THE DETAILS:
Pages: 368
Genre: Teenage Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: October 2011
RRP: $24.99
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Recieved from Publisher
Both books written with help from Elise Allen
THE PLOT:
Sage may be gone, but he's far from forgotten. Clea Raymond believes her soulmate is lost forever, and it rips her apart. Then strange signs and dreams point to a way she can possibly win him back. To succeed, she'll have to put her faith in her once-best-friend Ben, the one person who betrayed her the worst. As Clea, Ben, and Clea's other best friend Rayna follow a dangerous and mysterious trail across the globe to reach Sage, all their loyalties will be tested. Clea herself will face the worst choice – she'll have a chance to save Sage, but only by betraying the very people she always loved most. With Sage's immortal soul in the balance, whatever Clea decides will change her life forever.
THE REVIEW:
Sequels are sometimes neccessary, but often come with high expectations and dissapoint. Hilary Duff's 'Devoted' is such a case, yet it is still worth a read to find out what happens next in the Clea-Sage-Ben love triangle. For me I think part of the dissapointment was formed by the discover that these books were not written completely by Duff herself...
This is where the loath for celebrity writers comes in. I don't normally like books wriiten by celebrity writers because they tend to be somewhat vain and autibiographical or lacking in vocabulary. I really enjoyed the first book 'Elixir' because it had none of this. However, I am a little dissapointed to discover that 'Devoted' was not a lone achievment and that Duff had help. I'm not entirely sure on whether she had help with the first book either, but it was not noted. I think it's great that she had someone to help her because then nobody can say that it was dumb or badly written, but I wish that more credit was given to the supposed Elise Allen for her work in the series.
As for the book itself i found that the storyline became a little more farfetched. Obviously it's a bit weird to say that about a fantasy book where the limits are endless, but I'm talking more about how the characters acted. Clea's character for example gave up easily. She dismissed thoughts too easily and it made the book more predictable. She was unrealisticly naive. Clea wasn't the only character that acted like this.
I thought the new characters in the book added an interesting twist to the story. It explored many things about the theme of immortality that other books haven't really gone much into. Like whether or not immortality wears off and how does living for a long time effect your sanity or morals... I loved exploring these things. It really showed what makes heroes heroic and villans evil.
Apart from new characters this book also encounters some new and interesting places and perspectives. We learnt the other sides to the story and foundd out exactly why there are people out there trying to destroy the elixir. I also thought it was interesting how people changed their motives because in most books I have read people seem to stick to one motive.
Overall I gave this book 3/5 Stars. Even though it explored a whole lot of new things 'Devoted' dragged on a bit and didn't fill the shoes that was 'Elixir'. I was also a little dissapointed at the realisation that Hilary Duff didn't write these books by herself. If a third book were to come out I would probably still have a go.
Read Review: Here
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Natalie
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