BOOK REVIEW + Chapter 1 : Echo (The Soul Seekers #2) by Alyson Noel

"A rush of romance will sweep you away in this hauntingly mystical read. I'm already as addicted to Daire and Dace as I was to Ever and Damen!" –Justine magazine

She inherited a magical destiny—and a mission to stop a powerful family of dark sorcerers. She never expected to fall in love with one of them.

There’s still so much Daire Santos has to learn about being the last Soul Seeker….and about herself.  As her magical training becomes more intense, so does her relationship with Dace.  But when she learns that his connection to the evil Richter family goes far deeper than she ever imagined, she begins to question if love really can conquer all.

Dace is painfully aware that he wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the Richters’ dark magic—and now his brother Cade is determined to use his love for Daire against him.  Dace is willing to sacrifice anything to protect the girl he loves —including his own life.  But will Daire allow it?  And what if defeating Cade costs not only his life, but his soul too?

Enchanting, haunting, romantic, Echo is the second book in the Soul Seekers series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël!



ECHO picked up where Fated ends. But unlike Fated, the second book doesn't dwell more on backstories and information, Echo jumps right into the plot. ECHO centers more on Daire and Dace's dangerous mission to save the Lowerworld from being corrupted by his twin evil brother Cade. The story is told both from Daire and Dace's perspectives. Daire continues with learning her different abilities, surpassing the challenges and understanding what it really means to be a Soul Seeker and understanding herself. A new character, Phyre is introduced, she is shown at the end having a meaningful conversation with her father, which tells us, they have a bigger role in the books to come.

But I really believe what makes ECHO so gripping is the main characters' relationship; their love has become stronger as well as the complications and danger that comes with Daire as a Soul Seeker and Dace as the Echo. It's so heartbreaking to see them perfect for each other but they cannot be together for the greater good.

Daire does a lot of growing in ECHO, in the earlier part, she is naïve and afraid but eventually she becomes confident, braver and the warrior her Abuela believes she should be. Dace opens himself through his own POV. We get to learn his thoughts, his fears, and his love for Daire.

I was actually thinking that Cade would play the Jacob or the bad-boy-who's-in-love-with-Daire part in the second book,ECHO but I was totally wrong. Cade became the personification of evil in this story. I just wish that we got to know more of him, like what's he really thinking, because although he was the topic of the main characters, he doesn't really showing up that much in ECHO.

The descriptions of the elemental song and the majestic scenes make this book entertaining.

However, I must admit that there are boring parts but it won't deter a fan from continuing.

This book had lots, and I mean lots of turns and twists. Decisions made, choices undertaken and the consequences that result are all surprising. The book ends with a beautiful and frustrating cliffhanger that reveals nothing but more questions. ECHO will surely make you wish Mystic is out already.

ECHO is an epic, fast-paced, magical page-turner that leaves the reader captivated and enthralled. It ends with chills, shivers, goosebumps and an insatiable want to read what's next!


Copy provided by Fresh Fiction 

Chapter 1
 
Daire's POV

Horse carries us across an expansive terrain with Raven riding high on his neck. His steps measured. Sure. The sound of his hooves meeting the earth resulting in a satisfying shuffle and crunch that always makes me feel as though we’re getting somewhere. Making progress. Despite the fact that we’ve been hunting for weeks with no sign of the enemy.

That’s what I call them—the enemy. Sometimes I switch it with intruders or even interlopers. And when it’s been an especially long day of hunting that has me feeling punchy, I refer to them as fiends.
Though I never call them by their real name.

I never refer to them as Richters.

They may be undead Richters, but they’re still Richters, and Paloma warned me to never inform Dace of his dark origins. Claimed there’s no need for him to know his existence stems from magick of the blackest kind. And even though being the keeper of such a horrible truth makes me feel dishonest at best and disloyal at worst, I can’t help but think that my grandmother’s right.

If anyone should tell him, it’s Chepi, his mother. But so far she’s kept silent.

I loosen my hold on Dace’s waist and sigh as I look all around. Taking in a spread of gleaming tall grass—the blades bending and flattening under Horse’s forged path—the grove of tall trees that mark the perimeter, providing shelter to birds, monkeys, and the occasional nut-seeking squirrel. My gaze cutting through the fading afternoon light—searching, always searching. But as always, there’s no sign of corruption, no sign of their presence.

Maybe the Bone Keeper found them?

I clasp the thought tightly, liking the feel of it. Not wanting to release it no matter how improbable. While I’ve no doubt the skull-faced, serpent-skirt-wearing, star-eating queen of the Lowerworld is more than capable of capturing them, if not obliterating them, I also know it won’t be that easy.
Having made this mess, it’s mine to fix.

“It still seems odd.” I press my lips to the nape of Dace’s neck, the words muffled by his long glossy sheet of dark hair. “You know, this perpetual cycle of night and day. It seems too normal, too ordinary for such an extraordinary place.”

I study the late-afternoon shadow that appears to be stalking us. An unlikely, elongated silhouette of a raven with a spindly stem of a neck, and two ridiculously tall people sitting astride a horse with legs so stretched and skinny they hardly look able to support us—the exaggerated shape heralding a night soon to fall.

Though the truth is, what qualifies as night in the Lowerworld isn’t much more than a trifling fade, falling far short of the heavy, black, star-dusted New Mexico sky I’ve grown used to. Though, I’m glad for its arrival all the same. Glad to have this day reaching its end.

I rest my chin on Dace’s shoulder, picking up where I left off. “Not to mention there’s no sign of a sun—so how’s it even possible? How can it rise and set when it doesn’t exist?”

Dace laughs in response, the sound throaty, deep, and so alluring I inch my body closer until it’s pressed hard against his. Determined to conform to every valley and curve of his back, wanting him to be as aware of me as I am of him.

“Oh, there’s a sun.” He cricks his neck until he’s looking at me. “Leftfoot’s seen it.” His icy-blue eyes capture mine, reflecting my long dark hair, bright green eyes, and pale skin until I look away, dizzy with the sight of it.

“And you believe him?” I frown, unable to keep the skepticism from creeping into my voice.
Convinced it’s yet another of the old medicine man’s fantastical tales he told Dace as a kid.

“Of course.” Dace shrugs. “And if we’re lucky, maybe someday we’ll see it too.”

I rub my lips together and slip a hand under the hem of his sweater. My fingers are chilly, his flesh is warm, and yet he doesn’t so much as flinch. Rather he welcomes my touch by urging my palm flat against him.

“The only thing I want to see now is…” I try to push my mind back to the job we’ve set out to do, but it’s not long before the thought fades along with my words.

The lure of Dace is too strong, and he must sense my mood because the next thing I know, he’s turning Horse around. Nudging him back over the wide, grassy slope, heading toward a favored destination of ours.

copyright @Alyson Noel