Chosen (House of Night #3) - PC and Kristin Cast

Chosen is the third book in the House of Night series by mother and daughter duo, PC and Kristin Cast. It was released by Atom on 26th February 2009 and is 352 pages long.

What has happened so far

Sixteen year old Zoey Redbird recently got marked by a Tracker, meaning that she had to move to the House of Night in order to maybe become a vampyre. If she doesn't die first. Zoey is unlike any of the other fledglings though. She has been extremely blessed by the Goddess Nyx who gave her powers that she never expected. Zoey can has an affinity for all five elements: Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit. She has also overthrown Aphrodite as the leader of the Dark Daughters, taking the lead for herself.

Beginning a new life has been hard but at least Zoey has her faithful friends, Stevie Rae, Shaunee, Erin and Damien to help her out. Not to mention human boyfriend Heath, who she imprinted with and talented fledgling boyfriend Erik. Football players from Zoey's old school went missing and were murdered so she had to save Heath before he was killed as well.


Chosen
It's Zoey's 17th birthday but she isn't looking forward to it at all. She hates that she was born on 24th December and getting crappy Christmas themed presents for her birthday. Also, her best friend isn't around and she was the only one that understood.

Something terrible happened to Stevie Rae and now she's undead. As she struggles to keep her humanity, Zoey and her friends are trying to stop her from eating people on the street and giving herself over to the evil inside. Zoey knows that if anyone at the House of Night finds out what happened to Stevie Rae, all hell could and probably will break loose. She's going to have to trust the one person who she never would have expected to in order to keep Stevie Rae safe.


As always, Zoey is having boy trouble but this time, its more complicated and dangerous than ever.

What I thought
Unlike books 1 and 2 in this series, Chosen isn't all about Zoey. I really enjoyed the plot surrounding Stevie Rae and it made a nice change for someone else to be getting most of the attention. I do like Zoey and I know that she is special and all but I love the other characters just as much and think they all deserve a bit more time spent on them throughout the series.

There is plenty of mystery throughout Chosen, which is a big part of why I like this series so much. While Zoey's romances are a big part of the story, it's the action and suspense that really does it for me. As I was reading, I found myself so caught up in whatever was happening in that chapter, that it made me slightly forget some of the other things. This isn't a bad thing though. I enjoyed being distracted enough to not always figure out what is going on. The fact that more characters were involved is what kept the story interesting and fresh.

I did feel the absence of the explanations of rituals and mythology thought but there was so much going on that they would have ended up being wasted words. Instead of this, we get to learn more about Zoey's background and the Cherokee people. A Cherokee legend gives the idea that they are not so different from the vampyres in some ways. The suggestion that everyone is connected in some way was interesting as it also gives the impression that everyone is the same no matter who you are or where you come from, names have just been changed.

Zoey and Aphrodite's friendship develops a lot in this book due to the events surrounding Stevie Rae. Zoey puts a lot of trust in Aphrodite, mainly because she has to, but Aphrodite seems hell bent on acting like her usual, bitchy self. She doesn't want to be seen as someone nice and she definitely doesn't want to be seen as being a part of Zoey's 'nerd herd' as she calls it. Although she has her doubts, Zoey clearly sees something in Aphrodite that no one else does.

Zoey's friends reacted to her spending time with Aphrodite exactly how I had expected them to, which was a little disappointing. Aphrodite has been less than nice so it's understandable that people don't like her but I would have thought that if Zoey trusted her then the others would too. Well, at least more than before. Zoey is right about a lot of things that the others have no idea about so I thought that they would given her a bit more credit.

I really wish that Zoey would sort out herself and her boy problems. Just when she thinks that one of her boy problems is over, another hot guy turns up and makes everything crazy. Why does she have a thing for every hot guy that comes her way? Does she have no self control? I really think that she's being a bit greedy and not take all of the best guys for herself. The only one that she has a true connection with is Heath due to their past and their imprint and it's quite obvious that he would do anything for her. I'm routing for Heath all of the way, although Zoey probably doesn't deserve him now. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that this amount of romantic complications isn't needed in every book to make it good.

Something that I do find to be lacking is the amount of steamy scenes between Zoey and the guys that she's involved with. There were a few moments that began to show promise and I liked them but they just weren't enough for me. Each book in this series warns that they aren't suitable for younger readers so a little more raunch wouldn't be completely out of place. It was good to see Zoey and Erik make a little more of their relationship though (about bloody time!) but the time spent in this department wasn't long enough.

Overall
I did enjoy Chosen but not as much as the previous two books. I liked the way that it set up a story that seems like it is going to be continued and spread out over more than one book. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, Untamed to find out what is in store next for the gang.