Book Three

I was so mad at the end of Chosen that I can't read Untamed

You have to! Everything gets better for Zoey don't worry

Merry Meet by the way

Could you be specific because a lot happened at the end of Chosen.

I know quite a lot of fans like to express hatred for Zoey's multiple relationships and usually they drop a lot of the blame on her. I don't. I'm not saying that she is blameless but she is definitely more of the victim in this scenario than Erik or Heath, even.

Continuing on that thought, what happened to Heath was by and large his fault. He was asking for the imprint and it backfired on him because he wanted a long-term relationship with someone who wasn't fully committed. Erik, on the other hand, was innocent in this case but he was a jerk which didn't surprise me. These books were told from Zoey's perspective and she had this perfect image of him. That is how she described him and I know a few readers bought into that facade.

Then there was Blake. Again, because of how the character was perceived by Zoey, some readers bought into the image, and were might have even been rooting for those two to get hooked up. Again, I saw right through him, knew his true intentions and was glad that he was killed shortly after.

But maybe you were referring to her friends' reaction to Zoey's different secrets, including Stevie Rae's survival and how Aphrodite knew before them. The thing to keep in my mind, I think, is that there were a lot of emotions and new information and no one had any real time to process what was going on. Zoey's friends were still trying to process Erik's little outburst and then Stevie Rae walks in and that was it and Zoey's too much of a wreck to defend herself or even believe she has the right to.

I suppose there is also Stevie Rae being cured and Aphrodite being human but I never saw those as negatives, it made those characters even more interesting. My problems with Chosen are mostly around the middle where Zoey has Stevie Rae counting on her to find a solution and she keeps letting herself be distracted by guys. Otherwise, I think Chosen is one of the series' stronger titles, especially for how it developed Stevie Rae and Aphrodite.

It's your choice and I'm not sure what the problem is exactly but I recommend you keep going. Sure, you are going see more of Zoey's romantic life, I'm not really interested in it myself, but she does learn and she does work at her relationship skills, not just with significant others but also her friends as well. Plus, when you get to Tempted (the 6th book), Cast introduces multiple perspectives in her books and it's really interesting to see the world through other character's eyes, hearing their thoughts and stories and it keeps things interesting.

As always WazzuMan, I completely agree with you

WazzuMan wrote:

Could you be specific because a lot happened at the end of Chosen.

I know quite a lot of fans like to express hatred for Zoey's multiple relationships and usually they drop a lot of the blame on her. I don't. I'm not saying that she is blameless but she is definitely more of the victim in this scenario than Erik or Heath, even.

Continuing on that thought, what happened to Heath was by and large his fault. He was asking for the imprint and it backfired on him because he wanted a long-term relationship with someone who wasn't fully committed. Erik, on the other hand, was innocent in this case but he was a jerk which didn't surprise me. These books were told from Zoey's perspective and she had this perfect image of him. That is how she described him and I know a few readers bought into that facade.

Then there was Blake. Again, because of how the character was perceived by Zoey, some readers bought into the image, and were might have even been rooting for those two to get hooked up. Again, I saw right through him, knew his true intentions and was glad that he was killed shortly after.

But maybe you were referring to her friends' reaction to Zoey's different secrets, including Stevie Rae's survival and how Aphrodite knew before them. The thing to keep in my mind, I think, is that there were a lot of emotions and new information and no one had any real time to process what was going on. Zoey's friends were still trying to process Erik's little outburst and then Stevie Rae walks in and that was it and Zoey's too much of a wreck to defend herself or even believe she has the right to.

I suppose there is also Stevie Rae being cured and Aphrodite being human but I never saw those as negatives, it made those characters even more interesting. My problems with Chosen are mostly around the middle where Zoey has Stevie Rae counting on her to find a solution and she keeps letting herself be distracted by guys. Otherwise, I think Chosen is one of the series' stronger titles, especially for how it developed Stevie Rae and Aphrodite.

It's your choice and I'm not sure what the problem is exactly but I recommend you keep going. Sure, you are going see more of Zoey's romantic life, I'm not really interested in it myself, but she does learn and she does work at her relationship skills, not just with significant others but also her friends as well. Plus, when you get to Tempted (the 6th book), Cast introduces multiple perspectives in her books and it's really interesting to see the world through other character's eyes, hearing their thoughts and stories and it keeps things interesting.

It is true that the imprint was to a part Heaths fault and he does continue to use his blood to make Zoey get somewhat initmate with him, but given how she continues to meet with him despite knowing that he will do it again it is hard to believe that she does not want to do it herself.

Zoey is in no way more of a victim than Erik in this novel(I agree that he is a jerk and she idealizes him too much, though).
Keep in mind Erik does know about Heath and gives Zoey time to resolve it, which she does not really try.
One of his jerk moments is him getting upset about Zoey talking to his ex-girlfriend for extended periods of time, who he has to assume wants the relationship to fail(it is the natural conclusion from her behaviour in book one.), which is understandable. It is not the right thing to do but more understandable than most of the stuff Zoey does.
And it his hard getting mad at him for being upset about Loren flirting with his girlfriend right in front of him considering how obvious Lorens intentions and Zoeys interest is.

Loren is clearly not a victim here(aside from a murder victim, of course) and I dare to say falling for him was pretty stupid. He was clearly stalking Zoey and giving her expensive presents does not exactly make him look more honest. Not to mention how rape-like that foreplay scene was.
But that does not change that Zoey cheated on Erik with him out of her own free will. She did think Lorens feelings were real and acted as if they were. Cheating on Erik is solely her responsibility, because she did not break up with him prior to sleeping with Loren.

My Fazit is:
Zoey was Lorens victim and by extension Nerfereths.(She was dumb enough to fall for him, but I won't say she holds any responsibility here)
Erik was Zoeys victim.(There are enough issues with this guy to end a relationship in the first place, but neither did Zoey do that nor did she try to talk to him about anything. By not breaking up with him before starting what she thought was a new relationship makes her the only one to blame. Not even Loren can be made responsible here.)
Zoey is willingly Heath victim, who was willingly her victim?(Honestly, I can't say who is mostly to blame here, it is definetly close.)

First, I agree that Erik is the only honest victim in that situation. If he is guilty of anything, it is not making sure that Zoey's relationship with Heath was properly resolved though he may have felt it was none of his business or that Zoey would simply stay away.

As for Heath, I feel it is his fault and the only other person to really blame for what happened is Zoey's mentor, Neferet. Something you said actually made me realise this, that Zoey did not want to end the relationship and it dawned on me that because of her unnaturally progressed bloodlust and her history with Heath, Zoey was not capable of making a rational decision. The one thing she did do right was inform Neferet but her advice was to simply ignore her. Neferet however, doesn't think like a human and in fact despises them, would rather forget about them but Zoey doesn't think like that. I can't help but think that if Lenobia were Zoey's mentor, she would have worked with Zoey to help resolve the situation and made sure neither the bloodlust nor Imprint became more of an issue than it already was. I'll have to give it more thought.

As for Loren, you and I knew exactly what it was but before you damn Zoey for not knowing any better, I've read a lot of comments from readers who were fooled by his facade. We all read the book, but we each interpreted things differently. Speaking for myself, I think it was because I'm a guy and also a bit of a cynic. Seeing Zoey mention almost nothing of any faults of Loren or Erik was a huge red flag to me.