This is not high literature, it's a little dirty pulp and uses all the lingo and clichés of the genre.
But even if the characters are a bit flat the action is fast paced and the story just keeps moving and making me want to read a little bit more each time.

This book has nice ending, all tied up with an epilogue and all, but I get this feeling that this story is just the begining. Even if I'm not sure I want to keep reading it. ( )

Running from scientists, trying to save the captured shifters. He's a thief, but after some persuasion he helps her get to her father before he dies and helps to rescue the other shifters. Interesting story.
( )

This was an infesting book about dragons. I enjoyed it! ( )

Starts out in Oregon and she did her research! Very cool! Enjoyable exploring more of her alternative world where there are animal morphing people, this time dragons - air and sea. Wonder where she'll take it next? Will there be more with Destiny or Trae's sister? ( )

So disappointing. I like Keri Arthur -- I enjoyed the Guardian series -- but this one was a big letdown. (Sorry Keri.) The romance element of it was just too contrived and not very believable for me. It happened too fast, maybe? (Or maybe that's just how things go for dragons?) I wanted to like it. And while I haven't read the Guardian books in awhile, it had the same feel from what I recall -- rescuing trapped people from the bad guys. (Am I remembering correctly?)

Or maybe I'm just spoiled from having just read Kelley Armstrong and Julie Kenner? ( )

Okay, so I’ve read 7 books by Keri Arthur and I can’t take it any more. This is one of her more recent books so I mistakenly thought the problems I experienced with the Damask Circle trilogy, published 10 years ago, wouldn’t be repeated here.

Destiny Kills had a premise with great promise and the power to be unforgettable but it was ruined by a number of re-occuring factors concerning Arthur’s books and writing style.

First off, sex. Nothing can get in the way of sex and the I-love-yous. Not even romance. There's a lot of love-at-first-sight fated-to-be-mated because her, sometimes wooden characters, are incapable of falling in love gradually. Now, if Arthur was a writer of erotica this probably wouldn’t be a problem. But paranormal romance tends to require some sort of storyline, a reason for the hero and heroine to meet each other and for a little time to pass together before they start bumping uglies. I prefer there to be a balance between plot and sex. And plot almost always comes last with this author.

The beginnings of Arthur’s books are mostly very weak and Destiny Kills was no exception. Our heroine is on an unknown beach with a dead body with no memory of how he died, her name or what she’s doing there. Only she knows his name and his relationship to her. She knows they’re both non-human and how to traditionally dispose of his body with the proper ceremony. I’m no expert on amnesia but I have witnessed it first hand, and I find it unlikely that she would remember all of that so quickly.

I wondered why exactly the author decided to start the book at that exact point:

Timeline

Destiny’s a child when her mother is kidnapped. Destiny and her dad run away to the US.

Aged 18, attempting a rescue, Destiny is kidnapped.

10 years of confinement: includes experimentation (read: torture), forced coupling with Egan (i.e. rape), protecting the dragon children who’re also confined.

Escapes aged 28, with Egan, leaving the children behind after her mother feels Destiny’s father dying.

On the run, caught and Egan’s killed.

[The book starts.]

Beginning the book a little earlier while Destiny is still imprisoned would’ve provided better background and a sense of urgency for her escape. Obviously Arthur wasn’t scared of harsh reality and if we’d witnessed Destiny’s living conditions and how she was treated before escape I could’ve felt sympathy, encouraging me to be invested in her mission. We also could’ve met Egan who was apparently a big part of her life, before he died. The flashbacks weren’t enough. They’re too brief, often confusing with little context to fully understand what happened and the effect on Destiny’s behaviour.

Which leads me to another thing, Destiny, although not unaffected by her experience as a lab rat, she’s remarkably and suspiciously functional. I’d expect panic attacks, crying, not wanting to be touched, crippling anger –some sort of post-traumatic stress. She experiences one moment of it: when she’d had to shoot someone in the head during her escape. That’s it. She seems more concerned about dishonouring Egan by moving on too quickly with his half-brother, Trae.

Where are all the people? We live on a planet of 7 billion people and yet most of Arthur’s books (excluding Riley Jensen) contain two characters, and if you’re lucky 3 others with a sentence of dialogue each. There are no side characters, no sidekicks. There’s only one POV: Destiny’s. The scope is too narrow. They’re not the only two people in the world. Neither have friends or family. They receive no calls to check-in after going AWOL. Destiny has an excuse but then the kids, I would think, would be her family but we don’t hear much from them. Trae is an outcast who hates his father but what about friends, his mother? Not everyone is a lone wolf. Contact with other characters can be a means of showing what our heroes and heroines are really like, can provide a little light entertainment to an otherwise challenging or bleak situation, or a reason to hate the villains. Evil scientists were the villains but we didn’t get to see them being evil. We were told.

The epilogue is a rushed summary of events. Events therein could’ve been expanded so we might properly understand the effects of being confined on Destiny and the children during the search for their parents. We could’ve met Trae’s mother and seen her reaction to Destiny, figured out what kind of relationship she had with her son and how she felt about Trae’s father. Emotional relationships are very important and yet they are ignored.

