The Trouble with Destiny

by Lauren Morrill

[Katie King]

**I received my copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Right off the bat I want to say that I've read some other reviews, and I don't 100% agree with their conclusions. I thought this certainly had cheesy or predictable moments, but it wasn't like that made up the entire book, and really, think of the genre. These are cute, fluffy books about teenagers - they're meant to be light-hearted. They aren't psychological thrillers or high fantasy with crazy plot twists or complex characters.

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I didn't go into it expecting a lot because of some of the reviews and my previous history with contemporary romance. I found that I enjoyed the plot (despite a clear lack of the actual competition part - let's be honest this is a romance), MC, best friend, two love interests, and "villain."

I thought that she would fall in love with the other guy first, just based on how he was set up, then switch. To my surprise it occurred the other way around, which was good because I think it's easy to set-up people as sensitive, artsy guy or the dumb, hot jock and have her end up with the sensitive guy. While I could see it coming once I made it to ~30%, before that I completely believed the opposite.

Some of the characters were quite flat, but like I said, think about what kind of book you're reading. These characters are here simply as a means to an end. I don't believe what happened with Liza and Demi at the end. Being someone who has experienced the same type of situation, things aren't just resolved that easily after all that time, so that rang hollow for me.

Something that other reviews mentioned was somewhat juvenile dialogue or relationships. I have to say I agree with this. These people are all supposed to be 15-18 and some of the things they say or the way they react to subjects is just unbelievable. Sure they're all in high school, but this read like it was written towards more like 13 year olds with hints of sexual activity like it's a taboo topic and can't be outright mentioned. Let's be honest, 13 year olds are having sex, they know about it, and they can handle reading about it.

Overall a quick, easy read. I recommend it as a beach read.