Thank you for the arc, unfortunately I did not finish it, I just wasn't the right audience for this book.

Lauren Morrill is one of my auto-read authors. Meant To Be was one of my favourite books I'd read in 2012, and every book she's written since has been a delight. The Trouble With Destiny was right up there. MTB will always be Tops, but Lauren does an excellent job creating a unique setting with lovable, enjoyable characters and movement. Are parts predictable? Sure. Did the b-word really surprise me with her b-ness? Not really. But there's always something to Lauren's writing that makes me feel like I'm hanging out with a close friend. It's warm and receptive and interesting, and I can't wait to see what is coming next.

3.5 stars out of 5

When her high school band loses funding, the very organized drum major Liza enters them into a spring break talent show with a massive cash prize. The only catch? It's on a luxury cruise ship, with pools, buffets, and a lot of unsupervised teenagers.

The premise and setting of this book were right up my alley. High school band doesn't get enough love in books, and the cruise ship was tailor-made for fun and drama. Unfortunately, the plot was a bit slow and I would've liked to see some deeper emotions and character development.

Overall, it was a light, enjoyable read that wasn't entirely my thing.

Unfortunately this book has gone in my DNF pile. It just wasn't engaging me like it would have years ago when I first requested it. My reading tastes have changed a lot over the years as I've gotten older and unfortunately some of the books requested years ago have been affected by my reading tastes and the fact that a lot of books for younger audiences haven't been grasping my attention as of late. I thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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.

I read this book years ago and enjoyed it. It wasn't my favorite but I thought Morrill did a good job crafting a fun, breezy romance. This was a perfect summer read, and looking past some of the pacing issue, it ended up being an enjoyable time.

Morrill has a way with words and expressing the ups and downs of being a teen. I thoroughly enjoyed this love story, and really everything else about the novel. I was captured from the first page!
I love witty characters, and this book had them, just like all of her others. A fantastic summer read!

Band Geek forever!!!!

I HAD to read this book because truly, how many books are about band geeks?

But I can definitely understand why it has such a low average rating. I'd probably give this book 2.25 stars.

First of all, some logisitcal items. I can not believe at all that A-there are no parental chaperones on the cruise, b- that the woodwind instruments would survive such a moist atmosphere or c- that the entire band would spur of the moment have the song memorized with no warning and be able to play without seeing their music.

The main problem with this book is that there is so much teen drama, it feels like it's written by a teen. (Actually though, this may have been the most realistic part of the book because marching bands are full of teen drama and relationship switchups.)

Liza sucks. I don't like her character at all.

I don't really like either of the guys in the love triangle either. AND the author tries too hard in the first third of the book to make one likeable and the other a big failure so you, the reader aren't really following along when suddenly the main love interest switches and one guy is really awesome and the other is an Ass? Uh-uh. I don't believe you.

Overall a fun quick read, but full of too many tropes, inconsistencies and an unbelievable love thang going on.

Like seriously, at the end all of the sudden, LIza is ready to throw herself into the arms of the guy she spent the whole book being annoyed at? Just bc he has a crush on her? (WHich I SO don't buy btws)

I thought that Lauren Morrill did a good job with this one. Liza did sort of get to me with her crazy mind about how everything has to be just right.

Liza is determined to not let her band loose its funding and sets out to make the money herself with her band. Liza heard about a Spring Break competition on a cruise ship to where she and her band can compete for $25,000. That is just what they need! They can do this right?? Well with her baton and her organized clipboards, Liza sets out to do just that.

Liza never imagined that her old crush or that other guys from her school would end up on board of the ship as well. Nope, she is determined not to let them stop her from winning this competition! When the ship breaks down, things begin to take a turn for Liza. Will her focus continue to be on the competition and winning with her band or will her plans all go out the window? This is a great YA read that I am sure most young adults will love. Well done Lauren Morrill!

I did not finish this book so I can not review the title.

Soooo boring.
It took me a lot of time to write this review because I had absolutely no inspiration to write about what this book made me feel. But, in the end, this book didn't make me feel anything significant.
Liza was so annoying...And maybe that is the reason why I ended disliking this book. Her behaviour towards her friends was so aggressive. Yes, she was the leader but that didn't mean that she could act like "she had to win", there was so much stress in her attitude that I didn't like this character at all.
Also, I felt that the main purpose of the book was eclipsed by the "romance"(but that wasn't romance, just flirtation). Everything was so cliché. Anything really interesting happened until 70 or 80% in.
Yes, I knew that this book wasn't going to be exactly for me because it was a middle-grade one, but I kinda hoped that a least I was going to like some things. And yes, maybe the author didn't want the book to be so predictable, but it took too long to develop the whole story, so I lost any interest in this book. It was just not for me.

NBD, just took two years to finish this book. It's not really this book's fault tbh; I've been out of sync with YA for a long time it kind of affects my reading.

Objectively speaking, The Trouble with Destiny is 4 star material: I love Liza and her ambition, and I love her passion about the band. She was a bit controlling at first, but I love how her character developed and grew. Her heart is in the right place. Shoutout to Sofia for the words of wisdom. I also love the whole dynamic in the band. It made me miss my time in high school; I was in the drama club and we were close knitted as well.

Now the reason I rated this a 3 is because I'm simply disconnected with the YA genre as a whole, so this is just an okay read for me. I would have enjoyed this more 3-4 years ago, so this is a case of "It's not you, it's me".