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.

April Challenge

I know I've been late in updating my challenges for the year, but that's because I don't think I'm going to do any.  I didn't really change any of my reading for challenges, and I only completed the ones that my regular reading fulfilled, so it seems rather pointless to track them.  Also, the only one that seemed even marginally fun was the locations one, and it seems impossible to complete while reading SF/F where so many books are in made up and outside the US loations.  I'll be getting rid of the challenges page soon. 

However, I'm going to take on a different type of challenge:  a posting challenge.  In April, in addition to at least two reviews a week and Waiting on Wednesday I'm going to do the A-Z challenge:

This challenge is about blogging through the alphabet in April, one letter every day except Sundays.  I'm going with a topic: Awards for SF/F books.  I'm already plotting the post topics (any ideas on what to do for D or X?) and writing ahead so I don't get behind on my regular posts.  I think this will be a fun challenge, though, a chance for me to get a little editorial and write what I think on some great topics.

Will you be joining me on the A to Z April Challenge?

Cover Reveal: Ally Condie

The third book of Ally Condie's Matched series has a name and a cover now:

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. . . Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Usually I’m not a horror person. I’ve never actually seen Jurassic Park all the way through in one setting. I’m a wimp. So I think you’ll understand when I say this book was, well, difficult for me. To be frank, it scared my pants off. I’m glad I read it, though, because along with being scary it was really, really good. Blake did very good character development. I loved how Cas, Thomas, Carmel, and even Anna grow as characters across the arc of the book. Although the ghost lore part of the story is well thought-through and laid plain for the reader there’s not a lot of backstory or obvious worldbuilding. The story doesn’t seem to need it, though. We see as much of the ghosts as Cas sees, and we know what he knows, so the unusual ghosts are exposed to us as Cas learns more of them. Blake manages to build tension without making it too heavy with her liberal use of sarcasm and witty one-liners from Cas. ***** SPOILERS ***** The only disconnect I could find was in between fixing Anna and finding the real killer. The tension could have been kept up a bit better by having a body be found before Anna was cured so the kids could wonder if she was leaving the house. Instead the letdown from freeing Anna let some of the air out of the book, making the end seem like it was racing instead of building. However, I really liked the romance that developed between Cas and Anna during and after her release from the curse. It seemed natural, appropriate to their ages and experiences, and very sweet. ***** END SPOILERS ***** In all, this was a very good book. I recommend it to anyone who wants a good scare with a love story sideline.

Pandemoneium Giveaway

Read.Breathe.Relax. is one year old and Lisa is celebrating by giving away four copies of Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver! Head on over and try to win yourself a copy!