Review: Chasing Fate
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 20, 2013
Chasing Fate by Maria Miller was a fun read for me. There were no zombies, werewolves or vampires in it ... and I enjoyed that fact. Instead it was a story about real life people that could happen to anyone.It starts out with Kate, the main female character, awakening to find her term paper, one she needed to pass her English class, ripped to pieces by her alcoholic father. This isn't the first time her father had ruined something for Kate and her family. Those outside the family knew him as a dependable hard-working family man who gave his family everything they needed. Unfortunately, Kate and her mom knew better.When Kate's English teacher asks for the paper, Kate lies and says she didn't do it. The teacher decides to give her another shot--this time Kate must do an interview with someone. She suggests someone who works with her father, but that won't do. Kate decides to learn about the bum in the cemetery. That's when the `real' story starts.The bum tells stories that can't be collaborated. Kate tries her best to believe him about what he says, but until she is given a small idol she doubts his story, as does her teacher. The story takes a twist when Kate shows the idol to a professor at the University and when he recognizes it Kate becomes a little more tolerate. But when the bum disappears in the middle of night and there are way too many people looking through the cemetery Kate now knows his story to be real.Kate has a boyfriend, Jeff, who breaks up with her because she won't sleep with him, but when he sweeps in on his motorcycle to save Kate from two strange men in a black car, they go on an adventure to return the idol to where Max, the bum who said he was an ex-Navy SEAL, says he stole it from.The rest of the book tells the tale of how these two friends go from New Orleans to Ecuador to return the idol. I found the pages turning themselves as the two traveled through places they had only heard about in school.Not one to spoil anything, I think you need to read the rest of this book on your own. There were a few lulls, but also some brilliant sections as well. This is well worth the price of admission. I hope Maria Miller keeps on writings as she could develop a nice following as she writes about `real teens without any super powers'. I know I am hooked.