Carlton from Georgia supplies the starred review this week with his take on Destiny Kills (Myth and Magic, Book 1) by Keri Arthur:

After reading all of the Riley Jenson series, I had high hopes for this book from an entirely new series. It started off interestingly enough, as the principle character of Destiny goes through a period of self-discovery, trying to remember who she was and what she needed to do.

But then the book just dragged on and on. While there was a “villain,” the antagonist(s) really never developed any personality and as such were never very interesting. And the author fell into the trap of, “I really don’t feel like writing a relationship or trying to rationalize why Destiny and Trae might wind up together, so I’ll just say that they ‘instantly know’ that they’re destined to be together.” This is a tiresome and weak way to rationalize the romance part of these books, and I had expected better from this author.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! An insightful catch of an overused trope, one that fiction could very well do without. How about a book about characters *not* destined to be together, who fall desperately in love only to be forced to separate again and again by their intrinsic differences? …not that I’m sure this would make a good story, but at least it would be different. Thanks again for penning this week’s review, Carlton.