Official Review: Destiny Awaits by Jaidis Shaw

[ALynnPowers]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Destiny Awaits" by Jaidis Shaw.]

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Destiny Awaits is the first book in Jaidis Shaw’s series of the Juniper Grove Chronicles. Border-lining on young adult and new adult, this book begins as a traumatic drama and then quickly shifts to a paranormal romance with a bit of action thrown into the mix. It’s very fast-paced and a quick, easy read for anyone who loves stories containing vampires or shape shifters.

When Alayna and her parents are in a horrible car accident, only Alayna survives. A year later, the twenty-year-old decides to pack up and move to a new house in a small town for a fresh start. She befriends her handyman Jayden, and feelings stronger than friendship rapidly develop. Then Alayna learns the real reason behind the locally enforced curfew: a vampire has been stalking the town and picking off his victims after dark. Alayna is chosen as his next victim, but she somehow manages to survive his attack, thanks to Jayden’s intervention. From then on, Alayna has forever entered a paranormal world.

As if finding out that vampires actually exist isn’t enough, Alayna discovers that her new love interest is actually a shape shifter, specifically the next in line from his family of shifters to lead his clan. Additionally, Alayna herself is an anomaly, with both vampire and shifter blood mixed into her own, on top of her ability to see predictive visions when she is around water. With the vampire still determined to finish what he started, Alayna has to attempt to ally herself with the shifters in hopes of saving not only herself, but also her future with Jayden.

In all honesty, I had a love-hate relationship with this book. I loved the pace of the book; it was a quick read and very fast-paced, excluding a few unnecessary scenes that overly detailed Alayna’s hygienic routine. I loved the action scenes most of all, and I love that I was never bogged down with too many details of Alayna’s history and back-story. I loved the paranormal elements, and the fact that the vampire was a villain rather than a love interest thrilled me to no end. However, I hated the romance. Any moment related to the development of Alayna and Jayden’s relationship just made me groan, roll my eyes, and pray that the scene would end soon. Normally, I am a sucker for young love, but this particular relationship was just not that believable for me. I felt like it developed too quickly, and the dialogues and romance were nothing short of “cheesy” at best.

Overall, Destiny Awaits was an excellently written paranormal romance for young and new adult readers. The plot is unique and contains a variety of interesting characters with the potential for a lot more action and drama as the series develops. Because the romance was a bit lacking and extremely groan-worthy to me, I can’t justify giving it full marks. I give this story a rating of 3 out of 4 stars, but I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some light reading in this genre.

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[Gravy]

This sounds interesting enough...
But if the romance is really that bad?
Yikes!

[ALynnPowers]

Hey! Thanks for the comment! But trust me... I've read worse!! This was tolerable, but the other supernatural/paranormal stuff was much more interesting than the romance.

[Skillian]

bahaha! I love this review. Thanks for writing it. Sounds like a super guilty pleasure book to me. *makes sure no one is looking.... adds to reading list*

[ALynnPowers]

Ah! That would have been a perfect way to describe it in the review! Why didn't I think of that!?!?!

[Skillian]

hahaha

it's like.... romance? pleasure book
supernatural romance / cheesy romance? guilty pleasure book
supernatural cheesy romance? super guilty pleasure book
supernatural cheesy romance erotica? super duper guilty pleasure book

Did I leave out any levels? hahaha

[ALynnPowers]

I will keep those levels in mind and use them accordingly in my future reviews.

-- 15 Dec 2014, 19:21 --

[bookowlie]

Great review. It's funny how often parts of a book can be a fast-paced, enjoyable read, but some sections can make the book drag on. I loved your honesty that you hated the romance! I do find that many romance novels are good books EXCEPT for the romance parts Funny, but true.

[ALynnPowers]

Great review. It's funny how often parts of a book can be a fast-paced, enjoyable read, but some sections can make the book drag on. I loved your honesty that you hated the romance! I do find that many romance novels are good books EXCEPT for the romance parts Funny, but true.

Glad to see someone else has noticed this as well. I didn't even think it would be a romance as much as it was. And I was open to it... It just wasn't for me in this case.

[TammyO]

Destiny Awaits sounds like a nice, worthy read. Lately, I have been looking for new vampire series to read; I am especially a sucker for vampire romances however(cheesy right?). Just the fact that you rated it 3 stars makes me think this would be another "guilty pleasure". It is definitely going on my TBR list; sounds like an interesting, quick read. Also, the title is hypnotic. Great Review!

[ALynnPowers]

Destiny Awaits sounds like a nice, worthy read. Lately, I have been looking for new vampire series to read; I am especially a sucker for vampire romances however(cheesy right?). Just the fact that you rated it 3 stars makes me think this would be another "guilty pleasure". It is definitely going on my TBR list; sounds like an interesting, quick read. Also, the title is hypnotic. Great Review!

Let me know if you read it. And tell me what you think!
Let's see if we agree!

[Aspen_Reads]

This is a great review! I think that this book looks really good, and I will be sure to add it to my ever growing TBR list!

[ALynnPowers]

Completely random side note. Jaidis Shaw seems like such a sweet girl!!! I have encountered her on Facebook and Twitter since writing this review and she seems awesome. I don't know why I just called her a girl. She's a successful, admirable woman. She just looks really young...