Destiny Awakened by C.J. CookeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great Start To A New Series
It’s always tough to start a series in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the reader with details but still allows the story to grow. This novel manages that, and what is even more impressive is that this is a debut novel, as well as a start to a series.
Aria is a 20-year-old college student, who sidelines as a cat burglar who’s work helps abused women get away from the men who abuse them. It’s a noble endeavour, that also pays her bills well and allows her to practice using her magic. Abandoned as a baby and slung into the system, she has been through a lot in her life, but she is happy with where she is now, helping other people, saving money, having fun challenging herself and helping out at the gym that helped her survive when she was young.
Her nice stable life, with enough excitement to contain her magic safely, is turned upside down when new legislation is passed enforcing all half breed magic users to leave the Earth realm and go to train with full supernaturals. No one has ever seen her kind of magic before and when she arrives at the academy she is still an outsider until she meets three gorgeous shifters who know she is something special.
This book has a lot going for it. It’s got a great strong main female character, who is confident and strong, with enough legitimate insecurities to make her relatable without being weak. I love that her magic is tied to her combat skills, which she has spent years honing. She has worked hard to achieve her strength and the magic just builds on that. She doesn’t go from ordinary human to crazy strong magic user with no foundation.
I also like the other characters, mainly the guys she meets, Kyle, the alpha of their small pack, Sykes and Liam. These three shifters are also strong but have their own flaws, though these don’t weaken them. I especially like Britt, the shifter who Aria protects and then trains. Britt is vulnerable because her society has deemed her a weak female that must be protected and controlled. Aria shows her another path that she grabs with both hands.
One of the things I wasn’t as keen on was the choice of using an academy and then half hearting it. There was very little structure to the academy and the teachers were very lax and more like friends than teachers. They were able to do pretty much what they wanted, when they wanted and Aria became a mentor, rather than receiving training herself. It felt like a plot device to get everyone together in one place, rather than a natural part of the story. I felt that the headmaster and Caleb the combat trainer were weak characters until they got outside the academy structure and then they became much more believable, because as teachers they weren’t. Once we were outside the ‘structure’ of the academy the story came to life for me.
This book is a great start for a new writer, and I love the characters so much that the plot wobbles didn’t bother me that much. I will definitely be continuing with the story because I really want to know what happens to them all next.
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