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jadedmusingsThis isn't a review so much as me venting.
Ugh.
I've mentioned before that I am a fan of Keri Arthur, the author of the Riley Jensen novels. They're apparently classified as Paranormal Romance, but I always find her books stocked with the Sci-fi/Fantasy novels. The basic concept is that Riley Jensen is werewolf/vampire half-breed. She and her twin brother Rhoan work for an agency known as The Directorate. The books cover her shift from mere secretary to a full-fledged Guardian, and also her attempts to find true love (Stop snickering! It's good!).
Anyway, Arthur released another book called Destiny Kills. Since I have to wait until September (OMG) for another Riley Jensen novel, I thought I'd read about Destiny McCree. It was, how can I say this nicely? Disappointing is the nicest word.
I finished the book last night and learned it was meant to be a stand-alone unlike the Riley Jensen novels. Also, I'm wondering of she wrote Destiny Kills before she wrote the Riley Jensen novels. Maybe she had no luck selling it, and once the Riley Jensen novels started selling, her publisher opted to pick up Destiny Kills too? If that's the case, I can see why Destiny Kills wasn't originally picked up.
It could very well be that my reading the Riley Jensen novels made my expectations higher than they should have been, but while I won't go so far as to say Arthur is the best writer ever, she is a hell of a story-teller, and her abilities to make a compelling plot keep improving with each book. I've had Destiny Kills sitting on my bookshelf for a while, and I read it after reading the latest Jensen installment Deadly Desire. Maybe that's why Destiny came off as, to be blunt, a very bad Riley Jensen rip-off.
There are many, many similarities between Destiny and Riley. Riley is a half-breed (werewolf/vampire), and so is Destiny (sea dragon/air dragon, though she takes after the sea dragon half). Riley had a lover/boyfriend do drug experiments on her with interesting results (she had no idea, and it was because he knew about her heritage). Destiny has spent the last eleven years locked in a research facility in Loch Ness being given drugs, poked, and prodded. In the first few books, Riley is having to constantly run from and escape people who would love nothing more than to run experiments on her and attempt to clone/breed her. The scientists are tracking Destiny and would love nothing more than to run more experiments and...you get the picture.
Anyway, both Riley and Destiny worry about the drugs' long-term effects, but whereas Riley keeps developing new abilities over time, Destiny's exposure to drugs seems to be forgotten entirely. I suppose you could chalk it up to the fact that Riley was given the drugs to augment her latent abilities, but Destiny was given drugs to suppress her magic abilities and her power. However, as soon as she's out of the research facility, she's got all her powers and can even call to the sea. At one point she says they learned they were drugged when the scientists pumped them full of so much "we could taste it." Yet, as soon as she and her ill-fated friend/lover Egan are away, she shows no signs of being hampered. I suppose the drugs leave her system quickly? Yet, how does that explain the fact that her mother (who was originally taken by the scientists when Destiny was only six years old) suffers from organ failure and is dying by the time Destiny gets back to save her? I had thought there'd be some mention of the possibility that Destiny could still have medical trouble years later, but there's a happily ever after without any mention of the drugs (and yes, I realize the HEA is a staple of any romance novel, but some clarification on this would be nice).
Another thing that stood out was that Destiny appears ignorant of how mating and reproduction amongst dragons works. She knows about sex, and Egan and her are mostly forced together by the scientists, though they also find comfort in it. However, when Trae (Egan's half-brother, a draman - half-human/half-dragon, master thief, and the hero) explains that Egan's mate died before he was kidnapped by the scientists, Destiny is surprised to learn that dragons can only reproduce with their mates. It makes sense considering her father raised her and was an air dragon, but at the end of the book Destiny supposedly knows that if she and Trae have sex after her mother's soul is sent off to the forever plains, a child will be created.
Other things bugged me, and there were a few times when I nearly threw the book against the wall. So much time is spent explaining how evil the scientists and hunters are. They're made out to be righteous bastards who go so far as to kidnap a three-year old air dragon and experiment on a handful of children there at the facility in Scotland. Yet Destiny doesn't like the idea of killing her pursuers and, on more than one occasion, she leaves one or more of them alive when she has the ability to kill them. I guess you have to leave the threat of danger to make the story, but really?
I almost didn't finish the book after Destiny abandons Trae and her promise to return Egan's/his father's ring to him. It made no sense. She keeps whining about not wanting another person she likes to get hurt, but she's keeping a family relic hidden when it's been established that ring could help Trae find his sister? I really didn't get it.
Furthermore Destiny needs Trae to save her from the uber bad guy when she could have just summoned the Loch to drown the sucker the whole time? Do what now? After that, the plot wraps up too neatly. Again, I get that there's supposed to be a Happily Ever After, but it's rather hard to believe things were that easy, and so much was glossed over.
I'm actually glad that Destiny Kills is a stand-alone book. If I had read this before the Jensen novels, I wouldn't have picked them up. I've learned my lesson: Stick with Riley.
