Destined is the last book in the Forever Faire series, and we get all the answers we've been looking for. Kayla and Ryan are just as strong and sexy as they have been throughout, whilst Christine and Colm are just an iota behind them. Tara comes into her own in this novella, and certainly teaches the Blackstones a thing or two. I loved her connection with the Dragons, but would have loved to known a bit more - that's just me!

This is a well written finale, with plenty of action to keep those pages turning. The ending is superb, and I admit to having a lump in my throat towards the end! There were no editing or grammatical errors to disrupt the reading flow, and the pace built up steadily to the climatic ending. Absolutely brilliant and definitely recommended by me.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

This short story clocking in at 38 pages was enough to impart information to old and new readers of the Odd Thomas series. Frankly I wish this had been written first, and I would suggest new readers to Odd Thomas may want to start off with this book before moving on to the first full length novel.

The Odd Thomas series includes the following: Odd Thomas: An Odd Thomas Novel, Forever Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel, Brother Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel, Odd Hours: An Odd Thomas Novel, and Odd Apocalypse: An Odd Thomas Novel, Deeply Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel.

Mr. Koontz's last book in the series, Saint Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel was published on January 13, 2015 and the short story was a segue into the new and final book.

The last review I had regarding the Odd Thomas series I posted on April 15, 2013 on Amazon said:

When I first read Odd Thomas I totally fell in love with the character of Odd, Stormy, Chief Porter, and all the inhabitants of Pico Mundo.
At that time I stated to become a bit irritated with Dean Koontz's writing and was ready to write off that novel but I quickly fell in love with everyone.
I remember getting to the ending and ugly cried for about half an hour.
Finally, it seemed to me that Koontz had managed to write something totally different, heart wrenching, with depth, that did not just quickly resolve itself like his other novels.

However, by the time I got around to reading Odd Hours I started to get a bit disenchanted with our awesome fry cook.
I started to feel that the overall premise of the novels needed to get a bit shaken up and that having Odd explain things using 20 words when one word would started to work my nerves instead of charming me like it had in the past.

However, with the newest iteration of the Odd Thomas series, Deeply Odd I found myself falling in love with Odd all over again.

And I found myself loving Stormy and Odd all over again in this short story showing them at 16 and how they both found out that they were destined to be together forever. I honestly thought that the series lost it's charm once we had Odd traveling all over after the events of the first novel. Deeply Odd managed to bring back some of the fire from the first book that I found missing from the other books. This short story was a great return to form and gives me hope that the final book, Saint Odd is going to be just as spectacular.

The only thing that I wish that we had seen more of are fan favorites like Chief Porter and Terri who are discussed in the short story, but are not seen or heard. We also have Stormy and Odd talking like their later adult selves which was a tab bit disconcerting. It would have been great to actually have them acting like actual teenagers. In both of their cases it is understandable once you understand Odd's and Stormy's backgrounds. However, it was still a bit much.

And sorry to say at times i was over Odd's banter and wanted the story to get a move on. I forgot that Odd's little conversational quirks can start to work your nerves after a while.

What was most surprising is that we read about Stormy's reluctance in having Odd or herself involved with the fallout from his 'psychic magnetism'. I think that makes sense since at 16 she is not the same woman who was all about Odd doing what needed to be done to make others safe and how this life was boot camp and the here after was about about being 'in service."

In sum, I was happy to revisit with Odd and Stormy and this short story makes me excited for the final novel in this series.

Loop me in, Odd one. - Stormy Llewellyn

Fuck Dean Koontz. Fuck him with a rusty fish hook then dunk him in a kiddie pool filled with rubbing alcohol before lighting the whole thing on fire. 

 

Those were my first thoughts after finishing this cash grab. After reading the absolute shit that was Wilderness (the first purchase I ever requested a refund for on Amazon), I told myself I wouldn't be suckered into Koontz and Bantam's short story scams. But I thought, "It's Odd Thomas. They wouldn't purposely mislead me where one of Koontz's most cherished characters is concerned!" The hell I preached. 

 

I spent $0.99 for two pages. Two. Fucking. Pages. The first page and the last page. Everything in between is filler so that Bantam could charge us for this commercial disguised as a short story. All 30 pages in between is generic thriller crap. You can smell the triviality coming off it. It's the kind of stench you can see. 

 

I was hoping for a story about Odd and Stormy, you know, what the packaging promises:

 

Here, read the synopsis:

 

Amid the dizzying rides, tantalizing games of chance, and fanciful attractions of a state fair, two teenage sweethearts on the cusp of life and love’s pleasures find their way to a shadowy carnival tent brimming with curiosities. There, from the bizarre and enthralling Gypsy Mummy, a mechanized merchant of dreams and prognosticator of tomorrows, the young couple learns what fate promises for them. But fate, for Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn, is something altogether different: full of dark corners, sharp edges, and things no seer or soothsayer could ever anticipate.
 
And for Odd Thomas, a gallant fry cook from a sleepy California desert town, the future beckons—to listen to unquiet spirits, pursue unsettling mysteries, and learn shocking truths . . . for a purpose far greater than himself.

 

Two pages of carnival, folks. All the rest is Stormy and Odd running around after a ghost with cleaver in his neck. They find the guy's house. Unshackle some women. Call in the authorities. Then, and ONLY then, do they head to the carnival. I wanna break something. This is even worse than the misleading, broken synopsis for The City. 

 

This is how I think the meeting with Dean and Bantam went:

 

Dean: So I got about two pages of the story you requested. 

 

Bantam: The fuck? We can't sell two pages! Can't you give us something with, at the very least, a murder in it?

 

Dean: I'd be phoning it in, but yeah, I can do that. Are you sure people will want to read it?

 

Bantam: We'll disguise it as backstory; tell everyone that the short reveals the story of the day Odd and Stormy got that ticket that Odd carries with him throughout the series.

 

Dean: Okay, so two pages of story, and about, what? Thirty pages of filler? Sound about right?

 

Bantam: This is why you sell millions of books, Dean. You know how to bow to commands. 

 

END SCENE

 

In summation: I retract my previous statement. Fuck both Dean Koontz and his publisher. Even if it didn't go down like I stated above, Dean still wrote it, and Bantam still published it. And guess what? I'm returning it. This is only my third refund request ever.