Fated already had me hooked, and I couldn’t wait to crack this one open. I just had to know what Dace being the “Echo” meant and I just knew I would find out!
I can say that I was not disappointed in the least, though I was upset to learn exactly what Dace being Cade’s echo meant. Things seemed a little rushed in this book, and I can only assume that is due to wanting things to progress enough for the third installment due in a few months.
Paloma is almost back to herself minus her majick and while Daire has seemingly been lax in her training it doesn’t seem as though a whole bunch of time has passed since the ending of the first book and the beginning of this one; Daire’s training soon picks up. While Cade has been mostly absent in the first few chapters, we soon see him and all the devastation he has been causing in the Lowerworld. Things are dying and being poisoned at an alarming rate and Daire knows that she must find and rid the Lowerworld of the undead Richter’s that Cade unleashed during the last book.

While searching for the undead Richter’s Daire happens upon Dace at their spot “the Enchanted Spring” and while mostly everything around them seems to be dying it is as thought the spring has healed itself. The two end up taking their relationship a step further and then the spell is broken by Cade and they realize that everything they were seeing was just what Cade wanted them to see.

After the run in with Cade, Dace and Daire realize that them being together and loving each other is really just making Cade stronger, so Dace takes it upon himself to put them on a break. This of course devastates Daire, whom has never had a boyfriend and is afraid that now that Dace has gotten what he wanted that he is done with her. Though as it turns out, neither can really stay away from the other.

They both continue to make trips to the Lowerworld where Dace ends up hurt more times than not, and Daire just can’t seem to reconcile what she needs to do with the small amount of majick and strength she believes she possess. While Dace believes that he holds enough majick to do what must be done to protect Daire, which he believes is to kill Cade.

Things pick up again and Daire finds and kills the undead Richter’s and you start to see the Lowerworld heal itself. Then she happens upon Cade, who isn’t the least bit pleased that she has stopped his efforts at dominating all levels of the world. Cade attacks and of course here comes Dace to the rescue.

Without saying too much to give the ending away, if you are invested in the characters, have some tissues handy, and run, don’t walk to get the third book Mystic due out May 2013!!!!
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I liked it. ( )

The series is a little light and frothy, but I look forward to that amongst some of my heavier reads. It may even been a good palate cleaner between some more intense or gut wrenching books. When in the mood for something a little light, there are some specific things that I really enjoy about this series that I talked about before but bear reiterating.

This is a YA with adults who know a little something and have a plan. Daire's grandmother is her mentor through the her magical training and always knows more than she does about what's going on. Daire's mother knows what teenagers are like and the shenanigans they tend to get into. She's never surprised, just hoping that her daughter uses protection, both for her heart and against pregnancy. These are wise adults that know they are meant to guide Daire on her journey rather than eclipse it because their time has come and past and they are purposefully passing the torch.

Dace has similar people in his life and so does Cade. Well, people that are trying with the more stubborn Cade, but that's not the point. The point is that adults are not treated like after thoughts. That may or may not be the norm for YA, but I appreciate every time there is a hero-mentor trajectory and that there will be people who will surprise our protagonists of any age with some greater wisdom. It's a thing that I like and it shows up here.

Also, the world building is pretty good. It makes sense within it's own world and it's consistent. I feel a little like shouting at the protagonist and her friends sometimes because of the way the world is consistent and they seem to be missing things. It can be fun, especially when those things are revealed to the reader in ways that make it so that we know but not them. I also love the feeling that I don't know everything about the world and that there's so much more about to go down in this series.

The romance is over-the-top but in an entertaining and consenting way. I'm not sure how intentional it was for the author but there is some great consent going on with our couples and some very specific acknowledgement of what's going on when there isn't consent. No beating around the bush here, just calling it assault and/or rape when it is.

Looking at just this book, it was a nice read that held my interest but didn't make me want to drop everything just to finish. The narration was done by the same person as before, Brittany Pressley, who does a fantastic job with it. She had some extra work to do with this book, narrating from points of view of both Daire and Dace throughout the book. I'll be interested to see if they add a third in the third book. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have it yet and I'll have to wait like I did with this one. ( )

Echo is the second book in the Soul Seekers series and the follow-up to Fated. In Fated we learned that Daire is a Seeker and it is her destiny to rid Enchantment of the evil that lurks there. At the end of the last book the reader learns about the evil released during the Day of the Dead by the Richters and so the beginning of Echo picks up right there. Daire and Dace are hunting for the undead Richters in the lower world; all the while the lower and middle worlds are suffering from the undead presence.

Without giving too much away, the reader learns more about Daire and Dace’s connect and how Dace and his twin brother, Cade, came to be and are so very different. The Prophecy is coming to fruition and Daire is determined to stop it, plus make it snow in Enchantment for her friends. (The town has not seen snow in many years because of the Richter influence).

I received this as an audiobook from Macmillan, as I did with Fated, and I am glad I listened to this one versus reading it. There were times when I just didn’t feel like continuing the progression of the plot moved a little too slow at the key times but with the audio I pressed on in the car on long commutes.

I felt like with all the build up in book one about Dace and Daire being together there would have been more build up and hype once we got going in this book, but not really and even the intimate scenes were…well...kind of horrible and lacked emotion. They are intimate and by that I do mean they have sex…but that is pretty much all it says. He liked the feel of her body, she liked his eyes on her…but that was it. I know this is not a raunchy romance novel but after all the build up of Fated, I was let down.

As for the plot, like I mentioned it was slow, but yea there was a lot of loose ends from book one tied up. In the very end though more loose ends were left for the reader. So far this series looks like 4 books (from goodreads at least) and I will continue the series. The ending of Echo was cliffhanger enough to ensure that.

I felt like the emotion in book one was more than book two, but if you enjoyed Fated, who’s to stop you from the rest of the series. If you weren’t really sure about it, I wouldn’t continue.
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Really worth the read!!
It was so good, I thought it was better than the last one ( )