Destined by Jessie Harrell

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.

The first thing I noticed about this book is that it was self-published. Not because it was badly written, though, but because of its design. The pages are set so that lines disappear into the ditch of the book, making it really hard to read. I hate opening my books so much that the pages bend (and I had to, the spine of the book was so hard that I couldn’t break it to read the pages even if I wanted to). There were also some formatting errors in the second half of the book. However, the book is worth powering through the printing flaws because the writing has much fewer problems than the typesetting. Psyche and Eros were really brought to life in this book. Even Aphrodite in her wrath and Iris in her jealousy are relatable and convincing. The plot closely follows the Greek myth, but Harrell fills in the blank spots in between the sentences with a wonderful subtext that helps the reader to really feel the love between Psyche and Eros flower and bloom. Even Psyche’s doubts follow a logical progression, and convincingly interjecting doubt into a growing love plot can be a very hard thing to do. I hope Harrell continues to write, and I will certainly pick up her next book when she writes it.