If you love paranormal stories, do not miss this new book and the beginning of a new series from Jules Barnard! Fates Divided was a fantastic book that is setting us up for even more to come. Check out more about the book, Tina’s Thoughts, read an excerpt, and enter a giveaway to celebrate this book!
Fates Divided
Halven Rising #1
Jules Barnard
Publication Date: August 31, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Elena Rosales has busted her ass to get into a good college. She’s the only one in her family ever to attend, and expectations are high. No pressure. But Elena’s got this one in the bag, because she’s as dependable as the molecules she studies, as reliable as the chemical reactions that comfort her in their predictability. Until they don’t.
Elena has always wondered why her mother abandoned her on her first birthday. It’s not until she turns eighteen and her chemistry experiments go berserk that she learns the truth: Her mother wasn’t human, and the Fae are willing to harm those Elena loves if she doesn’t use her power over the elements to cure them of a deadly disease.
Derek, Elena’s brooding neighbor, isn’t the friendliest guy, but he has access to an off-hours lab and is willing to help Elena create the antivirus. He has his own secrets to keep, and this business Elena is mixed up in could blow his cover. But when Elena and Derek get together, more than chemicals spark fire-and they soon discover just how complicated attraction can get when they find themselves on the other side of the portal, fighting for survival. Lives collide, and allegiance and love are tested, in Fates Divided.
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I love me a good paranormal story and this one fits the bill. It gives a unique flare to the Fae and allows the reader to enter a world that is different and intriguing. Often with paranormal worlds, it takes so much to create the magical world that you get bored and just want to get to the story. I will stick with it more often than not and usually I am rewarded by a fabulous environment that unfolds. With Fates Divided we jump right in with Elena and attempt to muddle through the obvious confusion she is feeling. I loved discovering the world she is a part of right alongside her. It creates an authenticity to what is happening, giving us a story that grabs you and does not let go. Mixing a supernatural world with one that is scientific was fascinating. Science is like its own magical realm (speaking as someone who is not a science aficionado), one that is always changing and evolving and surprising. Taking that element and mixing it with the fairytales is enough to pull you in and leave you wanting more!
Elena is such a fun female lead. She is still attempting to find her place in life, wanting to please what is left of her family and learn to embrace who she is. When everything goes crazy and she is able to do something she shouldn’t, she is set up to be a part of an adventure she never saw coming. It was wonderful to see how she began to grow and embrace both the human and the Fae in her. She is a girl who is becoming a woman, one who longs for something but not quite knowing what it is. She is a strong young woman who understands the risks of what she is walking into. Her hesitancy grows into something more, something that is a desire to know who she is and what she is capable of. Her growth in this story is natural and I am excited to see where she heads from here. She has so much to walk through and challenges ahead but she is rising to those expectations and leaving the doubters in the dust!
Derek is so different yet so similar. He longs for answers and his purpose. His past few years are what Elena’s would have been if fate hadn’t intervened. I loved how he began to take charge of his life and grow in confidence of who he is and what he was destined to do. His devotion to Elena is sweet and at times passionate. These two are perfect for each other. Their situation may be precarious but they stand tall for one another and offer the support that they each need. Their relationship is a partnership of equals. They both have different strengths but watching them embrace those and admire the strengths in each other is great to see. Their growing love is completely age and genre appropriate, something that I also appreciated. They are falling in deep and this story portrays that love.
Jules does a great job of expanding the Fae world and giving us the information as we need it. At first there is a lot going on, but we walk side by side with Elena and Derek, learning of the Fae world and its magical properties. As we continue in the story, we grow in knowledge as these two grow in their abilities. The pace is well done and keeps the story moving, giving us what we need and not weighing the story down with things irrelevant for now. When I reached the end, I was surprised that it was over. There is a main objective in the story and when things start to accomplish that objective I was curious where the overarching story would go for the next few books. I am excited to see what happens to Elena and Derek, to see how they grow, to watch them fall in greater love, and to see them embrace both the Fae and Human worlds.
She squirmed and bobbed giddily on top of him like a landlocked fish. “I have a boyfriend,” she said in a singsong voice.
Derek grunted as a stray elbow landed on his ribs. He flipped her so she lay beneath him again. “How should we celebrate your first official relationship,” he said in a deep, sexy voice, his hand snaking down her collarbone to the top of her breast.
She smiled slyly. “By holding hands?”
His palm stilled and he frowned, shaking his head.
“Hmm… With a kiss?”
He put his mouth on her neck and kissed and licked his way down. “Getting warmer,” he murmured.
She tapped a finger to her mouth, trying not to move while his lips and hands made her face heat and her breath catch. “No hand-holding, but kissing is okay, yet not enough. What to do, what to do… I’ve got it. How about a heavy make-out session?”
“Warmer still,” came his response from the general area of her bellybutton where he’d lifted her top a few inches and exposed her skin. His hands continued their wonderfully tormenting path down her torso to her hips.
She closed her eyes, breaths shaky and uneven as her stomach and thigh muscles clenched beneath his fingers. “Fine—you win.” She reached down and yanked his T-shirt over his head.
He sat up as though affronted, his eyes sparkling. “Hey, I’m not that kind of guy.”
She smiled. “You’re a terrible liar. Is that drool on the side of your mouth?”
He raised his hand to his lip and grinned.
To celebrate the new release and blog tour of Fates Divided, Jules is hosting a fun giveaway! Enter this Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win one of three Fates Divided Prints and SWAG! Just follow the instructions listed and you will entered for your chance to win! Good luck!
Before turning to storytelling, Jules earned a master’s degree in public health and spent many an hour running statistical analysis–until she realized her favorite part of the job was writing reports. She decided to cut out the math and add in some hot guys, and so began her career as a novelist.
Jules is a Northern California native living on the coast with her husband and two children. She has no impulse control around cupcakes and credits herself with the ability to read while running on the treadmill or burning dinner.