Book Review: Destiny

Destiny

By: Gillian Shields

Published By: Katherine Tegen, an imprint of HarperCollins 

Publication Date: July 31, 2012

Buy it at Barnes & Noble or Amazon

Source: ARC provided by publisher

Audience: YA Paranormal

My Thoughts:

As much as I love Harper ARC time, this is one time where my selection hit a low note.  To fully give  Destiny a chance, I read/listened to the first three books on audio and I must say, it took me a while to get through them, as it took me steeling myself for the next onslaught. The first two books centered around Evie, who is plenty self-involved enough, but the third book was Sarah, who was the only tolerable one of the lot. I was cautiously optimistic about Helen's story....

So to recap, this series takes place in a boarding school on the moors of idyllic England. Evie, Sarah and Helen, with the long dead Lady Agnes, are sisters in the Mystic Way. They're witches, for all intents and purposes, and they even get to do battle with the evil coven, which happens to be made up of their teachers.  Trite and predictable as it sounds,  you ask? Absolutely. 

As for Destiny, I  had high hopes for Helen's story, because she was certainly the more interesting of the 3 girls, and had a lot more to work with. Alas, I found her to be petulant, moody, and surpassed Evie's whining to a degree I could never have imagined. This book is also from several POV's, which I found distracting and confusing. I would set the book down and by the time I came back to it, be it a few hours or the next day, and have to reread the chapter  before it. The POV switch may not have had much to do with that as the fact that the story limped along and didn't hold my attention.  

The premise was interesting and unique, but the "voices" of the characters were just off for me. I think some younger teens would still enjoy all four of them very much, and that is the audience it's geared for, and I feel could do quite well. It just wasn't for me personally. 

Summary: 

Everything is connected. We weave in and out of one another's lives, like circles within circles, and everything is for a purpose.

Helen has always been the "crazy" one among the girls of Wyldcliffe, scarred by her bleak past and her troubled relationship with her mother, the former headmistress and leader of the Wyldcliffe coven, Mrs. Hartle.

But Miss Scratton promised Helen that a love "beyond the confines of this world" is waiting for her. Could this be Lynton, the mysterious music student who visits Wyldcliffe for his lessons? And what about the brooch her mother gave her—what can the Seal reveal about Helen's past and future?

Now that Miss Scratton is gone, life at Wyldcliffe takes an even darker turn. An unexpected threat arrives in the form of a new high master, whom Helen remembers from her unhappy childhood. Can Helen, Evie, and Sarah finally overcome Wyldcliffe's darkness? Will Lady Agnes come to their aid? And what sacrifices must they make to fulfill their destiny?