are back with Sloane and Co.). If you’re looking for something fun and new to read, then I’d definitely check this out!

If you have done something extraordinary in your life, that classifies you as a hero, what’s next, where can you go from there? Can you go ahead as an ordinary person? How will you find something to look forward to? Some can do it, some will be stuck in the moment. For some this moment might not be the moment of life or death, it can just be a moment when something that they waited a long time has finally happened.

Chosen Ones is about young people who have saved the world from unknown evil, and now they are heroes, but they do not want to be heroes, they want to be just ordinary young people. And then they are pulled out of their own world and into a parallel world which has magic and paranormal creatures. And once again, they have to save the world or ...
The best way to summon this book is - take Sylvain Neuvel’s Themis file series, Harry Potter series, Carnival Row AND Divergent and you have this book.

Good read, but not the adult fantasy book, that was promised.

What another great book from Veronica Roth! I’ve read previous books from this author and really enjoyed them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was just as good as those. I enjoyed the story and the characters were very well written.

I really enjoyed the gritty look at what it means to be THAT famous, a true Chosen One, who had changed the world. How it changes a person to be so well known. How once you stop trying desperately to save the world, what are you left with, what do you desire? It did feel like I kept waiting for something to happen, to understand the next piece of what was going to happen. I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley, thank you to them. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book challenged me so much, in the best way possible. I’m so grateful to have had a chance to read an advanced copy.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you for a copy of this, unfortunately, the font was not good and I could not read this so I will not be reviewing.

Chosen ones!

What can I say, I just love everything that Veronica Roth writes and this book is no exception. I had it preordered before I even knew what it was about!

This is a must have like all the Veronica Roth books before it. It has amazing characters, great world building, and all the adventure I needed while I was stuck at home during quarantine.

Must read!

I received a complimentary copy of Chosen Ones through NetGalley so I could share my review with you!

Ten years ago, five teens were selected by a shadowy government agency to stop a great evil from overtaking the world. Fortunately for humanity, they succeeded. Unfortunately for the teens, they now have to deal with adult life along with their past traumas. Sloane, Ines, Matt, Esther, and Albie once banded together to stop the Dark One, but now they have moved on to fairly normal lives as semi-celebrities. All of them, that is, except for Sloane, who could never quite escape her haunting fears. When tragedy strikes on the tenth anniversary of their victory over the Dark One, the chosen ones are forced to confront the reality that the world isn’t as “saved” as they might’ve liked to have believed.

You can get your copy of Chosen Ones now!

When I heard that Veronica Roth was writing a story about the lives that heroes leave after saving the world, I knew that I needed to read it! I can’t help but fall in love with superhero stories, but Chosen Ones brought a depth and complexity that I wasn’t expecting at first glance. Sloane deals with the sort of intense trauma that would realistically follow a teenager after saving the world, creating a more realistic narrative about what being a hero means in the long run.

My Recommendations-
If you love superheroes but prefer stories with a more mature tone, you won’t want to miss out on Chosen Ones! As someone who just finished rewatching the Umbrella Academy (again), I thought this was the ideal read! It had elements of a superhero story with the grit of real humanity interwoven into every page.

Great blend of sci-fi and fantasy elements. It was action packed and a lot of fun. Bring on book two!

I LOVED The divergent Series, and was super excited to read The Chosen Ones, Roth's first adult novel. I was not disappointed. This book captivated me from page one, the way you get inside of the heads of each of the Chosen ones enticed me to the end. The intensity of the experience these people have been through can really take your breath away when you, as the reader, tries to fathom how these characters made it where they are. A lovely thriller!!

It's not you Roth, it's me.

I didn't really like Divergent, but whatever, a new series is a new chance for a first impression. But I'm left thinking this book is for someone else.

Ideas feel thrown at me... "Here, a thing happened, now feel THIS way about it!"

If you like that style of writing, you'll like this. Nothing stands out as really bad, just not for me.

**I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Veronica Roth definitely has a style. So if you liked any of her other books, you will enjoy this one too. This fun read has three parts to it. Part One is mostly background, character establishment and some good world-building. The bad guy is called The Dark One and the heroes have magic. In Part Two, the heroes travel to another dimension that has their own Dark One. In Part Three, the heroes have to decide how to save all the worlds.

Chosen Ones follows a group of young teens as they recount their experience defeating a being who was terrorizing the country. Would highly recommend this book!

I was a little iffy because I hated the was Divergent ended and of course, I'm going to think of that series when I Veronica Roth, but I really enjoyed it!!

I was really excited about this book but I found that I could not really get into it. It has a great premise but I found the pacing to be a bit too slow for me. Other readers will enjoy it for sure though.

I wanted to LOVE this one.
As a huge fan of the Divergent series, both my teen and I were so thrilled when I was approved for this title, but it just didn’t work for either of us. I thought it was just the wrong timing for me or something, so I let him read it as well, and he felt much the same as I did.

It was slow to get there, and as a little bit longer of a title, and knowing it was written to be a series I just didn’t see what was taking so long to get there. I probably would have given up on it, if I didn’t so badly want to enjoy it. I’m sure we will read book two, to see if it gets any better, but we were both just left wanting something MORE.