Sabina's Adventures In Reading: ARC Review: Destinata ( The Valguard Trilogy #1) by Nicole Daffurn

Charlie has just turned eighteen, she’s officially an adult, and the world is open to her – or so you would think.

The little town Tole where Charlie lives has a secret, one that will turn her live upside down once she finds out. When Zane moves in next door, it only marks the beginning of Charlie’s transition. The more she finds out about herself, the bigger the stakes become. Will Charlie overcome her own fear and insecurities in time?

I have to be honest. The beginning was a crash course into the world that Nicole has created. Once you get over the initial play of catch up, you slowly get dragged into the world, to the point when the book ended, I was disappointed that there wasn’t more. It does take some time to get there though and the change is very subtle. You’re going from “Hmmmm” to “WTF? Where did that come from?!” But the beginning can drag out a little, especially since you’re dumped into the story that way.

I was fascinated by the Valguard, and how they could control an entire town without the people truly noticing it. I never really got their motivation, but then evil isn’t supposed to be understandable. My heart jumped when Charlies secret came out in the open, and it was such a disappointment to see that humans always will be humans and react that way. *sighs*

Besides that, the different characters was humorous, infuriating and brave. Without revealing too much, I actually think Charlie is brave – she’s also very stupid (or naïve) at times, but in trying to do the right thing, she puts her own life in danger over and over, to save people that both love and hate her.

Destinata is an original story, and I enjoyed it. The way it ended made me want to go find Nicole and yell at her, because… well… GAH! I both love and hate cliffhangers.

Imagine being 18. You've just become an adult, you can do what you like when you like. You should be attending friends parties or going off to Uni. Well that's what Charlie Dawson thought her life would be like when she turned 18 anyway. Instead when the mysterious guy moves in next door and her curiosity gets the better of her and when she follows him into the woods in her home town of Tole, she gets a little more than she bargained for.

Thrown into a world where humans aren't the only beings to walk the Earth and where Charlie is to become something that has been destined for her before her birth, will she stand up to the test or will she ignore that which has been fated to her? Or will she allow the destruction of the Earth?

Join Charlie and her friends on a Sci-Fi adventure that will surely have you wanting more.

Nicole Daffurn is a mother of two and a newly qualified editor and author from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Nicole has been a practicing editor of novels for the past six months and has been an avid reader and writer since she was a small child.
In 2012 her dreams came true when she published her first novel and realised that this was just the start of her career as a writer.

Nicole’s love for the written word has seen her write many short stories and poems and then eventually moving on to tackle the bigger task of novel writing. Not only has she written and self-published two fantasy novels to date, she has also completed her course in editing and is currently studying Journalism and looks forward to exploring the world of news media.

Nicole enjoys reading and writing a vast range of genre’s including fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, gothic and dystopian. Her main focus is for her stories to appeal to a wide range of people, with her target audience ranging from teenagers to the well-lived older generation.

Not letting her creative abilities go to waste Nicole also spends her time behind the lens of a camera and enjoys drawing and painting. There is no end to her creative abilities but writing is, in her own words, her calling in life.