A student at the secured NYU, nineteen-year-old Nadine has visions of Victor Gianni, an imaginary guy she has real feelings for. Afraid of being truly insane, she explains the visions away as simple daydreams, but she can no longer deny them when she bumps into Victor in real life. But this Victor doesn’t know her, and turns her away. After the encounter, Nadine’s visions change to those of eerie fates, gods she’s never heard of, demons with sharp claws they are not too timid to use … and instructions.
To discover if she’s losing her mind, Nadine follows the vague directions—with the real, rude and reluctant Victor—leading to a man who knows it all: Nadine can restore an ancient creed by unveiling the clues on her visions, and bring sunlight and peace to the world again. But that’s only if the demons and the other evil forces behind the darkness don’t stop her first.
For as obsessed as I've been about New Adult, I hadn't ventured beyond the contemporary genre until I read Destiny Gift. This book is really great for breaking apart all the labels people have taken to placing on NA lit. It combines mythology and urban fantasy, throws in a dark futuristic setting and it has a love interest that doesn't take precedence over the story at hand. Even with all these things, Nadine is still at college and dealing with the type of independence, decisions, and friends that come along with being that age. Destiny Gift really is a unique story that kept me on my toes, totally surprised me, and left me needing more.
Juliana creates her own mythology for this story. I kept trying to figure out what mythology the gods and goddesses in this story were based of of, but once I realized they were totally new I got really excited. They're very well written, so it's hard to tell that they haven't been around for a long time. I also loved that there's a nod to Greek and Roman mythologies, where she acknowledges their existence and kind of sets this structure up as the true one, even if it's fairly unknown. The gods and goddesses have their own fascinating feuds, there are scholars of the religion, and of course you have humans who are pawns in their schemes.
And of course when things blow up between gods, the whole world suffers. Which brings us to the world Nadine lives in. It's much darker and bleaker than the world we live in now, yet it's set just 30 years in the future. Natural disasters hit all the time and it's dangerous to walk unguarded in New York. Nadine attends NYU, which is heavily guarded. She's a relatively normal girl who's studying pre-med and has friends who worry she doesn't get out of the apartment enough. She's normal, except that she has visions and has fallen in love with the guy in her visions. All of these aspects come together in a really interesting way - because the visions and the mythology are really enhanced by the background of this potential future.
Then there's this guy that Nadine is in love with in her visions, who doesn't seem like the same guy when she meets him in real life and then there's Micah who swoops into her life from out of no where and it's hard to figure out why he's there. It seems for a bit that there's a love triangle setting up, but honestly the romantic storyline takes a back seat to all the action going on, so it's hard to really decide if there's enough feeling on the part of both guys to really set up a proper triangle.
I love where the story was heading, especially after it turned into a kind of avoid-the-apocalypse type of road trip. But there was a moment where I was truly stunned at the way the story took a turn and I got really excited. A lot that didn't quite fit all suddenly fit into place, but there are still a lot of things that I need answers to. I'm still really curious how Nadine fits into the larger picture, where pieces are beginning to become more clear.
I'm really happy with my first non-contemporary foray into NA and if you're looking for something different in NA lit, definitely give this book a shot. It might change your ideas of what NA is all about. Plus, it's just a great and enjoyable story. And for the next couple weeks it's only 0.99 cents. So really, why not give it a shot?
