Unchosen ~ Michele Vail (earc) Blog Tour - Review, Dream Cast, Giveaway

Giveaway & Tour Schedule below Dream Cast & Jump/Cut

Unchosen (The Reaper Diaries #2)
A Freman Publication
October 29, 2013
add to Goodreads/buy for Kindle/or Nook


Unchosen is Book 2 in the Reaper Diaries series - for my review of Book 1, Undeadly, click here

I thought the worst of my reaper training was behind me… turns out I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Molly Bartolucci has done a lot of growing up but after being accused of using illegal magic at her school for necromancers, reaper-in-training Molly is treading lightly. As the destined leader of Anubis’s Chosen, she needs to study hard, train harder, and stay out of trouble.

Uh, right.

It doesn’t help that she’s feeling more than academic about her melt-your-bones hot reaping instructor, Rath. And if her relationship drama isn’t enough to drive her over the edge, she has to deal with mother issues, nosy little sisters, suspicious friends, and an unnamed force stalking her at school.

Then her family is attacked, and her bio-dad ends up comatose in the hospital. Now, Molly has to uncover who’s trying to hurt her loved ones—and all without the help of Anubis.

Unchosen begins with a brief recap of the way things work in The Reaper Diaries series, a 'What You Should Know Already' of the reapers, of necromancers abilities. That little refresher is nice and does bring you back into the action a bit, but getting a handle on the plot again is a bit harder.

The story picks up soon after Undeadly, the first novel, ended and we see the repercussions for Molly of what happened then as well as what follows. There's just enough mentioned either by Molly, in her thoughts, or in conversations she has to get a general picture of what happened if you've forgotten some of Undeadly (I had).

The relationships introduced and established in the series opener are continued in this follow-up novel. Clarissa, the girl at school who's shaping up to be Molly's nemesis is, of course, back - as is their friction. Also back are Rath, the reaper who's training Molly, the one whose good looks she can't deny and her grandparents, the wealthy ones she's not quite sure how to handle.

Molly's struggle to handle it all becomes even tougher when her family is attacked and it's suddenly not just studying enough and figuring Rath out that are her top concerns. Now she has to keep her family and herself safe, as well. All while not neglecting her friends so much that she loses them.

Unchosen was a good bridge book. Which is to say that some big things happened or were discovered in the first novel and this book seems to have set it up for the same to happen in the third. There wasn't as much action or unveiling as I had hoped for, though. The characters learned and uncovered things that will make serious action in the third book possible. Or so I hope.

While I do wish the characters had been a bit more developed, I liked what we got to see in Unchosen.  I enjoy Molly's friends, Ally and Rath and would love to see more of who they are, more background on them. We saw some of that with Ally and one of Molly's friends, in particular, this time and I enjoyed that glimpse into their characters.

I'm anxious to see where Book 3, Unbroken, takes things, where the story goes.


Rating: 6/10


review copy received thanks to Michele Vail and FFBC Tours





  Dream Cast:

Liana Liberato as Molly Bartolucci

Stefanie Scott as Ally Bartolucci

Douglas Booth as Rath

Helen Mirren as Sandra

Zoey Deutch as Clarissa

Lena Headey as Miss Chiles

I was thinking of a blend of the Mean Girls girls and Amanda Bynes' character in Easy A for Clarissa - I think Zoey Deutch could manage that pretty well.

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About author Michele Vail:
Michele Vail writes young adult paranormal fiction about zombies and reapers. The Reaper Diaries is set in present day Nevada in a world where ancient Egyptian religion and necromancer magic is real and part of every day life. Oh, and there are zombies. Lots and lots of zombies.

Michele likes reading, dogs, cats, board games, ghost-hunting shows, and Halloween. She believes in magic, in the impossible, and in the restorative powers of chocolate. Michele lives happily-ever-after with her Viking husband in the Pacific Northwest.

find Michele on the internet:
Website / The Reaper Diaries Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook / Google + / Youtube

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tour stop and review copy of Unchoasen thanks to
The Fantastic Flying Book Club Blog Tours.