Customer Reviews

Fate (My Blood Approves, Book 2)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This refers to the Kindle edition of this book. I cannot speak about the hard-copy version as I have not seen it. First off, let me say that I love the story line in this series. The characters are great. It's entertaining, fairly fast-paced, and has kept me wanting more from the word "go." If it were just the STORY LINE of the book I was reviewing, I would have given it five stars.

That being said, I almost stopped reading about 1/4 of the way through the FIRST book. The grammatical errors, TERRIBLE sentence structure, jumping from first-person to third-person within the same paragraph, poor proof-reading, and poor editing were enough to drive me insane!!!!!!!!!!!! It gets worse in the second book and at least through the fourth book, since that's all that I've read so far. Don't get me wrong... my spelling is not always perfect, but just using spell/grammar check on this would have helped tremendously!!! I just am one of the people who happens to believe that a book is a complete package. The story is just part of that package. In order for it to be complete, everyone involved in creating said package has to have done his/her job to the best of his/her ability. This just is not the case with this series. Given two days and a red pen, this book/series would have been soooooooo much more readable!

We'll this is the second book in the "My Blood Approves Series". Alice is getting use to her new life, sort of. After Peter "almost" killing her and Jack "almost" telling her that he loves her - she is dealing.

Jack starts to realize that he is in love with Alice after he found out that Peter has a claim on her. (Always count on a boy to realize their feelings for a girl when their territory gets threatened). Anyways...the big sucky part is that Jack and Alice can't be together because her "blood bond" dictates that she belongs with Peter and Peter has the right to kill her and Jack if Jack gets too friendly with Alice. This is really rough for Alice because her body tells her she belongs with Peter but her heart belongs to Jack but they can't give into each other. And the really sucky part is - Peter doesn't want her - but he can still kill them if the wants to and apparently he will because it is vampire nature.

I can't really go into much more of the books because that would give a lot away. (Be careful of the following reviews because they share spoilers that I wish they didn't share - kinda ruined it for me - just a little but I survived and read on).

The one thing I will say is that Alice feels like she is not very loved in this book, and with good reason in my opinion. Things happen to make her feel alienated from her family and her new vampire friends. Some of the reviews made it seem like the book was a big downer - so I expected not to like it. Well, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it as much as I did.

Again - another great book in this series!!! Now I am off to go read "Flutter", the next book in the series.

I came across Amanda Hocking whilst browsing for a cheap book to read. I was hooked instantly. My cheap discovery led to buying all of her books within a couple of days, which I might add was still a cheap purchase in total. This girl can write. Yes there are a few editing errors within the book but the storyline totally forgives this and after discovering that Amanda Hocking is self published, who cares about a few errors. This girl deserves all the success that is coming to her and I totally believe its coming.

The book itself is worth the leap of faith to read if you love or even just like a little bit of YA Paranormal or Vampire series then jump on board with this, I'm not going to give away any of the storyline as I find too many reviews do this. Take the chance, you'll love it and you'll love every book that follows, leaving you in suspense for more. Once you finish with this book make sure you check out her other books, I didn't think they would be to my liking but was hooked with them all.

Addictive reading does not explain it.

Having finished the book last night, I needed to sit on the story for a while and really consider what I'd just read. And the simplest answer I could form was something amazing; the blatant answer would be phenomenal. In the second title in Amanda Hocking's My Blood Approves series of books, the story immediately twists into a more serious and darker tale for the book's heroine, Alice Bonham, as her 'future plans' accidentally go awry and the stakes are raised to an entirely new level.

In the first book, Alice meets Jack Townsend and his charming family, who happen to be rich and commendable folks in the neighborhood. It doesn't take long to realize that Jack and the Townsends are vampires. Alice knows that she wants to become a vampire, but her obligations to her younger brother, Milo, keep her from acting so hastily. She inevitably falls in love with Jack, only to run into a monumental complication named Peter, Jack's older brother. In the second book, our leading lady finds out just what it means to become a vampire.

The second book is, in a nutshell, Alice deciding whether the path of a vampire is really the right path for her to take. She asks herself whether this is really the life she's meant to live, and these reflections are starkly exampled in metaphorical events that make her realize, for the very first time, that vampires aren't human. After this dawning revelation, Alice then understands for the first time that Jack and his family aren't human.

After she realizes that the Townsends are predators, new shades begins to unfold about the characters. We learn of patriarchal Ezra's past, and see that even now, although he behaves and acts pleasant for the most part, he has very cold and uncaring moments. In one sense, what semblance of humanity he's managed to hold onto cares very much for Alice; on the other hand, the vampire in him rises now and then, and cares little whether Alice lives or dies. This is the struggle for each member of the Townsend family, a duality that they struggle to control, and Alice has only scratched the surface as she continues to mindlessly provoke the demons within them.

This novel takes quite a huge leap from the chaste and tame themes of the first novel, and becomes much more mature and adult, from alcohol and date-rapists at high school parties, to the graphic gay club scene in which men and women act in ways 'only appropriate in pornography', to the sensual atmospheric vampire club V, teeming with 'Blood-Whores' and the book's secondary-protagonists, Lucian and Violet; two sexy, dark, and twisted vampires that are obsessed with Alice once they catch a whiff of her. The book effectively uses contrasts in characters and their actions to portray Alice's inner turmoil over her own decisions and the choices she's left with. Fate was not a title slapped across the cover for the sake of it; it shares a much deeper theme in this continuation of the first.