I was incredibly frustrated by the lack of depth to the plot and to the characters. So much more could’ve been done to make this book special. Disappointing.


My history with Keri Arthur:
2 Damask Circle trilogy books(pub. 2001-2) [PNR]*
2 Ripple Creek Werewolf duology books (pub. 2003-4) [PNR]**
2 Riley Jensen books (pub. 2006-7) [UF]
1 Myth & Magic book (pub. 2008) [PNR]

*I own the last in the trilogy, which I may or may not read.
**The best of the bunch.
( )

The Oregon Coast may seem like a long ways away from the Loch Ness Monster, but it isn’t far enough to keep hunters off Destiny’s tail. Of course, she just might have to fulfill her destiny first. A fun read filled with magic, romance, secrecy, and honor. ( )

TBR

At the 1/2 way point I was thinking it was going to be a 4 star. It had some good fantasy involving different types of dragons and a romance that definitely had some chemistry.

Still it started getting too... unknown and haphazard in the middle and ending. They keep on being followed and found, and don't seem to have any understanding of what or who is after her. They take on the whole operation without knowing their capabilities.

So I ended up being a little bored with a bit of it because it was a lot of talk with out much information. The romance was good and the dragons were very interesting. I just wish I got to know more about them and wondered why some of Destiny's powers didn't come sooner. Like when the main bad guy comes to the room, why didn't she just call the water and drown him then instead of waiting and getting shot. And finally having to rely on Trae to save the day?

Little things like that, not enough knowledge going in to situations, not taking care of any tracers (getting a x-ray from the nice doctor she knows), etc... that left me not loving it as I started out doing. I give it 3 1/2 stars. I'll have to think longer whether I'll give it 3 or 4 but I'm leaning to 3.

I think I like 1st person better when the person is well informed and telling the options and abilities so you don't think they are going in with no idea; like Dresden, or Mercy Thompson, Kate Daniels and now Atticus (from Hounded) This would've been better with a different POV and more information from differing perspectives. I think the romance might have been better too. Still in the end, I liked it and may read another one just to see where it goes. It has a lot of potential. I really did like the dragons and their differences. ( )

The UK Cover isn't quite as pretty as the US one. This really did sound like it should have been me, dragons, in the real world? I'm there. Shapeshifting Dragons? Hell yeah, you've got me interested. However, the relationship in this story just didn't quite work. I suppose, having just read a Nora Roberts book I was expecting a more rounded relationship, a exploration of growing relationships and some evidence of past trauma making characters have to deal with issues, instead of just mentioning them, alas no, and if there was it didn't register well enough with me.

Destiny McCree wakes up beside a dead man on a beach in Oregon. There are chunks of her memory missing. Trae Wilson enters her life and they find themselves both running for their lives. They both have powers, both shape-shifting dragons. She's being chased by people who want her, who have her mother and she wants to rescue her and the others held captive.

I really did want to like this book but overall found it a bit ho-hum. ( )

Destiny Kills has been languishing on my TBR list for a while despite my eagerness to read it because Keri Arthur is Australian (like me).
To be honest I wasn’t sure I would be that interested in dragon shifters, but I quickly discovered I loved the author’s unusual mythology and enjoyed the romance. It proved the perfect distraction as I waited in Emergency for my daughter to have her finger stitched up after a mishap.
I have a stronger preference for UF than PNR and even though the relationship between Destiny and Trae was one of the common instant attraction/soul mate type I thought they worked as a couple. The mildly erotic scenes between the pair were well written and I enjoyed their banter. More importantly to me, the romance didn’t derail, or delay, Detiny’s goals to see her father before he dies and return to Scotland to save her captured mother and the group of captured child dragons.
Destiny is a half sea/half sky dragon and Trae a draman, half human / half sky dragon. Being the first in the series, Arthur sets up a lot of the background for her mythology, having her characters explain the abilities and social structure of the two types of dragons, sea and sky. I thought it was something fresh, not having read much that has included dragons, and generally the information was incorporated quite naturally into the story. Having said that there was a lot of potential in the idea to go beyond the standard formula and I was disappointed that Arthur didn’t push the boundaries a little more.
The first person point of view doesn’t always work for me but I barely even noticed it, from which I draw the conclusion it was well written. The pace and action are good, I was surprised at how quick it was to read.
Destiny Kills is a solid beginning to Arthur’s Myth and Magic series. I assume it will concentrate on a new couple for each installment so while I will happily read the next, Mercy Burns it probably won’t take precedence on my TBR list ( )

A fun foray into the paranormal. Thoroughly enjoyable. A definite fun read. ( )

From the Back Cover:

When Destiny McCree wakes up beside a dead man on an Oregon beach, she knows only this: she has to keep moving, keep searching, and keep one step ahead of the forces that have been pursuing her from the heart of Scotland to this isolated spot. Why? The death of her lover has left her alone, with little memory of her past. A glimmering serpent-shaped ring is the one clue she has - and a bargaining chip in a most dangerous game.

