Destiny Gift by Juliana Haygert
Self-published
Ebook available now
Reviewed by: Middle
Sis Jenn
The Sisters Say:
Interesting world, Mysterious guys, but needs better imagery
A student at the secured NYU, nineteen-year-old Nadine has visions of Victor Gianni, an imaginary guy she has real feelings for. Afraid of being truly insane, she explains the visions away as simple daydreams, but she can no longer deny them when she bumps into Victor in real life. But this Victor doesn’t know her, and turns her away. After the encounter, Nadine’s visions change to those of eerie fates, gods she’s never heard of, demons with sharp claws they are not too timid to use … and instructions.
To discover if she’s losing her mind, Nadine follows the vague directions—with the real, rude and reluctant Victor—leading to a man who knows it all: Nadine can restore an ancient creed by unveiling the clues on her visions, and bring sunlight and peace to the world again. But that’s only if the demons and the other evil forces behind the darkness don’t stop her first.
I am loving the new NA trend in the book world, but since
this is a new genre, it hasn’t really begun to fill out in sub-genres such as
paranormal romance or dystopian. So,
when I was contacted by Juliana to read her paranormal NA book, I was excited
to say yes. First off, let me just say
that this is NA because it follows Nadine, a college student who is struggling
through visions of a hot guy, old gods, and ferocious demons. This is NA because of the age range, not
because of sex. There is absolutely no
sex in this book, so I would deem it appropriate for teenagers to read.
Overall, I liked the idea of Destiny Gift, although I
struggled with the lack of imagery. I am
a huge mythology buff, so seeing old gods was fun and exciting. Now, I have no idea if the mythology in this
book comes from actual mythology or if it was made up by the author because I
didn’t recognize any of the gods or the creatures. The origins of the gods was also never
mentioned in the book, so I’m thinking this is a product of imagination. Even thus, I’m a fan of anything strange or
different.
The world was terrifying, overrun with darkness (literally
and metaphorical). It had the feeling of
a futuristic sci-fi movie, where you never know what is lurking around the next
corner. I really liked this part of the
book, although I wish we could have seen some more world building outside of
New York. The setting was dark, eerie,
and definitely made me cringe at the giant bats and demons that made sudden and
deadly appearances. Still, I wanted to
feel Nadine go through these encounters, not just read about it.
There were 2 guys in this book, and both of them are
elusive. You have Victor, the man from
Nadine’s visions who happens to be a real guy.
He is shut off, rude, yet there is something about him that screams
broken. Then, there is Micah, the brooding
biker who is smoking hot and even more elusive than Victor. Of course, I’m Team Micah because I love the
bad guys. Both guys have some sort of
feelings for Nadine, but their intentions are unclear. I liked both guys, but I really wanted some
more steam. We really didn’t get
anything in the romance department, so that was a bummer for me.
The plot started off with a bang, but then started to slow
down near the middle, and then picking up again near the end. I think that had Juliana added more romance
in the middle, I would have found this more intriguing. Although I was able to predict most of the
twists that came at the end, I still enjoyed seeing them come about.
Overall, I think this was a great idea and a great world,
but it needed more flare. I needed to
feel the fear and see the darkness that entangled the world, and I just didn’t
feel like I was immersed in the story as the pages went by. But, don’t discount this book because after
reading the reviews on goodreads, most everyone else loved it. I would give this 3 stars because it was an
interesting read with some hot guys, but it was missing that edge that makes me
unable to put a book down.
