Fiona is confident and fulfilled by her work and her role as a mother. She finds love and support from her brother and best friend, From the outside things are going well. However, she feels emotionally stuck. She wonders if she is missing romantic love and feels like she has forgotten how to dream. Outside of work and motherhood, she has lost her identity. So when her estranged, hippy mother gives her the tools to explore her heart's deepest desire through her dreams, Fiona takes a chance and begins exploring a dream world where her nights are spent on a tropical island with a handsome man called Aaron. Will her dreams become reality?

This book includes:
- a love triangle/maybe it's a love web? idk
- mini cameos from some of Sarah Ready's other popular characters
- dream life vs life of your dreams dilemma
- missed opportunities and regrets
- second chance romance and friends to lovers
- TW: gun violence but just in one scene

"Fated" is a reflection on what it's like to have everything in life, but give up your personal life to do so. Watching Fiona realize she is unhappy and trying to navigate the epiphany was interesting, especially since her adult life is very privileged. I enjoyed that the book acknowledged that women have the right to have deep desires behind their fulfilling careers and roles as mothers.

I am a huge fan of Sarah Ready and constantly reflect on the impact her books have made on me. They are delightful to read and are each as impactful and wonderfully excruciating as the last. Unfortunately, this one didn't hit the mark as well for me. "Fated" is well written with a cast of interesting and dynamic characters. Nothing can take away from that. Fiona's general demeanor was very realistic and three-dimensional (which is great) but she's just not my cup of tea. Maybe she was too real for me haha. Each of her decisions stressed me out so badly, and I felt like she was engaging in some infidelity even tho technically she never was. I DNF at 90% because the book just gave me so much anxiety and I couldn't do it anymore. Again, this is not a reflection on the writing or even the plot, just wasn't a match for me. Sarah remains one of my instant-read romance authors.

I received this audiobook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC, and Sarah Ready for the opportunity to review this book. This review is also available on my GoodReads - check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863

For being the third book in a series, this book takes place before book one since Daniel is still single and hooking up with random people all the time. Characters from book two are not mentioned.
This book took four years too long to read. I felt like it just kept going and going and going. Fiona wouldn't stop talking, and I found myself rolling my eyes more times than I could count. The plot dragged. There was zero depth to any of the characters. And the romance was hard to get behind when I repeatedly thought of how Fiona willingly and knowingly led Max on. That's not something you do to your "best friend". I lost a lot of respect for her over that.
The writing is poetic, but it's way too over expressive and wordy, which takes out some of the magic.
I'm not a fan of the infidelity plot line, because in actuality, that's exactly what this is. She was with Max in her real life and with Aaron in her dream world, and it was just too much.
The plot hole with the shooting is a glaringly big one. Surprising, since it's what sets this whole story into motion.
"We got married a month later". I'm sorry, but that's way too early to get married to brand new people when you have children who have never met the other person. Sure, in this magical realism world it's fine, but I find it less romantic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for an ARC of this title.

Sarah’s stories are so beautiful, magical and uniquely different from other books I’ve read. She takes us on a dreamy adventure filled with amazing characters, magcial/paranoramal aspects and a delightful HEA.

I had to really pay attention while listening as Fiona traveled in her dreams. Sarah writes with beautiful detail giving us a perfect vision of the location, characters and emotions they are facing.

Shakira Shute has an amazing voice and delivers a beautiful performance. She gives perfect emotion, personality and voice to each of the characters. An amazing listen!

Oh my god, this book was 13/10! I loved this book so much I don't even know where to start! The characters were all perfection, the story was outstanding, the ending was perfect, the emotions this story brought me were tear worthy, I just loved this book so so much, it might be my favorite of the year! If you love romance, you HAVE to read this not even joking it was great!

Wow, I am so impressed with the epicness of this story. The amount of story telling, love, adventure, urgency and character development that was packed into this book in the confines of 400-ish pages is wild. Truly- this book almost felt like a fantasy-romance series. Somehow Sarah Ready was able to pack a huge punch without having to drag us along. Her prose is vivid, without being too flowery. Her characters have such depth and emotion. Each book in this “Ghosted” series has been so fun to read, and so impactful.

Here we follow Fiona, a wealthy heiress and businesswoman, who runs her family’s Swiss watch making company. The story unfolds after Fiona is shot by a madwoman at the family’s famously grand NYE party. She’s left with questions no one can seem to answer. Later, Fiona begins to dream of a sultry tropical beach and a fantasy man, who must be too good to be true. She spends her days trying to decide how to move forward, and make the best choices for her and her young daughter, but yearns to be able to sleep, where she is finding herself at her most contended. But what if her fantasy world could actually be reality? And what if everything she has fallen in love with is put in mortal danger? Is it possible to go back into time? To change your fate?
…..perhaps being part of a clock making family holds the secret to time that can save everything and everyone she fallen in love with.

