Just Like Fate by Suzanne Young and Cat Patrick
Release Date – August 27, 2013
Publisher Website - Simon and Schuster
Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 304 pages
My Rating- 4/5
**obtained for review from publisher via BEA**
Here is the Goodreads synopsis
Caroline is at a crossroads. Her grandmother is sick, maybe dying. Like the rest of her family, Caroline's been at Gram's bedside since her stroke. With the pressure building, all Caroline wants to do is escape--both her family and the reality of Gram's failing health. So when Caroline's best friend offers to take her to a party one fateful Friday night, she must choose: stay by Gram's side, or go to the party and live her life.The road not taken often holds a certain allure. The 'what if' question can haunt you. If given the chance many people would like to see what might have been if they made a certain choice. Just Like Fate teases exactly this, and shows that sometimes you can't escape what is meant to be.
The consequence of this one decision will split Caroline's fate into two separate paths--and she's about to live them both.
Friendships are tested and family drama hits an all-new high as Caroline attempts to rebuild old relationships, and even make a few new ones. If she stays, her longtime crush, Joel, might finally notice her, but if she goes, Chris, the charming college boy, might prove to be everything she's ever wanted.
Though there are two distinct ways for her fate to unfold, there is only one happy ending...
The writing in this meshes together really well together. Suzanne Young and Cat Patrick kept the characters in both 'paths' similar in feeling, while having the differences of the path matter. They matched each other's writing quite well, and as a result the story felt cohesive. I knew that one of them wrote the 'stay' storyline and one wrote the 'go' storyline, but they read like one author wrote it.
Caroline read like an average teenager. She had family problems, crushes on classmates, and friends whom she cared a great deal for. She is not perfect, and makes mistakes. She using running away as a defense mechanism. Her relationship with her siblings, and mother is especially delicate. They way the death of Caroline's grandmother forces this family to attempt to come together is something that others may recognize and sympathize with.
The romance was one of my favourite parts. It wasn't rushed and didn't feel forced. There are two love interests, and each of them taught Caroline something about what she wanted for herself. Stories that allow the main character to make mistakes, change her mind, and realize that perhaps she isn't compatible with someone have always been my favourite. Caroline gets to know them, and see that who you think someone is, maybe isn't who they actually are.
Choices play such a huge part in this novel. Not necessarily the choice themselves, but how those choices shape and impact us. The consequences of choices we make, and how they alter the route we take are so important to Caroline's character. The way the choice between staying and going is presented is one of my favourite parts of the novel, because it shows how defining some experiences can be, even if you're not expecting them to be.
Sometimes the ending to your story isn't as important as the journey. Just Like Fate showcases that it's the in between moments that define us. Fate may bring us to the same place in the end, but choices made along the way decide what type of person you'll be when you get there.