Ugh.
I've mentioned before that I am a fan of Keri Arthur, the author of the Riley Jensen novels. They're apparently classified as Paranormal Romance, but I always find her books stocked with the Sci-fi/Fantasy novels. The basic concept is that Riley Jensen is werewolf/vampire half-breed. She and her twin brother Rhoan work for an agency known as The Directorate. The books cover her shift from mere secretary to a full-fledged Guardian, and also her attempts to find true love (Stop snickering! It's good!).
Anyway, Arthur released another book called Destiny Kills. Since I have to wait until September (OMG) for another Riley Jensen novel, I thought I'd read about Destiny McCree. It was, how can I say this nicely? Disappointing is the nicest word.
I finished the book last night and learned it was meant to be a stand-alone unlike the Riley Jensen novels. Also, I'm wondering of she wrote Destiny Kills before she wrote the Riley Jensen novels. Maybe she had no luck selling it, and once the Riley Jensen novels started selling, her publisher opted to pick up Destiny Kills too? If that's the case, I can see why Destiny Kills wasn't originally picked up.
It could very well be that my reading the Riley Jensen novels made my expectations higher than they should have been, but while I won't go so far as to say Arthur is the best writer ever, she is a hell of a story-teller, and her abilities to make a compelling plot keep improving with each book. I've had Destiny Kills sitting on my bookshelf for a while, and I read it after reading the latest Jensen installment Deadly Desire. Maybe that's why Destiny came off as, to be blunt, a very bad Riley Jensen rip-off.
There are many, many similarities between Destiny and Riley. Riley is a half-breed (werewolf/vampire), and so is Destiny (sea dragon/air dragon, though she takes after the sea dragon half). Riley had a lover/boyfriend do drug experiments on her with interesting results (she had no idea, and it was because he knew about her heritage). Destiny has spent the last eleven years locked in a research facility in Loch Ness being given drugs, poked, and prodded. In the first few books, Riley is having to constantly run from and escape people who would love nothing more than to run experiments on her and attempt to clone/breed her. The scientists are tracking Destiny and would love nothing more than to run more experiments and...you get the picture.
Anyway, both Riley and Destiny worry about the drugs' long-term effects, but whereas Riley keeps developing new abilities over time, Destiny's exposure to drugs seems to be forgotten entirely. I suppose you could chalk it up to the fact that Riley was given the drugs to augment her latent abilities, but Destiny was given drugs to suppress her magic abilities and her power. However, as soon as she's out of the research facility, she's got all her powers and can even call to the sea. At one point she says they learned they were drugged when the scientists pumped them full of so much "we could taste it." Yet, as soon as she and her ill-fated friend/lover Egan are away, she shows no signs of being hampered. I suppose the drugs leave her system quickly? Yet, how does that explain the fact that her mother (who was originally taken by the scientists when Destiny was only six years old) suffers from organ failure and is dying by the time Destiny gets back to save her? I had thought there'd be some mention of the possibility that Destiny could still have medical trouble years later, but there's a happily ever after without any mention of the drugs (and yes, I realize the HEA is a staple of any romance novel, but some clarification on this would be nice).
Another thing that stood out was that Destiny appears ignorant of how mating and reproduction amongst dragons works. She knows about sex, and Egan and her are mostly forced together by the scientists, though they also find comfort in it. However, when Trae (Egan's half-brother, a draman - half-human/half-dragon, master thief, and the hero) explains that Egan's mate died before he was kidnapped by the scientists, Destiny is surprised to learn that dragons can only reproduce with their mates. It makes sense considering her father raised her and was an air dragon, but at the end of the book Destiny supposedly knows that if she and Trae have sex after her mother's soul is sent off to the forever plains, a child will be created.
Other things bugged me, and there were a few times when I nearly threw the book against the wall. So much time is spent explaining how evil the scientists and hunters are. They're made out to be righteous bastards who go so far as to kidnap a three-year old air dragon and experiment on a handful of children there at the facility in Scotland. Yet Destiny doesn't like the idea of killing her pursuers and, on more than one occasion, she leaves one or more of them alive when she has the ability to kill them. I guess you have to leave the threat of danger to make the story, but really?
I almost didn't finish the book after Destiny abandons Trae and her promise to return Egan's/his father's ring to him. It made no sense. She keeps whining about not wanting another person she likes to get hurt, but she's keeping a family relic hidden when it's been established that ring could help Trae find his sister? I really didn't get it.
Furthermore Destiny needs Trae to save her from the uber bad guy when she could have just summoned the Loch to drown the sucker the whole time? Do what now? After that, the plot wraps up too neatly. Again, I get that there's supposed to be a Happily Ever After, but it's rather hard to believe things were that easy, and so much was glossed over.
I'm actually glad that Destiny Kills is a stand-alone book. If I had read this before the Jensen novels, I wouldn't have picked them up. I've learned my lesson: Stick with Riley.
