Customer Reviews

Storm of Visions (Hardcover BCE) (The Chosen Ones, 1)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

How is this book getting good reviews? Did I miss a few hundred pages? Seriously, what was this book? It's not a romance, it's not suspenseful really, it's not exciting or exceptionally paranormal... it's just sub-par all of the above. I'll be returning my copy on that 'great read guarentee' soon as I find the receipt.

I was REALLY excited for this new series - LOVE Dodd and my recent reads by her. But this? I will have forgotten it by morning. The set up of "others" and "chosen" is kinda cool... but honest to god nothing happens in this book. The heroine/hero already know they love each other. There is no real proof or tenderness or WHY they love each other outside the sheets thus making it not really 'romance' but mildly erotic. As for action - the whole plot line was a YAWN FEST. The 'chosen' don't do a dang thing!!!

I get that it's a new series, but I didn't feel like she was world building. I felt a lot of "blah blah blah, so what". Overall I was just really surprised because I thought I'd love this. It's just totally unremarkable and a "whatever" read. Too bad - I'm a romance, suspense, and paranormal fan...

Don't even get me started on the ending. it.was.so.obvious.

I loved Christina Dodd's last series (Darkness Chosen). I think part of the problem with Storm of Visions is that the story started with a poorly chosen scene not really relevant to and disconnected from the remainder of the story. I didn't like Caleb and found him one-dimensional for most of the story. Waiting until the last 1/10 of the book to give his backstory was too little too late. Given the main characters in her Darkness Chosen series, Caleb was not up to par. Nor do I think that Jacqueline was fleshed out enough. Even giving leeway for her youth, I think the story did not provide enough explanation / justification for her decision making and capitulation on matters she adamant against. I found her to be immature, selfish, and shallow. Story had very little romance, sex scenes were bland, and I didn't get much of a glimpse as to how the series would progress.

I did like the connection to the Darkness Chose series and look forward to what she does with Aleksi's story in this series. I am going to give the 2nd book in the series a chance but that will be the make it or break it for me.

Bottom line, what should have started with a bang was instead a whimper.

Long ago, in a village at the edge of a forest, there lived a young, gloriously beautiful woman. This woman thought so highly of herself, she decided she would only accept a mate worthy of her loveliness, and someone who was her equal in his masculine beauty. She found a splendid match in the handsome eldest son of a local lord--and as vain as they both were, they knew they would create babies as beautifully perfect as themselves. Well, within the year she was happily pregnant; and confident she would greatly please the lord's son when she presented him with a fine, strong baby boy.

But alas, that was not to be, she delivered instead a pair of scrawny twins--a boy and girl--who were not perfect at all. The boy's arms were terribly blemished with a red discoloring, and the girl had a mark in the palm of her hand that looked like an eye. Frightened and disgusted, the woman immediately decided these children would not do. So she got up from her bed and took the little babies into the forest where she discarded the boy deep in the woods, and tossed the girl into a flowing stream--then, without a backward glance, their heartless mother left the woods...

In that first moment of merciless abandonment the poor little babies' heart's stopped beating--they died--and then miraculously came back to life; though somehow changed. Instead of perishing as their mother intended, the children were endowed with extraordinary gifts... they became the first of the Abandoned Ones.

The boy was rescued by wanderers and taken to live in India, where he became a legend--for his gift was the amazing ability to create fire in the palm of his hand. As time passed he found 6 more abandoned children who had been given special gifts and together they formed --The Chosen Ones--a powerful force of good and "light' in a dark troubled world.

The girl was pulled from the water by evil witch--a disciple of the devil--who, after seeing the eye on the baby's hand, knew she was special and took her home to raise. But the witch tormented, starved and abused the child; and she learned anger and hatred. When the girl became a woman she had her first vision--the death of the witch by her hands--and learned she had the powerful psychic gift of a seer. After killing the witch, the devil appeared before her, and recognizing her gift, he promised her a place at his right hand if she went out into the world and gathered others like herself to do his evil work. The girl agreed. She found 6 more angry, abused or embittered forsaken children who also had special, powerful gifts; and together they formed--The Others.

Throughout history so the battle lines had been drawn between the Chosen Ones and the Others--each side using their special powers to fight for good or for evil...

