Something Like Fate Review

From Booklist

Lani and Erin are older teens who share an interest in fortune-telling. Erin is less serious than Lani, who backed out of the popular crowd because she is more interested in things like environmental action than parties. Although the two girls have a deep bond that began in childhood, Lani’s true best friend is Blake, who fears his father will discover that he is gay. Erin is delighted when she starts dating Jason—one of many crushes she has shared with Lani—but when the three start hanging out together, Lani realizes that she and Jason are meant for each other. Colasanti provides credible and engaging character development for each cast member and interactions that spark just the right amount of tension to make this a romantic page-turner. A bit of steam is lost in the final pages, but a number of issues receive insightful inspection along the way: the meaning of friendship, whether fate plays a role in whom we love, intolerant parents, and coming to respect others needs and feelings. Grades 8-10. --Francisca Goldsmith 

My Thoughts:


I was originally excited to read this book. But like so many other books I read about on blogs, it lingered on my Amazon wish list.  I love this cover, it brought to mind Emily Griffin's Something Borrowed, only for the YA crowd.  The other day I was at Barnes and Noble doing a little Christmas shopping and I had some time to kill.  So I grabbed this book to flip through and a peppermint hot chocolate, and got to reading.  I didn't mean to read it all in one sitting, but I did. 

I liked it enough, but I never really connected with Lani.  My favorite characters were best friend Blake and boy at the middle of love triangle, Jason.  Lani actually annoyed me a bit.  It's the same problem I had with the main character in Need by Carrie Jones, we're meant to know how caring Lani is because she's such a champion for the environment, doesn't want to hang out with the popular kids and teaches Jason to care about recycling, which is fine, I recycle, I care about the world and was a theater/reading team nerd.  It's just that subject is brought up so many times that it begins to feel preachy and not just a part of who Lani is. And then when Erin finally discovers Lani and Jason's relationship (which is not a seedy as the cover led me to believe :), Lani made decisions that made me lose respect for her.  Blake, who's story was the most intriguing to me, started to actually get interesting when his story was suddenly got resolved.  The ending definitely left something to be desired.  If you're a fan of YA romance then you'll probably enjoy this book, but I was just okay with it.  It did not win a coveted spot on my overstuffed bookshelves.


Something Like Fate gets a Midnight Book Rating of 9:30pm.  Keep in mind that I'm 33, so those of you who are younger or a sucker for YA romance might enjoy this book a lot more than I did. And it's a quick read about a subject that doesn't normally get covered.