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Jan 21, 2011

Elisa rated it:

Cute, but lame. I didn't expect anything deeply brilliant or life-changing or anything form a kitschy humor book with a cute twist on an old theme, but the execution of it all was still weak. It felt like an unfinished draft that didn't take itself seriously--even (especially?) in the humor. The seeds are there for what could have been a sophsicatedly handled comedy based on moving meaningfulness, but they were left lazily unpolished. The prose in this book reminds me of the titular character's More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 16, 2011

Lindsey rated it:

i just basically have to say, READ THIS BOOK!!! i'm not usually a big humor type of reader but this book may just change my mind, that is if i could find other ones this good!! i absolutely loved the satire mixed throughout and actually found myself laughing out load several times. i don't want to give any of those moments away and since i know i definitely can't do this book the justice it deserves in my review i'll just say once again, everyone should read this book, seriously! even if you thi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Rachel rated it:

This was a really creative twist on Fate (pun intended...maybe). It was laugh out loud funny and I think I may have enjoyed it more than Browne's other book, Breathers. That's a toss up. I love me some Zombies. But my other love is mythology. I love the embodiments Browne gives so many of the concepts that exist in mythology. The love story between Fabio and Sarah is really sweet and realistic. The book does get dark but I think it comes out very hopeful. A highly enjoyable read.

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 17, 2011

Vincy rated it:

Fate (who calls himself Fabio) is getting bored. He's been alive hundreds of thousands of years and, quite frankly, he's getting sick of all of the mistakes the 82% of humans he's in charge of make. He's jealous of (and sometimes hot for) Destiny and her humans that are destined for great things. His best friend, Dennis (who just happens to be death) hasn't spoken to him in over 500 years since Fabio asked him to bend the rules a little and kill Columbus, so their workload would stay manageable. More...

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Sep 26, 2011

Andrea rated it:

The thing about Fabio is that he's Fate, and being Fate kinda sucks. Over several thousand years, he's handed out the fortunes to billions of humans (not great fortunes, mind you, as greatness lies on the path of Destiny). More often than not his humans have a habit of screwing everything up, often veering off their mediocre paths into something even more miserable, forcing Fabio to reassign their fortunes on a constant basis.
Watching this happen over and over again leaves apathetic and bo More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Cheryl rated it:

Fated is about Fate, who’s been around for more than a quarter of a million years. A quarter of a million years of watching humans who are put on his path (over 80% of us) making the wrong choices and rarely living up to their potential. He doesn’t get the Pulitzer Prize winners or the people who discover cures for diseases. Those humans are on the path of Destiny, who, it turns out, wears all red all the time, is more than a little slutty, and not very nice. After all this time, Fate, a.k.a Fab More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2011

Deborah rated it:

"Fated" starts out decently enough, the premise that all attributes, sins, emotions and life paths are personified is intriguing. The story starts to break down with the introduction of the Sara character.

While it soon becomes obvious that she is "destined" for something great (by repeated mentioning from the main character), the reader can't help but wonder if there is a lot of the author in the Sara character. Or if she is meant for the reader to insert themselve More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2010

Jason rated it:

Fated by S.G Browne
The thing about Fate(Fabio) is he’s tired of his job. After centuries of going about the business and monotony of filling quotas and filing reports to Jerry(God) about his humans, Fabio Delucci feels an irresistible pull to help his humans to make better decisions. After all, why should Destiny’s humans get to have all the fun? While hers go on to win Nobel prizes, Super bowl MVPs and more, his humans seem to always be one poor decision away from divorce, adultery, drug More...

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Dec 04, 2010

titania86 rated it:

Fabio Delucci is Fate. He is entrusted with the task to stand by and watch as most of the population ruins their lives. Destiny has the much better job of guiding those in a more positive direction, but Fate has the child molesters, drunks, and general ne'er-do-wells. Not exactly a laugh fest. His life, after about 250,000 years, has become routine and dull. He hates his job; his no-contact affair with Destiny is empty and unsatisfying; and he doesn't really have much else going for him. Until h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 06, 2011

Theresa rated it:

I think I was fourteen when I discovered Piers Anthony. I don't know where he ranks among fantasy/sci-fi fans, but he had a lot to do with my adult taste in fiction. I loved his "Incarnations of Immortality" series, perhaps because of my earlier infatuation of Greek mythology, and the idea that there could be modern incarnations of Death, Time and Fate really resonated with me. So it's little wonder that Fated by S.G. Browne, which offers another take on the personification of Fa More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Conor rated it:

Fated
S.G. Browne
352 pages

Fated explores immortality, virtue, sin, politics, religion, fate, destiny, and karma all in less than 400 pages. S.G. Browne does it in such a subtle way that the reader may not always be aware of it. Fated is about altering destiny through the eyes of Fabio, fate himself. Fabio has an ongoing feud with Dennis, death, an on off relationship with Destiny (better in bed than Lust, Glamour and Temptation), and reports to Jerry, God himself. He occ More...

