Betraying Season

Betraying Season
by Marissa Doyle

Penelope (Pen) Leland has come to Ireland to study magic and to prove to herself that she is as good a witch as her twin sister, Persy. When the dashing Niall Keating begins to pay her court, however, she can't help but be distracted from her studies.

Little does Pen know, Niall is acting upon orders from his sorceress mother. And although it starts as a sham, Niall actually falls deeply in love with Pen, and she with him. But even if he halts his mother's evil plan, will Pen be able to forgive him from trying to seduce her into a plot? And what of Pen's magic, which seems increasingly powerful?

I really enjoyed this second book in the Leland Sisters series. I had loved Persy as a narrator in the first, but found myself drawn even deeper into the story with Pen narrating this time. Her social naivete coupled with her magical knowledge made for many interesting situations.

I loved the "earthiness" of the female goddess' magic and the Irish setting. I will caution Librarians that this book was more sexually explicit than the first. It wasn't horrific, but it is very clear that Niall needs Pen to lose her virginity so that she cannot complete his mother's spell and he attempts to seduce it out of her - though in a very nice way since he plans to marry her.

All in all, a fabulous read and I really, really hope for a third book in this series!

"Casting" About for a New Image!!

It's amazing to me when I see how much can change from an original printing of a book to a reprint, to the next reprint, and so on! I came across a brilliant example yesterday...

Now, I know this picture is small (I'll try to actually upload my own pic of the book I have at home soon), but you should be able to see that there is an actual half-clothed woman and centaur in a fantasyscape on the original cover of Goddess by Mistake by P.C. Cast.

Recently, with the amazing popularity of the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and her daughter, Kristin Cast, this previous series set in Partholon has been reissued along with two brand-new Partholon books targeted specifically to teens instead of adults. Attempting to push the books with a whole new attitude, the publishers changed the titles from Goddess by... to Divine by... and gave the covers a whole new look. Here is the new cover for Divine by Mistake.

What an amazing difference! If you didn't do your research, you might not even know these were the same book at all...but, very much more appealing to today's teens.

Elphame's Choice

Elphame's Choice
by P.C. Cast

I was marked from birth as belonging to the Goddess Epona--but that didn't make my life easy. Because of my "blessings," I was set apart, worshipped, unable to make real connections with others. Then came the Feeling, and with it a glimpse of my destiny. It led me to the MacCallen castle of legend, deserted since the terrible Fomorian war.

I followed the wordless call to breathe new life into a place long dead, but I didn't realize there were dark remnants of the war lingering in the nearby forest--victims and survivors who remained hidden. Others marked as different, powerful. Feared.

My choice was now twofold. I could keep to the happiness and safety of my newfound home, or I could choose a path that led to something more terrible, more dangerous, more thrilling than anything I'd ever expected.

In that future I might never be alone again. . .

I was excited to read this book because I am a huge fantasy/sci-fi person and I love the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast. I have to admit that I did not read the Divine by trilogy which is also set in Partholon and I think comes before this book. I plan to go back and read those now and then go on to read the next book in this series, Brighid's Quest.
This was definitely a good book, though P.C.'s tone is very different here than in HON. I think that people who read HON will have to mentally adjust to this series, but that's okay! I liked Elphame and her brother's characters very much. I thought that Cast did a great job explaining why there were these Formorians (the "bad guys") that brought out the forbidden love option for Elphame. Interesting. Not my favorite book of all time, but good.