Divine by Blood (Devine Series) »

P.C. Cast was born in Illinois and grew up being shuttled back and forth between there and Oklahoma, which is where she fell in love with quarter horses and mythology (at about the same time). She could ride before she could walk, and she read every horse story she could get her hands on until her father introduced her to The Lord of the Rings when she was about ten years old. She went from that to Anne McCaffrey's Pern— and was hooked on fantasy for life. Five days after graduating from high school, she joined the United States Air Force, which is where she began speaking professionally. After her tours with the USAF, Ms. Cast attended college as a literature major with a secondary education minor. Her first novel, Goddess by Mistake, was published by a small press in 2001. Thoroughly shocking the author, it won a Prism, a Holt Medallion and a Laurel Wreath, and was a finalist for the National Readers' Choice Award. Since then Ms. Cast has gone on to win numerous writing awards. Ms. Cast is thrilled that with her Parthalon series for LUNA Books she has been given the opportunity to continue the world she created in her first book. P.C. Cast lives and teaches in Oklahoma with her fabulous daughter, her spoiled cat and her Scotties— better known as the Scottinators. The daughter attends college. The cat refuses higher education. The Scottinators are as yet undecided about their future.

Conceived in a lie and trapped in a tree throughout her gestation, Morrigan's birth was truly magical. After that start, she spent the next eighteen years raised as a normal girl in Oklahoma.

Upon discovering the truth of her heritage, her rage and grief take on a power of their own, carrying her back to the world of Partholon. Yet, instead of being respected as the daughter of the Goddess Incarnate, Morrigan feels like a shunned outsider.

In her desperation to belong to Partholon, she confronts forces she can't fully understand or control. And soon a strange darkness draws closer….

Publishers Weekly

Morrigan Christine Parker finds that turning 18 carries a heavy weight when you're the only daughter of Rhiannon MacCallan, disgraced high priestess to the goddess Epona, in Cast's down-home follow-up to 2006's Divine by Choice. After Rhiannon betrayed Epona, the goddess bestowed her favor on Rhiannon's look-alike, Shannon Parker. Rhiannon promised her allegiance to the evil god Pryderi, but recanted after Morrigan's birth, giving the child over to Epona's protection and the care of Shannon's parents. Now Morrigan comes of age and learns more about her heritage from her adoptive grandparents and the wind-borne whispers of Pryderi and Epona. While visiting the Alabaster Caverns State Park and exploring her power over rocks and crystals, Morrigan is unexpectedly transported to the mystical realm of Partholon, where she must find Shannon and fulfill her destiny. New readers might be turned off by the frequent switcheroos and stilted dialogue, but Cast's fans will be glad to see all the previous books finally tied together. (Sept.)