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Feb 25, 2011

Angela rated it:

Did you know that various immortals watch us at every moment? They do, and they report to God, who prefers being called Jerry. But they're not supposed to interfere with us humans. In fact, Rule Number One is Don't Get Involved.

Fate, however, has broken Rule Number One. He's fallen in love.

Fate, who prefers being called Fabio, has grown tired of watching all of us screw up and wander off the paths he assigned us when we were born. This creates new work for him, assig More...

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Oct 18, 2010

Lydia rated it:

I have to admit that I laughed my way through this book. The humor was just the right kind - that kind that tickled my funny bone even though I wouldn't normally laugh at the subject matter. With that said, some of the laughter was because I couldn't believe I was reading a book (and sympathizing) with a character named "Fabio". "Fabio" is Fate. But he doesn't like being called Fate. So instead of a name like Frank ... he chose Fabio, and all I can think of when I say th More...

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Jan 26, 2012

Angela rated it:

What do you do if you are an immortal that controls Fate? That is the question that Fate, aka Fabio in human form, faces every day. Fate is in charge of making sure humans follow their fate path to the lives they are supposed to lead. However, Fate is NEVER supposed to interfere with a human’s final path. What does that mean? Well, it means that no matter how bad of a decision a human makes (and how far off the original fate path that will put them), Fate can never help them make the correc More...

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Jun 24, 2011

Joshua rated it:

I'm actually giving this book 3.5 stars, even though there isn't a rating for that..I love this author and his humor, and am excited to see more from him..I loved his first book Breathers, so i was interested in this book solely because his name was attached to it. The book is about a man who is immortal and is assigned to Fate, which allows him to deal out people's fate in life..Along the way you meet not just Fate aka Fabio, you meet Death, Destiny, Lust, Sloth, Chance, Truth, etc..I loved tha More...

2 comments like

Feb 03, 2011

Jasmine rated it:

okay so I picked this book up because it looked terrible. yeah no really that was my justification. I finished a book at work and didn't want to read the other book I had with me, so I went to the fiction section looked at the cart and picked up the stupidest looking book (well once you edit out the genre fiction on the cart. I mean it wasn't a nora roberts kind of moment.) The back of this book just terrible. the blurb sounds retarded and like the author had no idea what he was doing. the cover More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2011

Sam, the night owl rated it:

Oh boy, where do I start. Let's start with what I did like about this book.

For what it was, I sort of liked the storyline. It kept me reading until the end (The ending, however, I didn't like, but I'll get to that later).

Secondly, it's very easy to read so the book goes by very quickly. It took me only two days to read this without putting much effort.

And uh... that's it.

This book had a lot of potential to be something meaningful and clever, but i More...

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Sep 05, 2011

Rick rated it:

Brilliantly executed and original novel that made me laugh out loud several times. Mr. Browne is a gifted writer who combined mythic and religious characters as modern day contemporaries living amongst us as they carry out their various duties. His coterie of characters includes Sloth, Greed, God, Destiny, Persistence, Karma, and the protagonist, Fate (who goes by the name, Fabio), among others, mostly living in New York City in expensive apartments living the lives of their job descriptions: More...

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Jan 15, 2012

Jeane rated it:

The thing with reading out of your comfort zone is that you can have great suprises and bad ones. Reading about fate, destiny, eadth, ... in a fiction story isn't really for me. Just like satiric novels. But winning a book is always great, so you read it even if it doens't look great fun.
Fated, is one of the two books I won which are written by S.G. Browne. From the beginning it felt light and fast which I thought was a good thing for the kind of book I normally don't read. In case it real More...

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May 10, 2011

Kristin rated it:

I am torn about how to rate this book. I settled on 3 stars because without the end, it would’ve been a 4.5 star book. The ending deserves negative stars.

I purchased this book for my sister for Christmas on impulse after seeing it on the shelves at Borders (which won’t be happening again since they’re closing all of them. Thanks for sending me into the cold arms of Amazon!) and after she read it, she told me she thought the ending was so stupid, that she couldn’t believe how awful it More...

