Destiny's Fire, by Trisha Wolfe

Title: Destiny's Fire
Author: Trisha Wolfe
Publisher: Omnific
Release: January 10, 2012
Source: A Touch of Many Reviews
Purchase: (RJ Julia | Omnific)

It’s the year 2040, and sixteen-year-old Dez Harkly is one of the last of her kind—part of a nearly extinct race of shape-shifters descended from guardians to the Egyptian pharaohs. Her home and her secret are threatened when the Council lowers the barrier, allowing the enemy race to enter the Shythe haven. As the Narcolym airships approach, Dez and her friends rebel against their Council and secretly train for battle. Not only is Dez wary of war and her growing affection for her best friend Jace, but she fears the change her birthday will bring. When Dez’s newfound power rockets out of control, it’s a Narcolym who could change her fate… if she can trust him. Dez’s guarded world crumbles when she discovers why the Narcos have really come to Haven Falls, and she's forced to choose between the race who raised her and the enemy she's feared her whole life.

I had really high expectations going into Destiny’s Fire, since all I had heard about it before reading was full of positivity and praise. I can totally see where all of these people are coming from, since I did highly enjoy this promising debut, but Destiny’s Fire fell flat in a few ways, for me at least.

Destiny’s Fire is based in a highly imaginative universe, with elements of dystopia and steampunk woven together seamlessly. Trisha Wolfe has created interesting mythology to add that much more to the world she has written. But here’s my biggest problem with Destiny’s Fire: there was not enough explanation. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for leaving out unnecessary detail, but I think a lot of detail that would really help make the story seem even more real was missing from Destiny’s Fire.

Trisha Wolfe has a fantastic writing style, and I cannot wait to see what else she comes up with. I certainly will be reading future works from her, since I think she has the potential to write some fantastic stuff. Her writing is smooth and strong, and made it easy to enjoy this story even when other things were holding me back from doing so.

The characters in Destiny’s Fire were another aspect of the novel that fell short, in my opinion. The depth I need to connect to characters in literary works was missing from Dez, Jace, Lana, Nick, and Reese. That really disappointed me, since I could feel that the characters were almost there. I am eager to see where these characters’ story leads, since I did enjoy some of their personalities. Hopefully readers will see more dimensions from them in the future.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy Destiny’s Fire, and really enjoyed Trisha Wolfe’s writing style. Maybe it’s just me, since I’ve seen tons of people who have loved this book, but I didn’t feel like Destiny’s Fire was quite there yet.