Title: Destiny Road
Author: Melissa Wray
Publication Date: August 5th
2012
Publisher: Morris Publishing
Australia
Format: E-Book
Pages: 212
Rating: 4/5
Blurb: Destiny Road is about a sixteen year old girl Jessica, who is building up to making a most important decision. One that will affect the rest of her life. It is a story of decision, growth and acceptance.
Jessica is sixteen when she meets Bill for the first time. Six months later she is moved away by her mother, to begin a new life, away from what she knows. Away from the man she is just realising she might have wanted in her life all along, her biological father. So begins Jessica’s journey of living with the choices made by herself and those around her.
Blurb: Destiny Road is about a sixteen year old girl Jessica, who is building up to making a most important decision. One that will affect the rest of her life. It is a story of decision, growth and acceptance.
Jessica is sixteen when she meets Bill for the first time. Six months later she is moved away by her mother, to begin a new life, away from what she knows. Away from the man she is just realising she might have wanted in her life all along, her biological father. So begins Jessica’s journey of living with the choices made by herself and those around her.
Review: The great thing about Destiny Road is that
is filled with all the realistic teenage things- starting at a new school,
family drama, friend drama, learning to drive and etc. I found it especially
relatable due to the Australian setting, though I believe people who aren’t
Australian would still be able to connect. The fact that this is based on
Melissa’s own experiences, definitely added to the overall feel of the novel
and meant that everything was relatable in some way.
My absolute favourite thing was the
relationships that were in the novel. I loved reading about the building
father/daughter relationship of Bill and Jessica, but I also liked how Jessica
got along with Janet (her dad’s wife)- I find that usually step-mothers are portrayed
as horrible people and whatnot so it was refreshing to see the two of them
getting along. I also enjoyed the relationship between Jessica and her mother,
Ally, once again it was really nice to see a teenage girl who actually got
along with her parents.
I really liked both sets of Jessica’s
friends- her old ones, Claire and Dempsey and her new ones, Mandy and Sam. In their
own ways, they reminded me of the friends I made in primary school and then the
ones I have now in high school- of course, it made it much easier to enjoy the
book with people to relate them too. I
really enjoyed how Jessica and Mandy’s friendship evolved in particular- I wasn’t
really a big fan of Mandy at the start but I quickly realised that there was
more to her than she was letting on.
Some of the little details that Melissa
wrote about actually got me thinking- one example was a really good discussion
about pivotal points and all. It’s not something you usually think about in
high school, or in life in general really but the language Melissa used had me
thinking about it in relation to my own life. This is only one of the examples
of one of these things- others were funny, others more serious but each of them
had relevance. This made it so much more connectable and enjoyable for me-
sometimes it even felt like Jessica was feeling the exact same way as I did in
similar situations.
I’d like to thank the lovely Melissa Wray
for sending us a copy of her book to review. If you’d like to learn more about
Melissa, you can check back on Saturday the 16th for an author
interview right here, including an international giveaway!