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Nov 28, 2010

Lauren rated it:

Fate – preferred moniker, Fabio – is an immortal in charge of the life paths for 83 percent of humans. Then he meets a mortal who happens to be on the path of Destiny and, despite it being against the rules, falls in love. This book is another entry into the currently popular trend of inserting gods and myths into modern times. This book is a wonderfully weird combination of humor and intellectual commentary on the nature of human existence – with an engaging plot to boot. I had trouble putting More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2010

Natalie rated it:

Once the author finally gave up on the "humor" and found the severity of the story (which took way too long-3/4 of the book in), the book became what I thought it would be and more-a weird love story that makes you question existence and humanity.

I want to give it more stars because it was a better than good read and I couldn't put it down, (finished it in a day) but the excessive attempts at wittiness and the eurocentric textbook history irritated me and left me somewhat dis More...

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Nov 28, 2010

Pauline rated it:

I am typing this review mere minutes after finishing S.G. Browne's Fated - at past two in the morning, no less. I cannot contain myself, really, because a book hasn't made me laugh out loud as much as this one for the longest time, and this isn't something you can just sleep on and remember to write about in the morning. So here I am, way past midnight, gathering my thoughts, wondering where to begin.

Let's start with Fabio.

Ah, Fabio, more commonly known as Fate, the guy r More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Myrna rated it:

This book was entertaining enough. The idea that all the things that make up a human life (gluttony, honesty, secrecy, luck, death, etc...) are personified and are people walking around on Earth and controlling these aspects of their assigned human's life was different and I enjoyed that, but there were two things are really didn't enjoy: the attempts at humor in the book just ween't funny. They were way too forced in a cheesy sitcom kind of way. The second thing I didn't like: the ending. It ju More...

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Feb 08, 2011

Heather rated it:

Fate is for those too weak to determine their own Destiny. ~Kamran Hamid

click to purchase

Ever have one of those days where you knew Lady Luck wasn’t on your side? She was probably in Monaco doing her thing. Karma may be a bitch, but that’s usually only when he’s drinking. He’s an alcoholic. Oh yeah, and do you see that gorgeous redhead with the skin tight leather skirt, bustier with matching 3 inch heels? That’s Destiny and unless you happen to be in her path, no, she’s not More...

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Nov 15, 2010

Malynda rated it:

“A quirky and thoughtful reflection on what it means to be human.” – Mario Acevedo

Exactly. Being human is complicated and this book examines many struggles that humans have to deal with everyday. It’s hard for me to describe this book, but, being as the synopsis is already included on this site, I don’t really have to go into a lot of detail. It basically revolves around fate, destiny, luck, karma, and other universal energies that may or may not have an impact on our lives, depen More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 24, 2010

Catherine rated it:

Review originally posted on Fiction Vixen.

It takes a lot to get me to DNF a book. I have a compulsion to keep reading. I can’t help but think the book might redeem itself in the end. But, sometimes, I stumble across a book that is so incredibly irritating and frustrating that I just can’t keep reading. In my whole life, the number of books that I have DNF’ed can still be counted on one hand. So, needless to say, I’m not very pleased to add another to the list. Unfortunately, this More...

8 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

The thing about Fated is I was scared to read it.

I loved S.G. Browne's debut novel, Breathers, so much I wanted to savor that love forever, and was actually a little worried his new novel Fated wouldn't live up to my ridiculously high expectations.

Boy, was that stupid.

From page one of Fated, I was completely sucked into the narrative voice of Fate, known to his friends as Fabio. The thing about Fate is he's confused and tired of the same ole, same ole. I mean what c More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 30, 2011

Brigid rated it:

I just picked this off the "new book" section at the library and it was great. Fate narrates the story and dishes out the goods on a lot of the other immortal entities like Death and Destiny, as well as the 7 deadly sins, 7 heavenly virtues, attributes, and all the lesser sins and virtues--some of whom go by pseudonyms (Death prefers to be called Dennis, and our narrator goes by Fabio). Throughout the book, you get snippets from history (General Tso didn't really like spicy chicken), h More...

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Nov 23, 2010

Barbara rated it:

Thank you to Ashley, who listed this book as a "First Reads" giveaway, and to Ashley and Goodreads for choosing me as a winner of this fantastic book! I really loved this novel. S.G. Browne is a great writer -- this book is fun, funny, intelligent and definitely thought-provoking. The author has a great sense of humor and really knows how to make his readers think about life, which is what I loved so much about Fated. (Unfortunately for me, reading this book made me realize that I More...

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