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If she knew what she was, none of it would have happened.

After the death of her older sister and the subsequent divorce of her parents, Celena decides to move from New York City to her mom's hometown outside of Wheeling, West Virginia. Since Kayden died, all she's wanted to do is start over.

Seems easy enough. Move to a new town where no one knows your story and write a new one.

But the moment they lay eyes on her, the story starts to write itself.

Celena doesn't know what she is, but they can smell it all over her. If she were just another human, one of the most powerful Alphas on the east coast wouldn't have demanded she be turned and indicted into his pack.

She didn't have a choice about being bitten. But she'll be damned before anyone forces her into submission.

Content This book is intended only for readers 18+. A detailed warning is listed before page 1. Please read at your own discretion.
Note from the This book can be read without reading book 1 in the series. You can also read the rest of the series in Laila's perspectives without this book. However, I reccomend reading them all because this is the chronological order to the series, and because there is a lot of overlap between Celena's story and Laila's. But, if you miss Laila dearly, book 3 is still a fine place to pick up.

Reading Eluding Destiny Book One Eluding Destiny Book New Normal - Celena's Story Part 1 Eluding Destiny Book The Horrors that Created Us Eluding Destiny Book Aftershocks Eluding Destiny Book Reprisal Eluding Destiny Book The Precipice

418 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2020

76 people are currently reading
114 people want to read

About the author

Charlie Nottingham

53 books284 followers

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5 stars
80 (59%)
4 stars
35 (26%)
3 stars
15 (11%)
2 stars
1 (<1%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for tappkalina.
721 reviews532 followers
dnf
July 28, 2022
dnf at 30%

The first chapter was a banger, but the rest reminded me of those old YAs that were emotionally distant, lacked of characterization and didn't matter how unique the world was, you felt like you've read the story a thousand times before.
38 reviews2 followers
August 8, 2025
great story, badly needs copy editing

I love the story, it’s exciting and the characters are well-written. But the grammar errors, spelling mistakes, and typos are really distracting.
17 reviews
April 30, 2021
Couldn’t put down

It’s different. It’s good. It catches you and you can’t put it down. There’s depth. There’s a story there is the heroine who you get to know very well. There’s love and danger and I can’t wait to read the next book of celene and wyatt.
Profile Image for sara metz.
63 reviews
February 11, 2021
Slow build

Took a while for me to connect to the characters and werewolves are not really my thing but I can’t wait to see how everything comes together.
Profile Image for MummysVampire.
434 reviews4 followers
December 15, 2020
I was so excited when I seen book 2 of Eluding Destiny was on Amazon already! I was just about to start another book and nearly continued as I read the blurb of New Normal was different characters to the first. I thought let me start it and see if it’s as good as the first and if not I will come back to it. Well let me tell you what an opening!! It’s dark and well I love dark so was instantly hooked. I stayed up stupidly late and maybe paid a bit today but it was so worth it. I couldn’t drag myself away from this story and was desperate to get back to it today.
I won’t talk about the opening as trust me you need to go in with fresh eyes.
This part of the Eluding Destiny journey focuses on Celena. Her adopted parents have recently divorced following the death of her sister after a life long battle with cystic fibrosis. She is moving from New York to her mums home town to live with her mum on her aunt Carrie estate.
Her cousin Sally is the same age and starts taking her out and introducing her to some friends including Wyatt who she has an instant connection with. Along the way she meets Drew one the bad boys in town.
On one of these nights after a few to many drinks she makes the mistake of going for a walk in the woods with Drew’s brother Brendon, there she is sexually assaulted and bitten. Sally and Wyatt try to save her but it’s too late the bite is turning her into a werewolf. It seems the bad boys in town are not just boys. They are part of a vicious pack and they want Celena to join them sensing she was something more than human and can produce strong offspring.
This was above and beyond my expectations. I thought I enjoyed book 1 but this was better and much darker, not for the faint of heart. Damon the pack leader is the worst of the worst and I can’t wait to see karma take a bite out of him. Laila, Jeremy and his siblings are back and I’m sensing we may be getting a team up of the good guys very soon. With potentially more characters still to join.
Arghhh roll on book 3 I am so excited. This is a bit of a cliffhanger but weirdly it is a good place to end so please don’t let that put you off. It’s setting up the scene for a much bigger picture and you can tell it’s going to be epic. Top Marks - If I could give more the 5/5 I would.
Profile Image for Viviana.
353 reviews
April 1, 2021
Every time i think i know what going to happen there another plot twist which it very hard to put the book down... I admit wasnt excepting for jeremy and laila to be in this as much as they are, which means there about to be something big coming and i am here for it.cant wait for book 3. I hope Brandon can be happy one day. I LOVE THIS SERIES
Profile Image for Florian Green.
20 reviews5 followers
December 3, 2020
Fantastic Fantasy!

