Finding Destiny
By Katrina Hart
Finding Destiny takes a very simple story and turns it into a mess of wonder. That’s a compliment! Before anyone starts shaking their heads.
The story starts off with a young boy in search of his little sister’s pony, how adorable right? In the midst of his search he finds a heck of a lot more than he bargained for. He’s actually transported to the future where the world is inhabited by humans and—get this—robots!
I’m not usually a fan of time travel, actually I marked it as off limits on my review guidelines, but I made an exception for this one. Why? Because it was awesome.
I could leave my review at that, I could end it here because that’s all that really needs to be said but Finding Destiny isn’t the kind of book to be described in one measly paragraph. It’s not a piece that a simple few sentences can explain and portray the true essence of awesome that is Finding Destiny.
Let me take you on a journey of awesome.
So we have half-breed owls, which is a crazy awesome concept on its own—I mean that in a good way!—and we have the lovely protagonist, Alex, doing everything his gentle heart can do to keep a little girl safe. That’s one of the things I loved most about this book. The characters were so easy to love, so easy to root for. I found myself yelling at my iPhone like an idiot when the emotion got intense—which it absolutely did.
I love being emotionally attached to a book. Hart has a way of sucking you into not just her book but her actual imagination when she writes. With her vivid descriptions and clever use of detail, I think I saw in my head the exact image Hart wanted to portray in this book. She truly has the hands of a writer.
Alex is someone I couldn’t help but love. His voice is very real. I really can’t imagine how I’d handle being shot into the future, but Hart makes everything about her fantasy novel seem very realistic. I didn’t have a hard time believing every word or thought that was portrayed through the protagonist. I liked that the story was told from his point of view, rather than 3rd person. It made this surprisingly emotional book that much easier to dive into.
Hart does a good job at setting the pace for Finding Destiny. Fantasy can get very long, very quickly. There’s world building, character development, plot unfolding, but Hart encompasses all of it very easily and very smoothly. The chapters were short but to the point, the characters were perfectly balanced and I was guided through the story with speed but I still grabbed every detail and understood every twist and turn. While I was reading, I kept thinking, this could be real, if only time travel were possible! That’s how wonderfully written this book was.
Speaking of well-written, I didn’t find any grammatical errors—not that the intriguing plot allowed me to pay attention to anything like that. It was easy to see the love and the thought put into this piece, when something like passion is relayed to the reader through the words on the page—that’s a sign of not just a good story but a great author.
There’s one particular detail about Finding Destiny that’s eating me up. The food! In the future we will be eating pills instead of actual food. Hart incorporated things like ‘meat capsules’ which I thought were hilariously creative. Almost more creative than the owl concept! It was really funny to see things like ‘squawk’ instead of ‘said’. I had to adjust to it because, well, there were owls in the story. But it was definitely a good way to exercise my imagination.
Aside from the owls and the food capsules, Hart has also thought of something I never imagined. She somehow transformed people’s lives and worlds into stories. I can’t go too much into detail without spoiling it for many people but one of the more emotional parts of the book involved this concept. Here’s one of my favorite lines;
“I heard the screams of the characters as their world began to die, taking their families and friends down with every burnt page. The fire simmered out.”
I distinctly remember grabbing at my heart when I read that line. It was one of the more emotional scenes. Death plays a part in this book, while its not blood and gore, rip your guts out, type of death. It’s there and it’s moving. Hart does each scene justice by putting in enough details to drive the emotion without overwhelming the reader. I appreciated that, as someone who hates crying over lost characters!
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy, time travel, or loving friendships and emotion. It’s a must read for the young and old. You can expect to have your mind blown from beginning to end.