Their struggle rages on today and the supreme test for a new untried league of Chosen Ones has begun; their mission is to use their unique gifts to courageously confront and vanquish the evil forces that flourish in our contemporary society. But the peril is great because the Devil's treacherous minions the Others are out there lurking in the shadows. They fanatically serve their evil master and won't hesitate to use their gifts to ruthlessly destroy anyone who stands in the way of the devil's complete world domination.
*****

And so it begins...
In her second undertaking into the paranormal romance genre, after her highly successful Darkness Chosen series, Christina Dodd again pens a fast paced, high stakes adventure that explores the ever fascinating conflict between the forces of Good and Evil. Set mainly in present day NYC, in her latest novel STORM OF VISIONS, the talented Ms. Dodd plunges readers headlong into a sinister, spellbinding and explosive tale of paranormal suspense that's intricately blended with a blazingly provocative, passionate and emotionally charged romance. This story kept me firmly on the edge of my seat and I'm delighted it's only the first book of her thrilling new series, The Chosen Ones, because it definitely left me wanting MORE.

It's hard writing a review for a paranormal suspense type book because most of the exciting "twist-n-turns" or "cliffhangers" you'd like to talk about are basically spoilers. And though there were many surprises in the book I could mention, I feel revealing them would ruin the momentum of the story for the reader. So I tried very hard not to do that in my review. Instead I wrote a summary of the beginning of the story to give people a good idea of the premise (because that's what I like in reviews) and also what I thought about the characters, writing and storyline.

The Story's heroine, Jacqueline Vargha is intelligent, physically fit, beautiful--and angry. She wants to choose her own path in life, but she was born with the mark of a seer--an eye--in the palm of her hand. It's one of the most powerful signs and something not seen since the first of the Abandoned Ones; possibly an indication she may be destined to become one of the greatest psychics the Chosen Ones have ever known. But adamantly denying her gift, Jacqueline's been on the run for a couple of years, though now the time has come for her to accept her responsibilities. She must confront her fears and the reasons for her anger, and recognize that her visions--and Caleb D'Angelo--are an inevitable part of her destiny.

The hero, Caleb D'Angelo shows the world a hard, intimidating, aggressive and dangerously tough exterior--a necessity in his work as a bodyguard--but he's also quite honorable, dependable and extremely protective of those he feels responsible for and loves. And, though he was at times domineering and heavy-handed with Jacqueline, I felt the gravity of their situation called for it. There was no doubt in my mind that Caleb loved her--and if necessary, would die to protect her.

I thought the main characters were very well written. Ms Dodd created two good, strong, compelling and relatable characters--realistically imperfect people--with a full range of human emotions, faults, failings, doubts and fears. And during the course of the story we see their growth as they become more emotionally resilient, wiser and willing to make concessions for the greater good. I really liked them both.

As with any series of this type there were several supporting characters introduced--all were extremely crucial to the development of storyline--and we're given a necessary and enlightening peek into their individual personas, temperaments and special abilities. However, I still felt the main focus of this book was on Jacqueline and Caleb, and their journey toward declaring their love. I also think Jacqueline will play a pivotal role in future stories and Caleb will continue to be her support and her anchor. She'll need his love to ground her; for the ultimate confrontation between darkness and light is on the horizon ... and a battle with the Devil is not for the faint of heart.

I loved the story and thought the plot was wonderfully executed; in my opinion the author effectively interlaces stirring romantic elements within a dynamic paranormal storyline for an altogether winning first installment. And lucky for us the release of book two Storm of Shadows: The Chosen Ones is just around the corner on 9/1/08.

Also recommended...Scent of Darkness (Darkness Chosen, Book 1), Touch of Darkness (Darkness Chosen, Book 2), Into the Shadow (Darkness Chosen, Book 3), and Into the Flame (Darkness Chosen, Book 4)

This is the first book in a new paranormal romance series by Christina Dodd, "The Chosen Ones." I thought the story line was interesting and shows promise for the series (I'd give that 4 stars) but I hated the romance between Jacqueline and Caleb (I'd give that 2 stars for an average of my 3 star rating). As a romance it fell far short of the author's historical romances, of which I am a big fan.

There are a couple reasons why the romance didn't work for me. First, as the first book in a series, there is back story introduction and a lot of new characters to introduce. There were seven members inducted as the new "class" of Chosen Ones plus Zusane (Jacqueline's mother and the seer of the Chosen Ones) and some other people connected to either the Chosen Ones or to Caleb. Covering all this material plus the other aspects of the Chosen Ones plot took most of the book, leaving very little for the relationship between the lovers and to making the reader identify with the heroine and fall in love with the hero. The other reason is that I hated the first "love" scene between Caleb and Jacqueline and that soured me on Caleb as a hero for much of the book. It was violent and too much like rape at the beginning for my comfort. After that bad start, Caleb takes Jacqueline across country more or less against her will. That she eventually agreed to become part of the Chosen Ones (and that it was for the good of the world) didn't diminish my dislike of Caleb being overbearing. Jacqueline isn't my idea of a great romantic heroine either. She spends much of her time obsessing on her mother and feeling inadequate. All of this combined to make their love not feel real to me. Maybe it will grow on me in the future books as I assume they will be involved in the whole series.