I can’t rave about this story enough! There is a reminiscence of The Nutcracker in the setting and through one of the plot devices, a gift, that I especially loved. I will admit that the book developed slowly, which a bit of action in the beginning, followed by a large chunk of slow relationship building and internal conflict that at times made me put the book down. But once I began to sink into the romance and the conflict circled back, I could not put it down. The ending had me in an absolute chokehold. 4 ⭐️

*I was lucky enough to receive both the digital and audio arcs of this work and really recommend the audiobook version. The accents specifically really transported me into the story!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for these advanced copies, in exchange for my unbiased review!

This is the third instalment of the Ghosted series by Sarah Ready. These are all stand-alone novels, but each one deals with some type of magical or mystical element.

In this book, our heroine Fiona runs her family's Swiss watch company. She is a workaholic and unlucky in love. On her birthday her mother gifts her a family heirloom timepiece that is said to have magical properties that lets you dream your hearts desire. Fiona falls asleep holding this watch and wakes up on a tropical island, with a husband and kids. After a huge shock, Fiona realizes that she can visit this family in her dreams, and becomes quite fond of them.

This is a wonderful, magical story about fate and found family. The locations of Switzerland and the tropical island were so amazing to read about. All of the characters were fully formed and interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for the advanced listener copy. The audiobook is great and narrator Shakira Shute was wonderful. I loved this book, as I have all the books in this series and I highly recommend this audiobook.

Fated absolutely wrecked me, in the best way. Fated is a story about love, loss, hope, and time. Set in 2 different worlds, Fiona's real life and the life that she dreams (literally), Fated takes you on a journey of what could be and what sacrifices you are willing to make to capture a dream that seems impossible. I typically don't read magical realism, but Fated sucked me in from the beginning. The imagery is beautiful and both Sarah Ready's writing and Shakira Shute's narrating make you feel like you are living through Fiona as she decides what type of life she wants to live.

Fated is longgg at almost 14 hours which means I spent a lot of time anxious, with my hand on my chest, waiting to see how / if Fiona and Aaron could get their HEA. This is the first time in a while that a book has captured my emotions and kept me guessing throughout the whole novel. I would definitely recommend to anyone who loves romantasy, time travel, the power of dreams, or anyone who wants to step slightly out of the box of what they normally read. Fated is the 3rd book in the Ghosted Series, but can be read as a standalone. The setting of this book is before book #1 of the Ghosted Series so I actually would recommend starting with this one if you haven't read the series yet (I have not read the others, but definitely will now).


Thank you to Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC and NetGalley for this ARC to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Wow, this audiobook was a journey!

My heart was pulled all over the place: glowing, torn, glowing, and torn again. I didn't want to stop listening because I needed to know what was going to happen. Every time I thought the storyline was settling, it was upturned again!

The writing is beautiful, it flowed well, and the narration really emphasises the beauty of the book.

Now to find more of Sarah's books!

5/5 stars
1.5/5 spice

Tropes:
Alternate reality/time
Single mom
Magical realism
Fated mates
Slow burn
Single POV

I was in agony with this book. There was angst, sweet moments, and absolute heartbreak. The summary had me intrigued, but I already knew that some type of magical realism would be involved, having read the other two books in this series. I was blown away by the whole plot and the twists, especially at the end. You can read this as a standalone, but the other books are also worth a read.

I got to listen to the audiobook, and the narrator did an amazing job bringing these characters to life. Overall, I highly recommend this book for fans of magical realism and fated mates. This one delivers 🙌🏽

Thank you to Netgalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for the ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review an early copy of this book. Fated by Sarah Ready will be released July 16th, 2024.

I want to start of by saying that I LOVE Sarah Ready. Her past two books have been absolute favorites of mine, especially Ghosted, so when I saw an ARC become available to Fated, you bet I jumped on that request button. However, this book did not provide the same amount of excitement and attention-grabbing effects as the past books by this author have. That's not to say that the book was bad - it was a great story, it just wasn't my favorite. The whole idea of dreaming into another life is something that is super interesting to me, but I just couldn't stay focused on this book for the life of me. Towards the end, though, I was really eager to find out how she was going to wrap the story up. Totally worth the read.

I love this series! The premises are always so out there, and even when they seem too far-fetched, I get hooked every single time. Sarah Ready is such a creative writer, there were twists in the book that I did not see coming. If you haven't read this series and you like rom-coms and sci-fi, this is a perfect mix.