Enter Trae Wilson, a master thief with a sexy, knowing grin and a secret agenda of his own. Destiny and Trae both have powers far beyond the human - and both are running for their lives. Together they're riding a tide of danger, magic and lust...but with killers stalking their every move, they must use any means necessary, even each other, to survive - until the shocking truth of one woman's destiny finally unravels...

My Review:

This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it. Destiny is a sea dragon and Trae is an air dragon, and I'm a sucker for anything dragon-related. The characters are very likeable and it was easy to get drawn into Destiny's story. In the opening scene she wakes up naked on a beach next to a dead man and can't remember who she is or how she got there. The story moves along at a fast pace as Destiny begins to regain her memory and hooks up with Trae and tries to escape from the hunters searching for her. Turns out Destiny has escaped from a research lab where a group of human scientists who have discovered the existance of dragons conduct secret experiments on them, and they want her back.

I found the great chunks of background about the secret dragon cliques and their family histories to be rather awkward, even though most of the information is relayed through dialogue, but it came across as being a little silly to me, and it didn't have a whole lot of relevance to the action of the story. And the story does have a lot of action, as Destiny and Trae try to stay one step ahead of the hunters and form a plan to turn the tables on them. I would read more from this author, but as far as shape-shifting dragon stories go, I think G.A. Aiken's series beginning with Dragon Actually (Dragon Kin, Book 1), is much better. ( )

Overall this book was pretty ok. The story is interesting though it could have been a little more developed. I like the idea of dragons among us. Destiny is not as engaging as I would like but I will pick up the next book to see if her character develops further. Once reading the book the title comes off as pretty lame. My one big complaint is the sex scenes, they feel awkward. Its like they got too detailed so instead of having just enough to get you hot an bothered you feel like you were reading an instruction manual. ( )

couldnt put the book down! ( )

this was a new author for me- i picked it because the cover was a typical chick cover- hot tattooed girl half naked. I found that the read was easy- i loved the premise of the story. Hidden dragons just trying to get along in the modern world. The descriptive sex in the story came as a surprise and sadly, pulled me out of the story a bit but it wasn't shocking. I'm going to read the next book just see what happens with the story ( )

When my husband asked me why I was reading it and I couldn't answer, I knew it was time to find a better book. ( )

The book was pretty good, but I was not as interessted in the characters. I probably will not read any more in the series when they come out. ( )

Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson series is one of my favourite series to revisit - the characters are appealing, the mysteries convincing and the world-building well planned - so I was thrilled to hear she was starting a new series. Having finally gotten my hands on Destiny Kills, I'm both happy and disappointed.

The happiness stems from the fact that Arthur's created a compelling world, in this case one centred on dragons. The main character, Destiny, is just as feisty as her other heroines, and equally quippy as well. She also has the same matter-of-fact attitude towards sex.

The book doesn't seem to be set in the same world as her Riley books but this isn't ruled out either; Riley lives in Australia and Destiny Kills takes place in other parts of the world. (I'm trying to be cryptically descriptive since this book was released quite recently and I don't want to give anything away.)

The disappointment stems from the fact that the story just isn't as compelling as those in her Riley books, and the characters aren't as fresh. I don't like Destiny as much as Riley - she doesn't resonate for me the same way - but I'm willing to invest in the next installment in the series before passing final judgment.

Originally published on http://ireadgood.wordpress.com ( )

I didn't enjoy this as much as her other series. ( )

Did not finish reading this book, within the first two chapters this book had not really given me anything that I wanted to keep reading for. This was my first book by Keri Arthur, so I am not making any judgements toward her writing. ( )

I liked "Destiny Kills". If nothing else, it was nice to read about a female dragon with powers of her own!

Destiny is half air dragon and half water dragon. Of course, she doesn't know this when she awakens, in pain and bleeding, beside a dead man on the shore of an ocean, somewhere. She doesn't remember her name or the name of the dead man or how they got where they are. All she does know is that she's in trouble and there's something urgent she needs to do...if she could only remember what and why.

Trae is a draman, half air dragon half human. As a halfbreed in his father's clique (clan), he's considered 'less'. So as soon as he could, he got out. Now he's a thief and a rogue. When he sees the gorgeous woman standing in the middle of the road, he just can't resist. It turns out she's the reason his half-brother asked for his help. His apparently dead half-brother who died on the beach beside this woman, his Destiny.

This story is not a hearts and flowers one. It's a story of monsters, some of which are human. A wacko scientist has been capturing, holding, and experimenting on dragons. Destiny and Trae's brother managed to escape after eleven years, but Destiny's mother and several child air dragons are still in captivity. This is the story of Destiny and Trae's race to free those captives. It's also about magic, love, hatred, privilege, and jealousy.

I'm guessing that Keri Arthur used this book partially to set up more books in this world. There was quite a bit of information that wasn't really needed for this story, but would be for more in this world...if that makes sense. It didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story, but if that will bug you, you've been warned. Also this book is written in first person, so if you hate that, don't blame me cause I told you!

The sex is hot (and so is Trae). I would rate this about 50/50 for romance and fantasy. There's mild violence and death too. But now that I've gotten a glimpse of Arthur's world in "Destiny Kills", I want the next book...NOW. ( )

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