Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti

Summary from Amazon:

Best friends Lani and Erin couldn’t be more different. Lani’s reserved and thoughtful; Erin’s bubbly and outgoing. Lani likes to do her own thing; Erin prefers an entourage. There’s no possible way they could be interested in the same guy.

So when Erin starts dating Jason, Lani can’t believe she feels such a deep connection with him—and it may be mutual. The more Lani fights it, the more certain she feels that it’s her fate to be with Jason. But what do you do when the love of your life is the one person you can’t have?

Review:

Ever since reading When It Happens, Susane's first novel, I've been a big Colasanti fan. And when her third novel Waiting For You came out last year, I was awed yet again. So, by the time I received Something Like Fate for review my exceptions were huge for this one. Sadly enough, Something Like Fate barely meet them, leaving this to be some-what of a disappointment to me.

Lani was certainly an interesting character; I loved her obsession with all things fate related and her love for the environment. Also, she almost always had good intentions, even if they didn't sometimes go the way she wanted them to go. Though, the main and basically only thing that ticked me off about her is the fact that she not only let people walk over her, but she also walked all over other people herself. In turn, this become a big failing point for me with this book, because, at most times, Lani wasn't a strong character, far from it actually, since she hid instead. When things with Jason got hard she hid and didn't follow her heart, when things with Erin got tough she hid and didn't explain herself, exc. And that just bugged me. All through the novel, I wanted her to just tell everyone "Screw It!" and go after what she wanted, and not what others, mainly Erin, wanted. Though, even though I wasn't always a big fan of Lani, I did like her somewhat, but I just had a really hard time relating to her. Some of the other characters, on the other hand, I did like a lot. Blake, for instance, was awesome, and I was always rooting for him to overcome his big problem in Something Like Fate. Also, Connor, the Canadian friend, was so sweet and adorable! Erin and Jason are a different matter completely. I never liked Erin from the beginning because she was just way too into her own little world and never saw the big picture, which was one of the failing points of her character throughout. Jason I liked for the most part, because like Lani he had good, pure intentions, even if they didn't always go the way he wanted them too.

Unlike with the characters, I had absolutely no problems with the plot and writing, and that in turn brought up my liking of the book quite a bit. Since both flew by easily and worked perfectly together. Plus, even if Lani did annoy me 50% of the time, her voice was one that was an easy one to get lost in, which left you not to even realize you were on page 150 and so on.

Overall, I'm undecided on Something Like Fate. Since, when you factor the writing and plot I liked it a lot, but when talk about the characters exclusively it was kind of a dud. So, while I do suggest it as a fun light summery type book, don't get your hopes too high, because this certainly isn't Susane's best work yet, in my opinion.

Grade: B-/C+

Something Like Fate will be released May 5, 2010!

Source: Publisher for review. Thanks Penguin Viking Division!