Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Destined


Jessie Harrell
Publication: November 17th
Publisher: Mae Day Publishing
Length: 368 pages

Description
When Psyche receives a prophecy gone horribly wrong, she learns that even the most beautiful girl in Greece can have a hideous future. Her fate? Fall in love with the one creature even the gods fear.
As she feels herself slipping closer into the arms of the prophecy, Psyche must choose between the terrifyingly tender touch she feels almost powerless to resist and the one constant she's come to expect out of life: you cannot escape what is destined.
 Destined is a fresh and heartachingly romantic retelling of the Cupid & Psyche myth from debut novelist, Jessie Harrell.


A Sneak Peak…
Chapter 3 --

When the door was closed, I spun around, eager to see who Aphrodite had brought with her.
I was two steps into my room when they changed. Expecting a goddess, I couldn’t have been more stunned by the additional visitor.

Or wrong.

Those soft blonde curls and piercing blue eyes didn’t belong to any goddess. Only the most amazing guy - god? - I’d ever laid eyes on.

My heart took off at a sprint and the blood rushed to my cheeks. He shot me a coy smirk that made my stomach slush with uneasy delight. So when a pair of pristine white wings unfurled from his back, my knees almost buckled. And here I’d thought he couldn’t be any more magnificent. No doubt about it, this guy was divine.

Aphrodite threw her arms wide, demanding I place my attention on her. “So, are you surprised?” she asked.

Although she’d never hugged me before, I knew it was what she wanted me to do. To sweep myself into her embrace and prove myself grateful of my new role as her mortal daughter.

“Surprised isn’t the half of it,” I mumbled, stepping into an awkward hug.

Her arms tightened around me as she rocked me side to side. “This is so exciting for you. And for me.” She pushed me back at arms-length and stared at my face, her eyes searching mine. “You’re the one I’ve been waiting for. I can just tell.”

Beside her, the boy’s wings ruffled. “You’ve had your little mother-daughter reunion. Can we go now?”
Still keeping one arm draped over my shoulder, Aphrodite wrapped the boy up with her other arm. We were so close I could almost smell him, just a hint of rugged sunshine. “Don’t be silly, Eros. We all have much to discuss.”

Eros? Like the god-of-love, shoots-everyone-with-magic-arrows, son-of-Aphrodite Eros?

“Do we have to do it here?” His gaze swept my room and obvious distaste curled down the edges of his lips, wiping away that delicious smirk. “It’s so... pedestrian.”

What’s that supposed to mean? My temptation to bite his head off was tempered only by my need to stay on topic.

“Aphrodite --” I started. “I’m not supposed to call you ‘mom’ now or anything, am I?”

That infamous smile of hers pulled her lips tight and a perfect dimple flared on her right cheek. “Not yet, sweetie. Soon,” she shot a knowing look at Eros, “but not yet.”

I felt like I needed to sit down. Was the room spinning?

Rubbing at my temples, I tried again. “Okay. I’m sure I don’t understand most of what’s going on today, but we really need to talk. Because what my parents are planning makes no sense either.” Aphrodite perched on the edge of my vanity and cocked her head like she was waiting for me to continue. “See, here’s the thing. My parents are really happy.”

“They should be,” Eros half-coughed into his fist.

I shot him a glare before continuing on my rambling speech. “But, they think you’ll want me to get married right away. Which is just insane, right? I mean, you said I’d help you promote the worship of beauty, but we never talked about your other ... well, attributes. And so anyway, my parents are sending out requests for suitors, and my sister is going to get married off too, and this is all just ... wrong. Please tell me this is wrong.”

“Completely wrong,” Aphrodite confirmed with a wave of her hand. I didn’t realize how tightly I’d been squeezing my fingers until I let them go and the blood rushed back.

“Well, maybe not the part about your sister, but definitely about marrying you off.” She gave this throaty chuckle that erased all the insta-relief I’d had just a second ago. “Your parents don’t get to pick your husband. I do.”

Eros snorted and dropped onto a tripod stool on the other side of my room. “Yeah, and we all know how well that turned out last time.”

Links


Giveaway
If you leave your e-mail address in your comment, you'll be automatically entered to win an e-copy of Destined. The contest will stay open for 48 hours after the post goes live, and then Jessie will use random.org to select a winner. Available formats include .mobu, .epub and .pdf.
And please be sure to visit the other stops on Destined's official blog tour for chances to win copies of Destined and other goodies.  



No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for leaving a comment! I appreciate any comments or feedback! It is great to interact with other book lovers! If you read a book after seeing my review I would love to read your review! Come back and leave me a link ( : Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!