Fiona has been avoiding love for years. Ever since her fiancé broke her heart and left her pregnant, she has closed herself off to the idea of romance and forever. She has focused on her business, her daughter, and her brother. And that has been enough. Until it isn't. A near-death experience realigns her feelings about the future. She can no longer avoid it. She's lonely and wants to fall in love. Her family's antique pocket watch comes into her life and shows her a man that she simply cannot resist. But he's only in her dreams, right?

I loved this book! I adored Switched, but this.....this is something else. My jaw dropped at some of the parts of this book. It broke my heart. It made me happy. It had it all. The audio was also very well done and I highly recommend it.

Ready does it again!!

Like Switched & Ghosted I found Fated by Sarah Ready just as captivating!

The FMC, Fiona ( older sister to Daniel in book one Ghosted) the CEO of a Family Watch company & workaholic, gets a magical family watch that allows her to dream of a different world, one where she is married with two kids. Only she us also having an affair with her husband’s, best friend. A far cry from her quite single mom life in Geneva, Switzerland and one where she thinks she will never meet her own true love and is contemplating marrying her best friend.

This wonderful story included found family, magical realism and soulmates. It will have you thinking outside of the box, dreaming of tropical locations, fated mates and love meant to be. It also reminded me a bit of some of my favourite movies, THE LAKE HOUSE with Sandra Bullock & JUST LIKE HEAVEN with Reese Witherspoon.

Thank you to the author herself, NetGalley and W. W. Crown and imprint of Swift & Lewis Publishing for providing me with an advanced audio copy and e-copy. Also, a great big thank you to Kelsey Navarro Foster and James Anderson Foster for the amazing narration. I cannot wait for book four WISHED out later this year.

This wonderful book is released on July 16th! Definitely recommend grabbing a copy.

Title:Fated
Author: Sarah Ready

Genre: Romance
Read📕:Audiobook (NetGalley)
Narration:Shakira Shute (I think Shakira was excellent at narrating Fiona)

Rating🌟: 🌟🌟🌟.5
Spice🥵: 🌶️
Tropes: Found Family & Opposites Attract
Language: Light

I'll start off with I haven't read/ listened to the first two books in this series. But I enjoyed listening to this book. Fiona (Main Character) Was a single parent and work at her family's (Father) business. This business was a watch company. She was given a family heirloom that sends her to another time where easier and simpler.

It wasn't hard to follow but most of the story is not in present day its in the form of a dream state. She is kinda in a confusing state of having multiple men at the same time but two of them are in the dream state, while one is present its a bit confusing but I'm sure if you have read the previous two books this one would make a lot of sense with characters and timelines.

Kinda was just hanging on and towards the end I was finally brought in and enjoyed the remainder of the book was a whirlwind of emotions so I would prepare yourself for that.

I do think a character in the dream story line (Max) should be a possible book idea for Sarah as I feel he should get a happy ending.

Overall I did enjoy this book and I'll be looking to listen / read the previous two.

Thank you to the publisher Swift & Lewis, Sarah Ready & netGalley for Advance Copy Read (ACR) IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW🤍

This series: I am really enjoying it and I haven’t really been much of a romance reader! I am also becoming a Sarah Ready fan.

Now Ready brings us the third in the Ghosted series: Fated. Even though this is a series the books can be read as standalones. The connection for Fated to the others is that Fiona is the sister to Daniel, who was a focus in book one. It does seem like possibly that this story occurs before book one.

I did struggle with this one, but I wanted to continue it. Once it got to about 80% the direction of the story changed and I became fully and 1000% invested! It even makes me want to start the novel again at some point, because… well…. Spoilers, so I can’t say! Part of my issue may have been the narrator with her accent. I did check and there have been different narrators for each book in the series.

I really have enjoyed this series and was very excited to see that there is a fourth book coming out October 1: Titled Wished and I hope it lives up to the others in the series. Ms. Ready, it seems like you are trying to turn me into a romance reader, which is something since I have just gone through a divorce!

And I have to say: I REALLY LOVE these covers!!!

Many thanks to the publisher for granting me an alc to listen to and review! I’m hoping to be able to get a listen in on Wished!

thank you so much to netgalley for providing me an early audio copy in exchange for an honest review!!

the fact that i ate it up in three listens says a lot about what i feel about this book 😱😱
i just couldn't stop listening!!! the drama was so interesting and i adored the minimal fantastic element in it. it didn't feel like the third book in the series at all so it can be read as a standalone, and apparently it's even better because it sort of happens before the first book?? either way, it can stand on its own.
at first i was kinda sceptic because i was liking the two guys, both sweet and interested in the wellbeing of the MC. but then Aaron slipped into my heart and i couldn't wait until the next time he would show up, he was just THEE guy 😍😍😍
THE THIRD ACT DRAMA???? NAAAH COME OOOON, I WAS LITERALLY SHAKING AND SWEATING MY HANDS BECAUSE I WAS SOOO NERVOUS, I WASN'T EXPECTING IT AT ALL 😱😱😱 but i adored how it got resolved, how the MC finally managed to open her heart, though every time she said "this is a dream" i wanted to strangle her and say NO, YOU DUMBASS LISTEN TO MEEE 😭😭😭
just a really good romance. and the narrator did an excellent job at the voices and the narration. i adored it from start to finish, pleaaase read it!!!

