Seeker of Fate (Fate Series #2) by L.J. Kentowski

Cassandra has recovered from the grand revelations of the first book, but the shadows still haunt her. Particularly, they haunt her dreams –dreams about Hell and it being a home to her, calling to her demonic blood.

But she has her own reason for going to Hell – her father is still trapped. A demon, but one her mother loved and one she desperately needs back to help her mother deal with the major changes in her life. A demon who turned his back on Hell – especially since Cassie’s blood contains the power to change a demon back to a Guardian.

But the one person who can help her get to Hell is Caleb, the ex-demon she is not sure she can trust, is constantly trying to seduced her and has his own ultimatum – she can rescue her father but Hunter, the man, the demon, she loves must remain in Hell, no matter what tortures he is suffering.

This book, this world has such a gem of potential. The battle to save souls between the tempting and devious demons and the Guardians who, driven by prophetic dreams and visions, try to twist fate back the other way. The grand battle between the angels and the demons to save or recruit souls to fill their armies. It’s both epic and, because the battles are about personal visions, also deeply personal. It’s about a war on a grand scale and

What saddens me is we don’t really see any of the wider world, or this epic struggle or even the daily dealing with the struggle. Instead we focus on Cassandra and her personal aims – which entirely focuses on men. Either a man she loves, a man she’s attracted to, or her father.

I would quite like a story about her rescuing her father for her mother’s sake – but even then I’d appreciate more backstory than we got in the first or this book. Who is her father? Is he important in a grander scale? Is there a reason why we can be sure that he, as a demon, is going to be trustworthy? He is, after all, a demon. It could be more of a driving quest if we had seen more of Cassie’s mother, of how the missing father had affected them both, if we could get a little more of a sense of how important or resonant a mission this is for Cassie

Review: Guardian of Fate by LJ Kentowski, Book 1 of the Fates Series

Cassandra is a Guardian, her job is to save human souls. Demons, shadows, stalk humanity, targeting people, hunting them down and then killing them in perceived accidents, their souls then descend to sheol – hell – where they are enslaved as the demons prepare for their war against heaven.

Cassandra saves those souls, her visions guide her to the targeted humans and give her the chance to change things, to push the victim away from the crashing car, to pull them out of danger, to save them from the shadow-manipulated chance that would kill them.

But her life just got a lot more complicated. The Shadows have changed their ways of working and a new threat is targeting the humans in her visions. Worse, she has come to the attention of a different form of demon – and these Seekers don’t hunt humans, they hunt Guardians. And Cassandra, with her newly revealed ancestry and bloodline is a prime target for them.

Her life uprooted, she has to decide what to do – and which of the disturbingly attractive and oddly compelling new men in her life to trust all the while being hunted by demons and discovering that everyone around her was keeping secrets from her – including exactly what she is.

Let’s start with some of the problems I had with this book

I don’t particularly like Cassandra, the protagonist. She talks like a strong, independent woman and a decent protagonist – but she doesn’t act like one all the time. Part of that is the circumstances she’s in – her whole world has changed, everyone she knew was keeping secrets from her, she’s learned whole new things about her life, her family and even what she is and has had her life threatened on a regular basis. Given the circumstances, it’s reasonable for her to be a bit shocked and lost – so her crying, even fainting, and running around following other people’s plans are not bad things – but because I haven’t seen her in any other context yet, this is what I see. A woman who cries in emotional stress, isn’t very proactive and tends to follow other people’s plans and leads.

Her whole relationship with Hunter is fraught. From the very first moment they met, Hunter was pushy. And that quickly escalated from pushy to outright molestation – repeatedly touching her when she firmly said no. Putting his hand on her thigh, on her bottom, even undressing her when she fainted. He repeatedly forces kisses on her when she says no and in one memorable scene tries to force his tongue in her mouth while she firmly keeps her jaws closed.