Chosen by PC Cast and Kristen Cast

Something foreign and dark is at the House of Night and fledgling priestess; Zoey Redbird is the only one who knows it. As things change and her friends turn their backs on her, an old enemy becomes the only one Zoey can trust.

Making matters worse, her best friend, Stevie Rae is undead. And Zoey risks everything to try and help her save what’s left of her fragile humanity.

On top of it all, Zoey has found herself with 3 boyfriends. With all that’s going on in her life right now, can Zoey make the right decisions without losing all that is important to her?

The Casts have written another page turner. I read BETRAYED and plowed directly into CHOSEN, the third in The House of Night series. These books leave so much up in the air, that sometimes it’s worth it to wait for the next book to save you the frustration.

While the book has a solid plot and has me furiously turning pages in spite of myself, I have some issues.

Zoey has always been a character to admire. She’s got strength of character and integrity. That’s all put to the test in this novel, and Zoey becomes a bit tarnished. She makes some really poor decisions, and pays the price for them. I appreciate that this was written in such a way to show consequences for her actions. She becomes sexually active in this book, and I thought that was a real setback. I’ve always appreciated her because she valued her virginity and she gave it away in a very tawdry manner.

I found myself really missing the old Stevie Rae, because without her sweet nature, Zoey, the Twins and even Damien weren’t quite as likeable.

The scene at Zoey’s birthday wasn’t very believable. I thought all the tacky Christmas gifts from all her fashion conscious friends were a joke and I kept waiting for the punch line.

The relationship between Zoey and the adult vampire, Blake was unfortunate as well. I always cringe when an unhealthy relationship between a teenager and an adult is portrayed so romantically.

I kept waiting for a big confrontation between Zoey and Neferet that was built up in BETRAYED. Nothing ever really happened there… Except some whispered threats that I found to be weak.

The thing that bothered me the most is a personal issue for me, and I didn’t want it to affect my review, but I feel it necessary to mention. I found the prejudice against Christians repugnant. For all the talk of harmony, the characters in House of Night were hate-filled regarding a differing (Christian) belief system coming in direct conflict with the ideals they uphold. I can only hope that in future books in this series, all religions are respected and harmony is reached.