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Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated The Chosen (Contender #1) in Books

Jan 23, 2020

The author/publisher provided a free copy of the book for review purposes - thank you! Receiving a review copy does not guarantee a positive review and therefore do not affect the opinion or content of the review.

It's midnight and apparently, it was a good idea for me to crank out reading a book in the span of 2 days. I don't know why I'm like this, but anyways, I somehow finished The Chosen?

The first book in Taran Matharu's Contender series introduces us to Cade, who finds himself in a boarding school after being wrongly accused. But shortly after he settles down, he and his classmates find themselves in another world filled with items and people from various mysteries throughout history. They're forced into a game controlled by the Strategos as contenders, only knowing if they fail, there will be consequences.

<h2>The Chosen is a quick, action-packed read.</h2>
At least, in the beginning. Hold that thought for a moment. Matharu captured my attention from the first chapter as Cade finds himself having to fend for his life, not knowing his whereabouts. There's a lot of action throughout that made me want to know more as Cade made discoveries and his moves.

<h2>But there's nothing much going on.</h2>
I am all about characters running and fighting for their lives from pre-historic dinosaurs. The Chosen is practically a survival book, but about 60% through, I realized, there's not actually anything going on. Cade, his classmates and eventually the people he meets who join the cause -- they're running around with a timer floating around them. (That timer is also a handy dandy floating Google, which is just plain cool if you ask me.)

Then about 90%, everything happens and Cade finds out more information about why they're on the world. And he finds out both he and his companions got fucked over big time. It's not a one-time battle, there's more to come! A massive internal groan from Cade -- just when you thought it was over, the entire universe laughs.

<h2>The Chosen is engaging, though.</h2>
Seriously, I appreciate a good, action-packed book that is engaging enough, I don't notice the entire book is full of running until I'm in deep. By that time, I'm a little too invested - I want to know the end.

Despite being a somewhat huge cast, it was fun seeing most of them come together. It was also fun seeing the choices Cade makes and how creative he is in implementing them in the game they've been forced in. And call me evil, but I'm delighted with the end (we'll even insert an evil laugh here) and want to see what Matharu will put the characters through in the second book.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/the-chosen-by-taran-matharu/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>