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.
