DESTINED FOR DEATH - A Book Review and Giveaway

SYNOPSIS

Seventeen-year-old Nadia Petrov’s world is shaken when the Human Preservation Agency robs her of the chance to live a normal life with the boy of her dreams.
Nadia finds herself in a devastating situation; she must hide her nightmare inflicting side as a means of survival—the discovery of her ability being a death sentence. The only thing keeping Nadia from succumbing to her unbearable circumstances is that Hunter Sullivan, the boy she’s madly in love with, feigns loyalty to the HPA to protect her.

REVIEW

I have followed this delightful YA story from its inception when Nadia, the Nightmare Inflictor, first stumbled across Hunter, the innocent human soul, stranded in the mind of a mind of a Sin Eater.  She had consumed his soul in a deal with the Human Preservation Agency, thinking she was ridding the world of one more really bad guy, only to be sadly misled.

After an initial surprise of finding a real living entity within the nightmare that she was inflicting, Nadia became intrigued with the young man and continued to slip back into the dreams of the Sin Eater, Jacqueline.  Through the series, we have seen Jacqueline killed and jump bodies, Hunter released from his mind prison and returned to his body which has been in a coma, and various members of the creature kingdom killed by HPA as they search for a way to free themselves from the grips of Hunter’s mother and her HPA group who are out to destroy the creatures that they have determined to be dangerous monsters against humankind.

Through all this, the love between Nadia and Hunter has continued to blossom and grow despite constant discouragement from friends and fear of family discovery at every turn.  The Montagues and the Caprios have nothing this love story.  In many ways I see touches of Romeo and Juliet dusting throughout the series.

Ginna has grown as an author during her time writing this series.  From the early struggles of moving from viewpoint to viewpoint, with all voices being spoken in the first person, it was easy to get lost in where you were in the story.  By the time we got to DESTINED FOR DEATH, her maturity as a writer was showing.  Her characters had been well developed.  You knew who each person was, where their loyalty was, and wanted to scream at the book on occasion for that character to not trust the one they were talking to, because you knew better.  The storyline was solid, fast paced, and would leave you breathless as you tried to read fast enough to keep up with the characters as they sped past you on the page.

Ginna’s world building skills have also grown over time.  Even though the setting is in today’s world, there are certain aspects of the story that needed to be built around the creature world and she did a fabulous job of creating the imagery needed to set us on edge where needed, especially in the nightmare world of Jacqueline in the dream sequences.

I loved this final chapter to the love story of Hunter and Nadia.  It brought closure to the wild ride that I had been on for the past few months.  I hope to see more of this series about other characters, but was glad to finally quit holding my breath for Nadia and Hunter.  Great Job, Ginna!!!!  You knocked this one out of the park!  FIVE STAR review for YA fantasy fiction.

INTERVIEW

Ginna, I feel like we have really got to know each other over the last months as I have read your novels and we have visited about each of them.  It is almost sad to see this story of Hunter and Nadia come to a close.  Why don’t we take some time to talk a little more about your other projects and have you tell us a little about your life?

Now that you have resolved the story of Hunter and Nadia, where do you plan on taking this cast of characters?

While Hunter and Nadia’s story is finished, the world they live in is still in turmoil, a war raging between the Creature Council and the Human Preservation Agency. In my next series, a companion series to Destined for Dreams, I revisit the world with new main characters and a new location. While the series has love woven into it, it focuses more on self-discovery, friendship, and surviving in a strange world neither of the main characters new existed. Characters from Destined for Dreams do make an appearance throughout the series, and it’ll be a great way to almost catch up with old friends while meeting new ones.

After writing this series of books, have you developed a particular character that you have personally just fallen in love with?  How about one that just wants to make you scrape your nails across the chalkboard when it is time to write about them again?

Besides Hunter and Nadia, my favorite character is Jacqueline Matthews. Her character has grown so much over the series, I just love writing about her. Who knows, maybe she’ll get her own series one day.

There aren’t really any characters I hate writing. I love even writing my antagonists. If I find I dislike writing a character, I edit them out.

Do you have other projects in the works that have you going other directions?

I’m constantly plotting new books, and I plan to stay in the same world for at least six more novels, but I also have a standalone YA Contemporary novel I’m in the process of editing. I’d like to write a few more after as well.

Other than writing, which by the way I love your stories.  What other things do you do in the literary world?  Which do you seem to find the most enjoyment doing?

Besides writing, I do design work—from novel covers to bookmarks and ads. I enjoy creating things people love, and I find it satisfying to create things visually.

I know that there has been great tragedy in your personal life recently.  But I know that there have been a few blessings that were recovered from that maelstrom.  What was the most precious item that you found?

Honestly, every item I recovered from the fire was precious, even things as little as a spatula had me counting my blessings. But I’d say the most precious thing I recovered were my daughter’s hospital foot prints and family pictures that weren’t transferred into the digital age. I also found my writing journals from when I was a teen. I never knew what was really important to me until I lost almost everything.

Have you found new sources for creative ideas since moving to a new locale?  What one thing do you find the most different between Texas and California? What one thing do you find the most charming about your new locale?  What do you wish was more like “home”?

Moving from a heavily populated city area to a more rural small town has definitely been an adjustment. I find that nature inspires my creative ideas—the rivers, the wildflowers, the lush greenery—everything is beautiful.

Besides the people and the local restaurants/shopping, and hopefully this doesn’t sound too creepy, but the cemeteries around here are quite charming.  They possess something different about them. They’re smaller, more personal—peaceful. I can definitely imagine a paranormal story being based here.

What I miss about California is the ocean. When you read my novels, a lot of my dream worlds take place near the ocean. And in my next series, the characters are from a beach city. I lived a few miles from the beach, and there’s just something about the ocean I find so peaceful. I miss the marine layer that rolled in almost nightly—the cool humidity of it, and of course the scent. The one thing I wish were most like home would be the having things closer. I don’t like driving 40 minutes away to get to a mall or Costco. I miss being able to go anywhere I wanted with minimal or no drive time.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to share with us and for giving us insight into your characters and into the paranormal world that they live in.  I look forward to future stories of this group of “creatures” and their special abilities and how they survive amongst us. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ginna Moran started writing poetry as a teenager in a spiral notebook that she still has tucked away on her desk today. Her love of writing grew after she graduated high school and she completed her first unpublished manuscript at age eighteen.

When she realized her love of writing was her life’s passion, she studied literature at Mira Costa College in Northern San Diego. Besides writing young adult novels, she was senior editor, content manager, and image coordinator for Crescent House Publishing Inc. for four years.

Aside from Ginna’s professional life, she enjoys binge watching television shows, playing pretend with her daughter, and cuddling with her dogs. Some of her favorite things include chocolate, anything that glitters, cheesy jokes, and organizing her bookshelf.

Ginna is currently hard at work on her next novel.