At this point in the series, Alice's character still hasn't grown much. She's still childish, naive, insensitive, and self-centered. One would argue that she was destined for the vampire's life for the simple fact that if she's still this immature at her age then she would definitely need the extra years to grow up. But sadly, once turned, a vampire does little, if any, growing. For the most part, they remain the same.

Although still unappreciated and avoided by Alice, Jane is still a presence in the book. Alice's sanctimonious nature rears its fangs in constant judgment of Jane's lifestyle of sex, drugs, and alcohol, but this is only because she does care on some level for Jane's well-being. Though at one point in the book Alice finally realizes what the reader clearly saw in the first novel; Jane's wild binges of debauchery are her way of dealing with pain. And yet, with this knowledge in her grasp, Alice still never questions just what pain and/or anger Jane harbors inside of her; she's too busy worrying about herself and her newfound family, the Townsends. Though near the end of the novel Alice begins to realize just what a friend she has in Jane when danger snaps at their heels, old habits die hard, and Jane's actions pale in comparison to the shade of shrew Alice can't seem to shake; a trait that she unfortunately picked up from her mother.

Alice's newly outed gay sixteen-year-old brother Milo is a dominant force in the story, and much of Fate revolves more around how her relationship with him has changed, and how it will continue to evolve. Milo is just finding himself, and although just as hotheaded as his sister, he also tends to be just as emotionally vulnerable as Alice. In the end, neither of them realized just how much they needed one another, and Alice wonders if she really would have been able to leave him behind after turning into a vampire.

Concerning the driving force behind the series, the Alice-Jack-Peter triangle, it has such tangible charisma that one can almost consider it a character in its own right. Alice's nurtured love for Jack is powerful, but her natured love for Peter still runs its course through her veins, no matter how much Jack disdains it. Peter seemingly doesn't want Alice, and so he leaves. But tragically, Jack and Alice still cannot consummate their love for each other as the bond between Peter and Alice is still strong, and if Jack so much as samples Alice, her blood will be sullied and Peter will instinctively slaughter them both mercilessly.

The reader is led to assume, once events begin to spark the climax, that the final bout will end deus ex machina fashion, but yet another twist of events leaves the reader in awe, craving what's on the next page. The problem: it's the end of the book!


Fate receives a stable 5-Stars for Amanda Hocking's ability to change the game and 'up the ante' while keeping all of the same rules in place. Not to mention that the humor is incredible; at one point Alice's mother accuses her of being on drugs, and threatens to have Alice tested for "Every drug known to man, is that clear?" to which Alice replies "Crystal!" - Am I the only one who finds that pun ingenious? I think not!

<3 <3 <3 this series!!! its one of my favorite reads! She writes books with great detail and keeps you guessing! some editing mistakes but nothing that doesnt make it worth the read! i have recommended it to all my friends and look forward to seeing her develop as a writer. Hopefully some day soon it will be her tales everyone is talking about!

I was enticed to purchase this title, as it was available on the Kindle for a very low price. Though I preferred the originality of the changeling series, this series succeeds in the realistic portrayal of a teenager's angst and growth. I did recognize some close similarities to the Twilight series (house of close vampire "relatives" who take on a loner girl with an amazing gift/power), but enjoyed the story line regardless.

The characters in the book are enjoyable. The tension of life's decisions is brought forward in a realistic manner. The character creation is done well enough to keep me reading the series. However, if an editor is being paid to find and fix grammar errors they ought to be FIRED! Reading over the errors is frustrating and has made me consider putting the book down and not reading future books in the series. But really, if you paid someone to edit these books you might as well have burned your money in the fireplace. So, hire someone with an eye for errors and the desire to produce a quality product for you!

Hi I bought these ebooks because the price was right but I cant say that they were that good! The story line was something like Twilight, and em' very confusing at times, she didnt know which guy to pick and she always wants to get into trouble, I havent finished the last one, but I only can give a rating of three stars, its not bad though, read the whole series in a week, on the last pages of the last book, its ok.

I absolutely loved My Blood Approves and could not put it down, and immediately ordered Fate. But now that I am finished I just feel underwhelmed and will not be continuing with this series, as much as I love the characters.

I am completely unimpressed with both Jack and Peter now that I've finished Fate. Jack is insanely immature (which kind of grosses me out in a way for some reason, def not a romantic character to me). And Peter has been completely ruined as the intense, brooding, demon riddled love interest he was originally meant to be. Suffice it to say the little bit of him we get in this book has rendered him impotent and just generally pathetic.

It is obvious the next book is going to be just a dragging of current situations (as far as the characters go) and honestly since I'm completely over Peter (who seemed to be the only interesting one anyway) I will find something better to read in my free time.

And jeesh, these books have more mistakes than a freshman english paper. Why weren't these books proofread and edited?

Really really wish things in this book had ended differently. I feel like the auther switched up her plans halfway through writing and the ending just completely left me cold.

Amazon recommended this series based on other purchases. I gave it a try and I do not recommend it. I read the first two books in this series and could not finish the third. The main characters are in a love triangle. There are plenty of teen angst declarations of the "I will die for you" variety but the characters are not developed in a way that makes the reader understand or care.
I think it would have been a lot better if more time had been spent developing the characters and less on how late everyone stayed up, how many classes were skipped and how much Red Bull was consumed.