Seeker by Veronica Rossi

Title: Seeker
Author: Veronica Rossi
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Series: Riders # 2

Hardcover, 352 Pages
Publication: May 16, 2017 by Tor Teen

Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

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When Daryn claimed she was seeing visions during her sophomore year of high school, no one believed the truth.

She wasn’t losing her mind; she was gaining the Sight—the ability to see the future. Daryn embraced her role as a Seeker. The work she did was important. She saved lives.

Until Sebastian.

Sebastian was her first—and worst—mistake.

Since the moment she inadvertently sealed him in a dark dimension with Samrael, the last surviving demon of the Kindred, guilt has plagued her. Daryn knows Sebastian is alive and waiting for help. It’s up to her to rescue him. But now that she needs the Sight more than ever to guide her, the visions have stopped.

Daryn must rely on instincts, intelligence, and blind faith to lead the riders who are counting on her in search of Sebastian. As they delve into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems and where Samrael is steadily amassing power, Daryn faces the ultimate test. Will she have to become evil to destroy evil?

The very fate of humankind may rest in the answer.

Seeker is the second installment in the Riders duology, featuring four teenagers as the embodiment of The Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This time around we have a new additional narrator, the one and only enigmatic Seeker Daryn. Seeker picks up a couple months after the events in Riders. Sebastian was kidnapped by Samrael and is stuck in another dimension full of darkness, monsters and fears made real. His only hope of returning home is Daryn, the Seeker that can see visions of the future and open the portal that traps him. The Three Horsemen, Daryn, and Cordero team up for a rescue mission but the mission takes an expected turn when Sebastian plea for Samrael’s safety and return.

I read Riders last year and enjoyed it very much. I was excited when I found out that the sequel and final book was going to be narrated partially by Daryn because readers didn’t get to know her as well in the first book. That changed in Seeker as we got up close and personal seeing through Daryn’s eyes and are able to glimpse what she felt and thought about everything around her. We also learned about her family and why they haven’t been mentioned or around much. While I appreciated getting to know more about Daryn, I was bummed that the rest of the characters took a backseat.The book centered mostly on Daryn and Gideon’s relationship and I felt rescuing Sebastian was seen as a plot device to push the story forward. Even when the other characters had page time, it felt brief and rushed as if the author just wanted to get the scene over with to go back to Daryn and Gideon. I like Daryn and Gideon but their relationship was rocky and awkward since they met each other; which began in the first book and their relationship didn’t quite feel genuine until the end of the second novel. There were a lot of trust issues. I was expecting a story about The Horsemen saving the world but in reality I got a story of two teenagers in love.

Seeker is a good follow-up to Riders and had it moments but overall I felt as though it was missing that spark that made me love the first book. The progress of the story was slower than I liked and there wasn’t that much going on. Daryn, Gideon and team were sitting around for most of the time than fighting the harrowings and when the big scene came at the end it was anticlimactic. With that said, If you’re looking for answers and a wrap up to the events in Riders then Seeker definitely deliver on all those front. But I was hoping for more and had high expectations for Seeker which fell just short of being great.