Thursday, October 23, 2014

Sarah Holman - Destiny of a Few

Destiny of a Few
The Destiny Trilogy


By Sarah Holman


Available on Amazon






Product Description (from Amazon)

On her quest to find the crown prince, Maria Morris faces an abundance of obstacles. Now a marked Christian, it will be difficult and dangerous for her to travel. The USF follows her every move. (as the vibrating chip in her arm irritatingly reminds her.) Yet knowing all of this, Maria puts her trust in God and, with the help of a few new friends, refuses to give up her mission. She must find the crown prince. The Destiny Of A Few depends on it.

About the Author (from Amazon)

Sarah Holman, a homeschool graduate, lives in central Texas. When not pursuing her passion of writing, she can be found taking long walks, reading, sewing or spending time with her family. You can find out more about her at her blog, Destiny of One.

O.Scarlett! REVIEW by Kendra

After reading the first book of the series, I despaired of ever getting to know what happened next. While the first had only been 99 cents, and I had been able to buy it with a gift card, I had other books on my list of want to buy that were higher priorities.

But I put them on my wishlist and to my surprise and delight, the author, with whom I had been chatting with back and forth, sent me the kindle versions of the next two books. Needless to say, I gobbled them down.

Book two begins right where book one left off. Maria is headed to Rio with her friend Quint, in search of the girl who owns the passport she had been mistakenly given in the first book. Amazingly, the girl, Winter, belongs to a Christian family, though she herself denied being one, to avoid being branded. And, it just so happens, she has connections to the planet where Maria wants to go  - the planet where the prince was said to be taken - which turns out to be the capitol planet.

So she and Winter take a visit to the girl's aunt, and Winter gets suspicious as she realizes that Maria didn't come here to sight see. She keeps trying to guilt out of Maria the real reason, and finally takes her out of town, where they get caught in a sandstorm and get lost. They get shot at by soldiers, Winter gets injured, and they're rescued by a farmboy, who takes them to his far, where we spend pretty much the rest of the book.

I really enjoyed the book, and the message is one that I don't see tackled very often in Christian works. Yes, it's easy to risk your own life for the greater good. But what happens when it's not your life you're endangering, but that of your friends, even a stranger? It was well handled.

For the most part, the book was fast paced, and moved smoothly. The cast of characters were brilliant, mostly new faces. I loved Winter, for her reluctance to give her beauty is one with which I myself can identify.

But once they reached the farmhouse, and Maria started suffering from the guilt of Winter's injury, the plot stalled. Yes, it was a necessary emotion for her to work through, but she was finally receiving answers to her riddle - and she wasn't even paying attention. Maria was supposed to have memorized the riddle - having read it multiple times every day - but she still didn't pick up on things, even when they appeared right under her nose.

Also, I was confused by why the planet the prince was hidden on what just so happened to be the capitol. In the first book, I had been under the impression that that it was an out of the way planet that was hard to get to. Maybe I just read wrong and it had been specified that it was the capitol, and I just didn't pick up on it, but I was really thrown for a loop when I realized that the prince had been hidden under the noses of those who want him dead. I mean, why? It just felt sloppy to me. And if they just "happened" to make it the capitol after he was there, that would have been too much of a coincidence.

But that aside, I really enjoyed the book, loved seeing Maria grow, and it didn't feel like a middle book. It could have been paced a bit better, but I still would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good sci-fi adventure.


Genre/Theme: Sci-fi, Christian, Adventure


Reading Level:  TEEN - upper elementary to middle school 
Profanity:  NONE - no offensive language. One of the characters does bad language when in stressful situations, but we aren't told what, exactly, those words are.
Sexuality: NONE - not even hinted at 
Other: 
Quite a bit of fighting with guns. Some characters are injured. Christians are branded with a fish symbol on their cheeks.




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