Judith’s review of Chosen Destiny by Rebecca Airies.
Meagan’s village is under attack and she’s been accused of being a spy. Refusing to let her home fall to the Dark Sorcerer, she has no choice but to take up the weapons of her ancestors. Dealing with the two gorgeous men who come to aid her in the fight is another matter.
Samiel and Jaeson came to fight, but finding the woman whose magic matches theirs surprises them, as does her reaction. She’s so focused on the battle that she barely seems to notice the pair. With kisses and sensual caresses, they turn her attention to the desire building between all three of them.
Meagan’s tempted by their seductive touch, but defining her place in their life is difficult and time’s running out. The Dark Sorcerer has to be stopped before Meagan is free to discover if Samiel and Jaeson are offering forever—or a moment in time.
Most people who have read my reviews in recent months know that I like most books I read—I guess I read the promos and only choose those that seem compatible with my tastes along with a few that I think will expand my literary and subject horizons. I have come to like the shape shifter literature and have come to feel comfortable with vampires and demons and such. This story is based in the time of dragon-shifters, in a culture where covens of witches are located in towns and villages and where magic is not seen as dangerous or mysterious. It is not unusual for threesomes to mate, especially a dragon shifter/vampire/witch configuration. Such is the basis of this story. The main characters are interesting to me – conflicted like every life form seems to be to one degree or another, and in relationships that are not perfect. Samiel the dragon and Jaeson the vampire have been together for years, yet Samiel controls the relationship with his fears and his shut-down emotions. Now, after being concerned that they have not heard from several small villages for some time (dragons and vampires were the protectors of the witches and their villages), these two come to the village where Meagan is known as a High Witch and where the Dark Sorcerer is consistently attacking, for reasons which are still a mystery. It is here they encounter Meagan and are instantly convinced that she is their mate. The encounter does not go well, but Meagan agrees to consider the matter, but only within the context of her on-going need to protect her village and to find a solution to the constant attacks.
I found this book very frustrating. Page after page of Dark Sorcerer attacks, page after page of Dark Sorceress attacks, with repeated dialogue that seemed to be cut and pasted from previous episodes in the story. Enough already. I believed that the premise of the story was really the relationship between the main characters, but I felt that apart from the erotic encounters, not nearly enough time was given to dealing with the issues that seemed to be keeping them from feeling truly mated. Some time was given to the dragon and his shut-down emotional response to both Jaeson and Meagan, but not nearly enough time to Jaeson. By the time I finished the book I felt I knew more about Doria the witch who moved to the Dark Side than I did about this main character. And I really liked him, in fact. Yet I always felt in the threesome configuration he got “the short end of the stick.” Maybe it’s just me. If I want to read a military strategy book, I’m not going to look for it in the Romance Section. Some of this sort of content is fine, and we all know that it makes regular appearances in many romance novels. But I really felt that this book and its basic love story was entirely overwhelmed by the constant battle.
Thus, I must say that this was a book about which I commented upon completing the novella: “I really didn’t like that book.” The author certainly seems to be deeply committed to fantasy literature but I don’t think she gives enough attention to the main characters, to their relationships, and to their own intrinsic individuality.
I give this book a 2 out of 5.
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
