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Saturday, 3 December, 2011 12:28 PM

Hilary Duff's sophomore novel, Devoted, makes a great holiday gift

by Jason Rzucidlo americajr@americajr.com

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Hilary Duff is best known as an actress, musician and entrepreneur. Many people I spoke with didn’t know she was an author. Simon & Schuster released her first book, Elixir, on Oct. 12, 2010. Then, the sequel, Devoted, was published on Oct. 11, 2011. The second book begins where the first book left off. Both are all works of fiction.

I received an advanced copy of the book from the publisher for the review. Having not read the first book, it was a little hard to follow. If you only read the first four chapters, you will probably be lost too. However, keep reading. The fifth and sixth chapters will explain what happened in the first four.

Devoted focuses on a girl named Clea Raymond, who is pursuing a photojournalism career. The book opens as she is riding her horse named Roosevelt. Clea’s father died and she is visiting his memorial. She goes on a long journey to look for her soul mate, Sage.

There are two voices in this book. The chapters in plain text are the words of Clea. However, the chapters in italics are the words of Amelia, a woman that is trying to encourage Clea to move on. Amelia can only be heard, not seen.

Anyone who drinks the elixir of life will have his or her lifetime extended by thousands of years. It also magically repairs your body if you get hurt. Sage was one of the people who drank the elixir. Amelia’s family also drank the elixir. That includes her mother, father and grandfather.

Sage was Clea’s boyfriend a few years ago. They spent lots of time together. Clea had dozens of photos from the time they spent together.

Clea searches for information on the elixir. She looked through her father’s files and asks all of his co-workers. Nobody seems to know anything about it. Clea and her friend Ben went driving to look for Sage. Meanwhile, Clea was dreaming of the memories she had with Sage.

Clea and Ben flied to Cincinnati to look for Sage. They went crawling in the old underground subway. There, they met up with Sloane, the leader of the Cursed Vengeance (CV), who took Sage, but would not reveal his location. Sloane said she would give Clea one chance to have Sage, but if she screwed up, the CV would kill him.

Amelia’s family has this idea to kill Sage so they can get his elixir from his body and give it to the CV. The only way it will work is during a special ceremony if Sage is tied up to a pole and if a dagger enters his heart. It can only take place under a full moon within one minute, from the strike of midnight to 12:01 a.m. Then, the elixir of life will be drained into a bowl that can be given to others to drink.

A group of people known as The Saviors said they would help Amelia’s family kill Sage. Now, Ben and Clea would have to fight the CV and The Saviors in order to gain access to Sage.

Later in the book, we learn that Amelia changes her mind and decides to help Clea on her journey to find Sage. Amelia’s mother notices that she is not supporting her decisions. Her mother gets very physical with Amelia throughout the book and hurts her several times. Amelia left several subtle clues to make sure Clea was heading in the right direction.

Will Clea ever find Sage? If so, will they ever be reunited again? Those are questions you will answer when you purchase the book or borrow it from the library. The ending was very surprising, definitely not what I expected.

I really enjoyed this book by Hilary Duff. I was amazed by what she wrote in Devoted. Since it was a work of fiction, I was very impressed by the stuff that she thought of. She used words and sentences that were simple to understand. Go Get It!

OVERALL REVIEW: A

Look for Devoted at bookstores everywhere.

ISBN# 978-1442408555 / Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers / (October 11, 2011) / Hardcover: 368 pages

Graphic credit: Simon & Schuster

The front cover of Hilary Duff's novel, Devoted.