4.5 rounded up
Tears were shed. playlists were made. I loved this so much and I'm so happy about it!
This is the third book in the series -it can be read as a standalone though- and it's my favorite so far. I enjoyed the narration, Shakira Shute did a great job. I loved the romance, it was sweet and heart-warming. I loved the side characters too, they were memorable (which is really important to me). I think it could've been a little bit shorter if the descriptions weren't so lengthy, they were beautifully written and I enjoyed them but I couldn't help zoning out sometimes because there were a lot of them.

I received the advanced audiobook recording of the publication via NetGalley. It comes out July 16th!

Hopeful romance about what happens when you find love, but only in your dreams.

“Falling in love was always my fear”

📚 dream world
📚 magical realism
📚 single mum
📚 standalone in a series

🌶️

|Thoughts|
This is my second dive into the Ghosted series, and its such a beautiful written and though evoking series. I intend to go back and read the first book in the series.

“If you ever need me, if you ever find yourself awake at night wanting me, I’ll be here. I’ll be here loving you”

I was a little skeptical at first, as I hardly come across stories that are able to tie together a dream world/ fake family with reality. But this story was able to come to a highly satisfying ending, that didn’t diminish the character growth.

“McCormick can’t leave me - he isn’t real”

An additional bonus were the quirks of the story being set in Geneva. Also, I feel like this could be counted as a Christmas story as the story is bookended by the festive season.

”In dreaming we do all the magical, wondrous things we are afraid to do in waking life”

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher & author for this arc in exchange for this honest review.

What a wonderful love story!

I could totally feel the connection between the love interests, and the author definitely knows how to keep the readers at the edge of their seats.

This book will tuck at your heartstrings in such a new and imaginative way! No clichés needed! I had some doubts in the beginning, but both love interests are such incredible and genuine characters that you can't help but root for them. A lot of the side characters, especially all the children, are also very likable and well-rounded. Paired with the amazing island and Geneva atmospheres, this is a feel-good book with some definite suspense.

I did not realize that this book was a part of a series, but you can absolutely read this book as a standalone. After reading a bit into it, it seems that each book in the series is a love story that is supernatural in some way or other, but the supernatural occurrence is always different, so you'll be surprised each time around. I enjoyed this book so much that I will go back and read the two previous books as well, so if you're only starting, it is probably worth it, to read the other books in the series as well.

I can recommend listening to the audiobook. The production is very well suited to the plot and was easy to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing, LLC for gifting me this ALC of the audiobook to review. All opinions are my own. I was not paid to leave this review.

Fated (Ghosted Book#3)-Fiona the heroine is Daniel's sister from book 1, but it can be read as a standalone

By Sarah Ready-I've read Ghosted & Switched 4 & 5 ⭐ reads

Setting: Geneva, Switzerland

Publication date: 7/16/24, Read 7/12/24

Format: 437 pgs. & Audio length ~ 13 hours 36 minutes

🗣️Narrator: Shakira Shute

I thought Shute did a great job of bringing a voice to each character. They fit the characters with standouts from Fiona, Buttercup, and Daniel. Their voices were the most distinct, but I could easily tell the difference between all characters. The reading style brought the story to life and the pacing flowed easily with the story. The narration and the author were in sync. The narrator paused and announced every time a new chapter came. The book had a table of contents which helped me follow along with the e-book and audio.

POV: 1st person h

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Paranormal

Tropes: Christmas, magical dreams, time travel, cheating, right person/wrong time

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley & Swift and Lewis Publishing LLC for the E-ARC and ALC🩷! I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

💭Summary: Fiona Abry is a single mother who works for the family's Swiss watch business. She's given a pocket watch family heirloom that transports her into a dream world where she's married with two children living on a tropical island.

I loved the idea of a magical watch that makes dreams feel like a reality. The description of the island was an Internet- free utopia. Fiona/Becca's husband Aaron McCormick was a loving father and husband that didn't deserve what Becca and Robert did to him.

I enjoyed Fiona and Daniel's sibling bond. They worked together and helped raise Mila. They also held each other accountable trying to have a life outside of work.


Maximillian "Max" Barone was Fiona's BFF in the present while McCormick and Robert were in her dream. He was in love with Fiona, but was willing to marry her without love. I hope the next book gives him a HEA.

Rating : 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