Scan barcode
A review by iambethf
Destined by Jessie Harrell
3.0
I wanted to love this book. My favorite Greek myth, with a bit of a twist, sounds wonderful. But the more I read the less and less I liked it. I tried to ignore the 21st-century language to the best of my ability but that aside I couldn't bring myself to love it.
You can read plenty of reviews about the modern language in Ancient Greece so there's no point in me elaborating on it. I didn't mind the changes to the myth because they weren't too extreme, though taking out a sister was pretty big. There were a few things that bugged me to no end.
Alexa - I liked her a character, it was good for Psyche to have a friend to spend time with during the day. It's was her name that bugged me. When you have all these Greek names throughout the story why use an English nickname? Alexandra would have work perfectly, but it shortened to Alexa.
Vesta, Ceres and Favonius - This might just be a pet peeve of mine but I can't stand the mixing of Greek and Roman deities. Fortunately, these were the only three that were the Roman counterparts rather than Greek. But in truth, how hard is it to type/write Hestia, Demeter, and Zephyrus? Especially since this is clearly the Greek version (Eros not Cupid), but I'm just being picky.
Psyche was whiny. She was not as strong as she should have been, and daughter of Poseidon? I feel like that was added in at the last moment. It had no significance to the plot (until the half dying thing) and it was mentioned only a handful of times.
I also liked the idea of Psyche and Eros hating each other at the beginning, though a little cliche, it added a different element to the story. Sadly, no matter how much I wanted this to be a page-turning romance adventure, it was slow and filled with too may imperfections. So My first attempt in self-published territory wasn't the best.
You can read plenty of reviews about the modern language in Ancient Greece so there's no point in me elaborating on it. I didn't mind the changes to the myth because they weren't too extreme, though taking out a sister was pretty big. There were a few things that bugged me to no end.
Alexa - I liked her a character, it was good for Psyche to have a friend to spend time with during the day. It's was her name that bugged me. When you have all these Greek names throughout the story why use an English nickname? Alexandra would have work perfectly, but it shortened to Alexa.
Vesta, Ceres and Favonius - This might just be a pet peeve of mine but I can't stand the mixing of Greek and Roman deities. Fortunately, these were the only three that were the Roman counterparts rather than Greek. But in truth, how hard is it to type/write Hestia, Demeter, and Zephyrus? Especially since this is clearly the Greek version (Eros not Cupid), but I'm just being picky.
Psyche was whiny. She was not as strong as she should have been, and daughter of Poseidon? I feel like that was added in at the last moment. It had no significance to the plot (until the half dying thing) and it was mentioned only a handful of times.
I also liked the idea of Psyche and Eros hating each other at the beginning, though a little cliche, it added a different element to the story. Sadly, no matter how much I wanted this to be a page-turning romance adventure, it was slow and filled with too may imperfections. So My first attempt in self-published territory wasn't the best.