I didn't think I would like the story because I'm often annoyed by plots with too much "woo woo" in them. But the "woo woo" in this book was easier for me to handle than a lot of the paranormal adventures. The Chosen Ones each have a special paranormal ability and are forces for good in the world. Because so much of the book was spent on the Chosen Ones and the battle between good and evil, I found myself becoming much more interested in that part of the plot than the love story. By the end I was really wondering what was going to happen in the next book in the series. If the romance had lived up to the rest of the plot, I would have really enjoyed this book. If your expectations for the romance are not too high, you will like it more than I did. However, if you are thinking of reading this because you are a fan of the author's historical romances but don't much like paranormal stories, you may want to skip it.

Ultimately I decided the book was worth reading even if I didn't like the romance. I expect there will be 6 more books in the series to go with each member of the Chosen Ones. I'm looking forward to the next one (Storm of Shadows: The Chosen Ones) and hope the romance in that one is equal to the rest of the plot.

The Story
Children abandoned are given a mark of favor. The abandoned ones are separated into two groups, the chosen and the other. The chosen work for the good side, against evil and the other. The other are raised and steeped in evil. Jacqueline was adopted by the chosen ones seer. There is only one seer at a time. Jacqueline has always run from her gift, but the time for running is over. Every seven years there is seven new chosen ones entered into service. Disaster has struck and there is a traitor in the midst. Jacqueline must accept her gift and her love Caleb to find the traitor and save the remaining chosen ones.

Thoughts
I read the other reviews of this book, I was expecting something horrible, but I wanted to start at the beginning to understand the background info. I was pleasantly surprised. I liked this book. Jacqueline was a little whinny, but nothing so bad as to make me not like this book. The pace was perfect, I liked Caleb a lot. I like the other characters in this book too. The plots were interesting enough to keep my attention. I read this all in one setting. I really don't understand why it got such horrendous reviews. I know from other reviews its helpful to read from the beginning of this series to understand all the background stuff. The world building wasn't dry as it is in other books. I have no complaints really!

this book kept me captivated the entire time. i enjoyed that you didnt have to go trough all the crap of Jaqueline and Caleb getting to know one another. The story jumps right in and I loved the whole aspect of the storyline. I can't wait to read the rest of the series. I hope they are equally as entertaining and exciting as this one.

I loved the Darkness Chosen, so no surprise that I love the Chosen Ones! The author does an admirable job with "world building" and she managed to make it easy to remember a fairly large cast of characters. To be honest, the two romantic leads of Storm of Visions aren't my favs of the Chosen Ones, but this was a sexy start to the series. I think Wilder is supposed to be Alex Wilder's story (that would make sense anyway)...can't wait to finish the series!

I waited until Dodd was nearly done with the series (I think the last book is coming out this year) and then I started to re-read the first four books. And I am flying through them. Great characters, great setup. In especially this first book of the series, Dodd gives lots of fun details and descriptions and it's really helped me keep everyone straight and picture the action. Very fun!

Well, this was my first book by Christina Dood. I liked it. It took a minute or two to get into the book and realize what was going on. Ms. Dodd has another series, Darkness Chosen, and I've not read any of those either. In any case, I caught on and enjoyed the book. It was the first in the series and I'm not sure I will continue or not. I enjoyed the main characters in this book but did not connect with any of the secondary ones. The next book in the series will feature one of them. I wonder if maybe this book might be best as a stand alone....

I really enjoyed Christina Dodd's Wilder brothers series so I waited in anticipation for her new The Chosen Ones series. I just finished book 1, Storm of Visions, and it was just missing that dark fast-paced roller coaster excitement that her other series took me on. This was just average so I'm hoping that now that she has revealed all of the characters in this one and laid the foundation down that things will start to pick up with the next ones. In this one, introducing the secondary characters seemed to take up a good bit of the story and was distracting and took page length away from the romance between Caleb and Jacqueline. I'm hoping also that since introductions have been made and the back stories developed, we can get some more adventure with the next one otherwise I'm afraid this series, based on looking at other reviews, is going to fall flat. This book had a strong alpha male, typical of Dodd's stories, but other than at the very beginning of the story, the emotional intensity between hero and heroine was just not there. Dodd's other series had these strong, brooding, possessive almost stalkerish types that I kinda liked. One plus with the story was I was glad that she incorporated a Wilder character (Doug and Firebird's son), and I hope he gets his own story since I enjoyed that series so much. 4 stars!