Title:  Divine by Mistake
Author:  P.C. Cast
Publisher: Luna
Publication Date:  August 2009
Paperback: 576 pages

It was a dark and stormy night…

Well, it was!  Or at least dark and raining, if not storming. The husband and I had just finished a wonderful dinner and we decided to stop in Borders to check out the Bargain Books and the Buy 1 get 1 half off table.  Hubby went off in one direction, I went off in another, and we began to shop.

When I first picked up Divine by Mistake, I was merely amused at the cover. Then I turned it over…and oh my! Goddesses? Goddess EPONA? Centaurs? Oh, I was salivating. Fantasy + Horses = a very happy Ree.  Of course I had to have the book.  And the other two in the series. (And about five others I’d chosen. It was a big shopping trip, oops.)

That, however, is pretty much where my joy ended.

I was utterly disappointed with this series of books.  The synopsis on the back of the book, with its promise of high fantasy and centaurs and Epona, a world with a somewhat medieval feel – why, that’s right up my alley and really had me hooked.  The book’s protagonist, Shannon, is meant to be a thirty-five year old woman. However, the majority of the time she acts like a spoiled, whiny teenager. Now imagine having to sit and listen to said spoiled, whiny teenager through 500+ pages. Yes, folks, Shannon is the narrator.

What really got me, however, was the writing.  I tried very hard to get passed the obnoxious and immature sounding voice of the narrator, but the short, choppy sentences and simplistic vocabulary really just made it impossible for me to fall in love with the story.  What made that even more unbearable to me is that Shannon is supposedly a High School English teacher!

Kudos, though, to anyone who can churn out that many words, get it published, and make money off of it.  In that regard, it’s a win.

I read all three of the series (Divine by Mistake, Divine by Choice, Divine by Blood) in a weekend…and I will never read them again.

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