Blood Destiny Series by Helen Harper

Summary of Blood Destiny:

Helen Harper’s first urban fantasy series ‘Blood Destiny’ follows the experiences of fiery shapeshifter Mackenzie Smith. The heroine, Mackenzie Smith, is bad-tempered, foul-mouthed and has several very large chips on her shoulder but she’s loyal to a fault and extraordinarily powerful.

Length:

1417 Pages

Reading Speed:

23 hours and 10 minutes

My Opinion of Blood Destiny:

Have you ever seen Game of Thrones?

Actually, you don’t even need to see it. You just have to hear about it and it’s all the same.

It started out great but the ending sucked.

The ending sucked.

So. Badly.

I posted the review for the first book here. And it rated at a 4.5/5. And now we are down to a 2.

Let’s break it down, without spoilers.

Side Characters:

If you read my earlier review, I was absolutely for and encouraged by the way she wrote these side characters. Helen Harper wrote some side characters and gave them a life away from the main character. It is rare and realistic and I loved it here.

Here is what I noticed about the rest of the side characters. I loved the different personalities. Loved loved loved it. In the end, and I mean the last two books, the characters changed. They became revolved around the main character. Some even changed their whole life, just to help the main character go through something that isn’t even life-changing.

And here is the glaring issue:

WHY ARE ALL THE SIDE CHARACTERS MALE.

No really, once you see it, there is no unseeing it.

The wizard, the fae, the vampire, the shifters. Everyone that has some sort of drive in the plot, more than 10 lines in the book, are male.

Helen Harper could have easily made Alex a woman. The other characters, okay, them being male sort of drove some plot lines, like one character flirting with her even though he isn’t the love interest. Alex (a wizard she meets in the first book) and the shifters she was raised with could have easily been female.

A lack of supportive female characters is a huge red flag for me. There was one line that made me realize this in the third book:

“They looked relieved when I (Mack) refused their invite to their girl’s glam night.”

I’m not quoting this word for word but this is the sentiment.

Now that I made this point let’s move over to the main character.

Main Female Character:

She isn’t selfish. She cares about other people. She put their needs above hers.

Having said that, she is the most annoying character I have read about.

If you are a 20-something-year-old adult, who has faced life-and-death situations. One that trains in mortal combat all her life. You are simply not going to stay so hung up on stupid nicknames. It was okay and funny in the first book, and maybe the second one.

BUT A RUNNING JOKE FOR FIVE BOOKS? I am bored. I was rolling my eyes every time someone called her, no matter what nickname they used.

And like I said, no female friends? Thinking they all ignore her or are out to get her? Major red flag here. Why did Helen Harper feel like she needed to make Mackenzie the only eligible or notable girl in the book? Why is this a need in people?

Not to mention the…

Main Male Character:

You know, there is not much to write about him.

He’s a dick.

A forgettable dick.

He lashes out and acts petty at every given turn. He says hurtful things and has an ego the size of the Atlantic Ocean.

I literally did not care about him one bit. Nor did I feel he cared about Mackenzie or even knew her properly. The romance was nonexistent. She had more scenes with the side characters than with him.

And nothing happens.

What I mean by that is I never felt like they belonged together. I never got the feeling that their love was worth fighting for or even communicating through. They were just there. He is powerful, she is powerful, and so it makes sense to put them together.

At first, I thought it was going to be a slow burn. It is, however, in a 5 book series. You need them on the edge in book 3, getting together in book 4, and then showing what a great couple they are, working through their differences in book 5. And not in whatever way this was written.

Plot:

None of the evils felt threatening.

I did not get the sense that whoever they were fighting against was that powerful until the final fight scene. The reason this sucks is because it creates no tension. It lacks the thrill of defeating the big bad at the end of each book.

There was a lot of useless jargon in this book. So many scenes that should have not been more than a page long, were chapters. So many page-long scenes should have been more stretched out to emphasize their importance and to create a foreshadowing effect later in the books.

I’m trying not to spoil it, but some of her abilities were never explained, which sucks when reading Fantasy. Plus, she kept adding new irrelevant abilities. There should be nothing introduced after the first half of the 5^th book, yet there was. The ending of the books should be about wrapping the series up. It should be about finally uncovering the secrets and mechanisms that make her, what she is.

Recommendation for Blood Destiny:

Don’t. Just Don’t. You can, but I wouldn’t. If you want a good Fantasy series, with a round-able plot and likable characters, go read a T.A. White book. Do you want the opposite? Use the link below to buy this book.