Religion, Fate, & Free Will in the Broken Destiny series by Jeaniene Frost

I've read a couple of books by Jeaniene Frost, including her Night Huntress series, the spin-offs Night World and Night Prince series. I can't say that I loved her books. But I do like them enough to keep reading the sequels.

It took me a while to get to her new series (well, new to me), Broken Destiny. One, because it wasn't about vampires anymore. And, two, because it's an all-new-world with an all-new-cast and I didn't know if I should invest in them or not.

I'm glad that I picked them up this year, though. It's now a finished series and I got to read each instalment back to back. For an author who is pretty much a household name in the Paranormal Romance department, I was surprised to find that the romance element in this book wasn't actually the most exciting part.

Haven't read the Broken Destiny Series? Get them on Book Depository today!

1. The Beautiful Ashes
2. The Sweetest Burn
3. The Brightest Embers

Archons and Demons

The otherworldly creatures in this book are Archons (or Angels) and Demons who are at war with each other. A lot of their characteristics are typical. Archons are creatures of the light, winged warriors who follow the orders of God. While Demons are fallen angels, kidnapping and torturing humans.

What's different and really cool about them is that they live in "Realms" that are parallel with the human world. This means that whatever we see in our world is reflected back in their realms, like mirrors. Except, in the Demon realm, everything is dark and cold and nothing grows. And, in the Archon realm, everything is light and warm and full of manna-bearing trees!

There's so much more to this story world that I felt were really cool and unique. Trust me, I'm not doing it justice with this description.

Holy Objects and Places

In this series, we follow Ivy. She's the last Davidian, which means she's the last descendant of David. As in David and Goliath. Without giving away too much of the plot, Ivy needs to find and use 3 holy objects in order to prevent Demons from literally raising hell in the human realm.

Finding these holy objects was definitely half the fun of reading this series. She got to go to so many places around Europe, place I now want to visit because of vicariously visiting them in these books. My favourite, by far, would have to be when they went to an Icehotel in Sweden. The place was straight out of a winter fairytale.

Prophesy, Destiny, & Free Will

Ivy's love interest is Adrian. They've got a Romeo and Juliet thing going on because, as the last Davidian, Ivy is destined to find all three holy objects with the help of Adrian. He, on the other hand, is the last Judian, the last descendant of Judas. As in the guy who betrayed Jesus. Like his ancestor, Adrian is destined to betray Ivy.

That's the main tension in their relationship. Adrian doesn't want to fulfil his destiny, but it seems like fate keeps pushing him to do so. While Ivy, even though she knows he might betray her, still believes in the best of Adrian. On top of that, finding the holy objects and using them isn't exactly a walk in the park. There's no guarantee that she will save many people. People who are strangers to her. Plus, it takes a great toll on Ivy physically to be able to handle the holy objects. So, even her life is at stake.

Between Ivy's doubts and Adrian's greed, we deal with major ethical questions in this series. One is destined to be the saviour. The other is destined to be the betrayer. And both of them just want to be together.

Final Thoughts

Even though I knew that good guys do the right thing, this book forced me to see all the personal sacrifices that people have to make in order to make that happen. For that, this story was completely unexpected and I really enjoyed myself a lot.

What book have you read that made you question your principles? Let me know in the comments!