By Alyson Noel. Grade: B

There’s still so much Daire Santos has to learn about being the last Soul Seeker….and about herself. As her magical training becomes more intense, so does her relationship with Dace. But when she learns that his connection to the evil Richter family goes far deeper than she ever imagined, she begins to question if love really can conquer all.

Dace is painfully aware that he wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the Richters’ dark magic—and now his brother Cade is determined to use his love for Daire against him.

Echo by Alyson Noel

Dace is willing to sacrifice anything to protect the girl he loves —including his own life. But will Daire allow it? And what if defeating Cade costs not only his life, but his soul too?

Echo is the second book in the Soul Seeker series and it follows on from Fated. In Fated, we met a sixteen year old girl called Daire who has never felt normal. After having a series of horrific nightmares of the dead, Daire’s mother believes there is something wrong with her daughter and sends her off to live with her Grandmother in a small village in New Mexico. Daire then comes to realise that she is a soul seeker; it is her jobs to look after mankind and destroy anyone who means to harm it. In New Mexico, she also encounters the twins Dace and Cade. Dace is the boy she is destined to be with and Cade is her sworn enemy.

 

Echo centres around Dace and Daire’s doomed relationship and Dace’s evil brother Cade, who wants to take over the world. Dace and Daire’s characters become darker as they must find a way to stop Cade before it’s too late, even if it means breaking the rules.

 

The books begins with Dace and Daire happy and in love, enjoying the intimacy of their new relationship. Alas, it’s short-lasted. Cade appears, stronger than ever, and Daire realizes it’s time to deal with the prophecy that brought them all together in the first place.

 

Close to the ending there is a battle scene, with lots of blood and killing. The ending was different than other paranormal books I’ve read and deserves some respect. We also hear a quick piece from Dace’s ex-girlfriend, which made for some interesting reading. The last revelation about Dace made for a killer ending.  Ah, I see I have piqued your curiosity. This book is good that way.

 

Unfortunately, the characterization left a lot to be desired. Daire was a bit annoying, and Dace was too self-centered for my liking. I didn’t enjoy Alyson Noel’s writing with its over-descriptive style and misused sentence fragments, but after getting into the story it became a little easier to handle and understand. The plot does make up for it, though, with its meandering twists and out of the blue moments. The pacing wasn’t too slow and the alternating POV’s of Daire and Dace made it interesting.

 

Overall I would give this book a B as it wasn’t something that I particularly enjoyed, but it had an interesting premise and seemed quite original.