Review: Meant to Be by Tiffany King

Krista Miller feels like she has lived her entire life in a glass box with her every emotion on display. She can’t help feeling like a defect as her sensitivities have made her socially inept and without any real friends; the one exception being the boy that visits her each night in her dreams. 

Krista’s emotions are put to the test when a move to California triggers a devastating change to her fantasy world. The nightly comfort that the boy provides has now become a recurring nightmare as he is taken from her by an unseen force. 

Struggling to appear normal, Krista enrolls in a new school and finds it to be nothing like she thought. Her new life is sent spiraling out of control from a strange connection with a boy, Mark, who claims to know all her secrets. 

As Krista begins to explore the emotions that Mark evokes in her, secrets from their past about their shared connection threatens to separate them just when they have found each other. (Summary via Goodreads)




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There is a lot to love about this book. At first, I was afraid this was going to fall under what I refer to as "Twilight Syndrome." You know, imperfect girl meets perfect guy of her dreams who then exhibits bizarre almost stalkerish behavior that is passed off as "romantic." I'm clearly not a fan of that. This book turned out to be much more though. Once I had finished, I was left with the urge to start again from the beginning, as I was seeing everything in a new light. The plot was very interesting, and there were plenty of surprises until the end.

That being said, there were a few technical issues. For some reason the formatting was kind of weird on my e-reader. There were be breaks in paragraphs in random places. It was especially bothersome when there were breaks in the dialogue. Sometimes I'd have to read it a few times to see who was speaking via context clues. I'm not sure what the issue was really. Also, there were some grammatical issues. This may not be a problem for some people, but it tends to pull me out of the narrative. That's more of a personal issue though.

The pacing in the beginning felt a bit slow, but any shortcomings were made up for in the last 40 pages or so. It felt like that's where the story really became fully realized, and it was a fantastic ending. Not only did the story feel original, but it left me wanting more. I really was on the edge of my seat, and I would love to know what happens next.

I would recommend this book for sure. It starts out as one thing, but turns into another book entirely by the end. The romance aspect that I felt was overdone in the beginning made perfect sense in the end. I will definitely look for the authors next book.