Book Review: The Trouble With Destiny

Author: Lauren Morrill

Publication Date: December 8, 2015

Publisher: Delacorte

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey... 

With her trusty baton and six insanely organized clipboards, drum major Liza Sanders is about to take Destiny by storm—the boat, that is. When Liza discovered that her beloved band was losing funding, she found Destiny, a luxury cruise ship complete with pools, midnight chocolate buffets, and a $25,000 spring break talent show prize. 

Liza can’t imagine senior year without the band, and nothing will distract her from achieving victory. She’s therefore not interested when her old camp crush, Lenny, shows up on board, looking shockingly hipster-hot. And she’s especially not interested in Russ, the probably-as-dumb-as-he-is-cute prankster jock whose ex, Demi, happens be Liza’s ex–best friend and leader of the Athenas, a show choir that’s the band’s greatest competition.

But it’s not going to be smooth sailing. After the Destiny breaks down, all of Liza’s best-laid plans start to go awry. Liza likes to think of herself as an expert at almost everything, but when it comes to love, she’s about to find herself lost at sea.

I am the kind of girl who always seems to be working ten times as hard as everyone else for about 0.06 percent of the credit.

With the practice room switcheroo, it’s obvious that the Athenas are planning to play dirty this week. Which means we’ve got to get dirty right back.

When I planned this cruise, I had lots of ideas about how it would go. I’d hoped we’d win the twenty-five grand to save the band, first of all. After that, we’d stuff ourselves silly off the buffets scattered around the ship. Huck and Hillary and I would hang out on deck, making one another laugh until our sides hurt. Maybe I’d even get a sunburn. I guess I knew it wouldn’t really be that easy, but I never imagined it would be this hard.

Lauren Morrill writes some of the cutest YA contemporary fiction I have ever read. I started with her first book, Meant To Be, back in 2012 and I have followed her newest releases ever since. This particular book was different from anything I have read in the YA genre and I loved the premise behind it. The story follows Liza Sanders, highly esteemed drum major, and her high school band as they venture on a cruise in hopes of winning $25,000 for their school. The best part of being on this cruise was the multitude of funny, lovable characters. Liza is a bit neurotic, but I can understand why she is and I think it is nice for young readers to follow a character that is determined and full of ambition. It was nice to take a cruise with so many goofy and fun-loving characters in the middle of December!

Normally with YA books I get a little frustrated with the “love interests” because they tend to be so played out and predictable. I LOVED that in this book I didn’t even see the love interest coming. The guy that I thought was intended for Liza was a complete jerk and I was beyond thrilled to see him out of the picture. The reason I did not give the book more stars is because of the lull I hit towards the middle. I felt like there was a dry spell with action and character motivation, but that soon picked back up and I was right back into the story again and ready to see how everything turned out for Liza and her band. This book was super cute and really easy to get through in one sitting!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Delacorte in exchange for my honest review***