Enjoy this author’s work a lot. Strong characters, great language and plot. Highly recommend this for readers who want to try a new and talented writer in this genre.
Profile Image for Maxwell Panetta.
512 reviews
February 4, 2021
This book is good but needs a warning for sexual assault and torture
The torture scene was very hard to read and is not for the faint of heart

It also has more smut than the previous book

Overall I like the series it has a mercy thompson and weather wardens feel which I enjoy
729 reviews7 followers
June 19, 2023
started out interesting but went down hill fast

Things I didn’t care for
- all the memory erasing
- mind controlling family members to get them to leave
- cutting out all the family
- blaming the victim
- many many issues with the relationships in this book
- everyone high all the time- as another reviewer said one or two people doing it to cope with all the tragic stuff ok, but it seemed to be everyone.

Convincing her to be alone and push her last remaining family member away. Blaming themselves for being attacked and the stupid guardians not immediately killing the pack alpha especially since they new about everything.

Good original premise, but the story went downhill fast
Profile Image for Tiffany Morris.
6 reviews
March 14, 2022
Great story but can be hard to read

My husband bougbt me this book and I really enjoy the story of this book. I was able to read through this in about a day and can't wait to start the second one. My only issue is that there are some spelling/grammar issues and it can throw you off. I would be reading through an action scene and lose my way trying to reread the part for me to get a grasp on what it meant to be said. Other than that I really love it.
Profile Image for Aleastra.
99 reviews
September 21, 2022
talk about incompetence

If you know there’s a psycho killer after you and you can’t get a game plan in order but you can hangout and have sex and get high then ya pretty much deserve what ever the F they do to you. Talk about to stupid to live, beat um with an umbrella? They literally had no thoughts towards anything remotely useful like say knives guns bats… #whatarethose😱
35 reviews
July 18, 2021
Potential.

I enjoyed the story line. However, when an author puts political views into a story they tend to alienate their readers. I like to be able to connect with the main characters and I wasn't able to do that with this story. It just wasn't the book for me.
269 reviews2 followers
January 29, 2023
What I am!

Yesterday I was just a teenager, today I am much, much more. Wyatt is with me and we are fighting for our lives and our love. Damon is trying to take it all, but I won't let him!

Love the book and am looking forward to the rest of the story.
Profile Image for Marissa Richards.
236 reviews
October 3, 2025
I love this spin off to learn more about Celena and Wyatt. They play such a large role in the series, so I think this is incredibly important to understand relationships. This is relatively fast paced, but it is so good and full of important information. The writing is phenomenal!
472 reviews4 followers
March 23, 2021
The book has violence often associated with shifter fiction. One incident is more the reader's assumption and the other is definitely torture. Both are brief parts and forward the plot. Some of the characters are stereotypical, abusive male figures, a rebel Mom, preachy daughter, country God fearing sister whose cheer leader daughter likes to remain clueless and of course the good guy. But it works! The writer puts enough personality in them that you want to follow them. There is the brief political statement which is not pervasive as it is being used to tie the book into a timeframe. It does not have the constant substance use or the frequent foreshadowing of book one. Because of that this book is better than the first one.
2 reviews
November 1, 2021
Awesome read

Engaging, suspenseful, well written. Honestly a nice fresh look on werewolves and mated pairs. I highly recommend you read this book.
2 reviews
November 10, 2021
amazing book!!

I loved this story so much! the book sucked you in front the start and had good development throughout the story. I couldn't put it down!
Profile Image for Megan.
323 reviews14 followers
May 8, 2022
Obsessed!

Did I read this book in less than a day? Yes. Am I going to fly through the rest? Probably. Will I ever stop screaming about how much I love these books? Nope!
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
3,679 reviews326 followers
dont-want-to-read
June 27, 2022
Doesn’t seem quite what I want to read.
Profile Image for Lilylou426 .
520 reviews37 followers
October 30, 2021
Absofuckinglutely amazing! Celena was so very resilient and I can't wait to read her next part! I wasnt sure if the two worlds would mesh but they Absofuckinglutely do!!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

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