Fateful Book Review *Claudia Gray*

Fateful by Claudia Gray should be a rousing, all-consuming romance between a young woman and man who aren’t meant to be together. The reason Fateful doesn’t work in this regard is because Claudia relies on so many clichés and has a, “been there, done that feel”. Her heroine, the overworked Tess Davies, is well written and her love interest, the rich and charismatic Alex is everything a young woman would want in a man, but when it comes to the other characters around them, that’s were there's a multitude of one-dimensionality and ridiculousness. The villain is over the top uber-evil and Tess’s employers are inane and slapstick. On the surface, Fateful looks to be an original story during a setting that’s not usually written, especially in YA (or at least the ones I’ve read), but it’s far from being original. Fateful is Twilight, meets The Howling, meets the Titanic. This mash up of popular movies told in story form makes this a very lacking and forgettable novel.

Fateful had such promise, but mid-way through it falters and sinks like the ship these characters are stuck on.

Tess works for the Viscount Lisle and his family. Lady Regina Lisle is verbally abusive to Tess because of Tess’s servant status. The Lisles are headed to New York City on the wonder ship, the RMS Titanic. When the ship docks in America, Tess will take her hard earnings and start a new life for herself. The night before they’re set to leave, Tess is sent out on an errand. She comes across an older man in a Vandyke beard who attacks her. She saved by a younger man who ends up on the Titanic also. Tess’s savior is the American, Alec Marlowe, the heir to Marlowe Steel. Lady Regina would love nothing more for her daughter, Irene to marry Alec. But Alec doesn’t seem enamored of Irene and prefers to spend time with Tess, to her confusion and dismay.

The man who attacked Tess is also on the ship. He’s Mikhail and set on getting rid of Tess for no reason. He stalks her on the ship just because he enjoys seeing her scared. Before he can kill her, Alec comes to her rescue again. She learns that both Mikhail and Alec can transform in werewolves. Mikhail is part of a secret brotherhood who will stop at nothing to take over the world. Mikhail wants Alec and his father to join the Brotherhood so he can control them. Mikhail also wants whatever is in a special box the Lisles’ own and will stop a nothing until he obtains what’s inside. Alec becomes Tess’s protector and will try to keep her safe from the evil Mikhail. And then an iceberg hits the Titanic and things go from bad to worse.

Fateful does have interesting moments of tension and suspense with a claustrophobic feel to it. The tragic nature that comes to pass isn’t a surprise because of the well-known events that take place on the Titanic and its sinking. There’s also a nice historic atmosphere here with appropriate fashion and dialogue of the time. But with all these winning combinations, I found myself bored with the constant danger surrounding Alec and Tess.

Fateful was like a bad B horror movie because Mikhail is cartoonish and not frightening in any sense of the word. The least Alec and his father could do was throw Mikhail overboard and take on the Brotherhood on dry land. That would get rid of the immediate problem plaguing Alec. Sounds bloodthirsty, but there’s a great deal of bloodthirsty fun on part of Mikhail and the spooky evil brotherhood. I found myself rolling my eyes, and when I read half-way through and groaned because the book was far from over, I stopped.

This is DNF territory for me. When you find yourself uninvolved with the plight of the main characters and even their budding, and what should be a luscious romance falls flat, that’s when you move onto something most satisfying. I can see many of Claudia’s fans and young readers enjoying Fateful because it has many appealing attributes, but I had too many issues to continue on. (HarperTeen)

Final Grade: DNF

A few other Fateful book reviews:

Anna Reads

All Things Urban Fantasy

Lost Amongst the Shelves