Storm of Visions
The Chosen Ones, Book #1
By Christina Dodd
ISBN# 9780451227638
Author’s Website:  http://christinadodd.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Storm of Visions is the first installment of Christina Dodd’s The Chosen Ones series.  In it we meet Jacqueline Vargha, who’s living in Napa Valley and working at a local winery.  Until one night her past walks in the door in the form of Caleb D’Angelo.

In this book we learn that something happens when a child is abandoned.  Every seven years there are seven Chosen that manifest themselves.  These are people who were abandoned as children that have some kind of special gift that is only given to those that were born with no love.  Then, there are the Others that were also abandoned as children, but they are taken in by evil, the devil himself.  There is a war that rages between the Chosen and the Others and it’s not looking very good for the Chosen as each cycle their powers are less and less potent.

Jacqueline is one of the Chosen, but she refuses to take her place in the war.  Which is exactly why Caleb has made a reappearance in her life.  It is time for the choosing when the new Chosen take their place and commit themselves to the mission.  Caleb works for Jacqueline’s mother and has been sent to retrieve her.  He drags her back to New York kicking and screaming for her to take her rightful place as the new Chosen’s seer, which will replace her adoptive mother’s place as seer.

But when her first real vision is one of her mother being killed in a plane crash it sends Jacqueline reeling and makes her face a truth that she’s never wanted to face; she loves her mother.  Jacqueline was also injured during her vision.  Is she just that powerful that she was able to be hurt by what she saw as if she was really there or did somebody step in while she was in the trance of her vision and try to kill her?  That is the question that Caleb is asking and he won’t stop until he finds out the answer and assures the woman he loves (and has loved for years) is safe.

I really didn’t know what to think when I started reading this book, but I quickly fell in love with the story.  It’s an easy fast-paced read that had me hooked all the way to the end.

The war between the Others and the Chosen is interesting and it reminds me a lot of J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood with the war between the Brotherhood and the Lessening Society.  With that comparison in my mind I found it to be quiet the coincidence that J.R. had a quote on the cover about Dodd’s writing.

I really enjoyed Caleb and Jacqueline.  I wasn’t sure I would considering the first scene in the book with them alone he seems a bit too dominating and controlling until you realize they know each other and she loses her resistance.  I’m glad he quit being a jerk after that and I truly loved seeing how much he cared for her, even though he was forced by her mother to leave her alone up until the point she sent him to retrieve Jacqueline.  I really loved the flashback of the first time Caleb came to Jacqueline’s rescue and the time they spent together afterwards, especially the hot sex scene!!  This couple is pure electric and they left me begging for more.  I also enjoyed the scene where Caleb took Jacqueline to meet his mom and between talking to Mrs. D’Angelo and the stuff Jacqueline found in the attic she discovers that Caleb really has loved her for years!  And, I loved the humor as well…

Caleb came to his mother’s side and helped her to her feet. “Besides, if you rest, then I am free to make love to Jacqueline.”

“Caleb!” Jacqueline had been worried she would say the wrong thing. Instead, Caleb had put his foot in it.

But obviously all the cliches she’d ever heard about Italian sons were true. He really could do no wrong, for Mrs. D’Angelo shook her finger at him–but she said indulgently, “You are incorrigible.”

“Ma, I’m just trying to get going on those grandchildren you want.”

We didn’t get a whole lot of information on the supporting characters, but we got enough to understand what was going on between them and to get a feel for their purpose in the book.  I’m looking forward to getting to know them better as the series progresses.  And, I hope we get to see more of Jacqueline and Caleb even though they aren’t the lead characters in the remaining books of the series.