I highly recommend this one. Not only was it a good fantasy but the romance was a good part of the story. Also, the heroine had a great sense of humor. GODDESS BY MISTAKE was a fun read without being fluff. The heroine is a teacher whose body is switched by her look-alike in another world. Her look-alike was High Priestess of the Goddess Epona and not too nice of a person. The heroine arrives in time to handfast to the hero, who happens to be a shapechanging centaur, and to get visions of an impending invasion of demons. I *really* enjoyed this book. And, yes, there will be a sequel titled GODDESS BY CHOICE. But this story doesn't leave you hanging.--Linda (25 Jan 02)
I picked up this book a week or so ago and it's one of those books where the mood you're in when you're reading it very important. I say that because the author is aiming for a humorous tone. Humor is a very personal thing and 99% of the time I find funny books too "cute" or incredibly stupid.
I wasn't in the proper mood the first couple of times I picked it up but am now about 60 pages into it and enjoying it. Although... the heroine just did an incredibly stupid thing which I'm having trouble with. Since it's at the beginning, I don't think it's a spoiler but for the sensitive
I'm
leaving
a
spoiler
spaceIn a dream the heroine sees evil creatures over-run her father's castle, killing everyone, including her father. She is told she dreams truly and she decides she *must* give her dead father a proper burial. She takes off on a horse (she hasn't ridden in years), she has no provisions, has only a vague idea of the terrain she must cross to get to her father's castle, takes no weapons, has no idea if the evil creatures are still there. TSTL. But it may get better. The hero does appeal to me.--Edith (01 Feb 02)
That definitely was her stupid moment and thank goodness she didn't continue that way. The only thing that saved the day was how she admitted to herself and others just how stupid it was and didn't repeat it.<g>--Linda (03 Feb 02)Linda did a good job of summarizing the plot, so I won't recap. It is a cute book written with "attitude" and meant to be humorous . So if you don't like "cute" or "attitude, and you have a finicky sense of humor, don't read it.
I give this a mild recommend. It was a bit too cute for me in the long run, but it did make me laugh in a couple of places and I give it points for that. It was pretty good for a first book and I think that if one is in the right mood while reading it one would really enjoy it. (Ugh, that sentence sounds so "reviewerish" but I really mean it). The centaur hero is definitely yummy, if a bit too perfect. And for those who have horsie-fixations, this is the book for you!
Some things that got on my nerves (no spoilers):
The heroine tends to mention going to the bathroom a bit too often. I really did not want to hear how she missed having toilet paper while she's wearing thong leather underwear. And she went to bathroom a lot. The heroine is in an alternate world and constantly keeps using this-world phrases which she has to explain (John Wayne, "pissed off, little girl's room).
The goddess Epona was the most seriously useless goddess I have encountered in a long time. It appears the only power the goddess has is to give the heroine the ability to travel outside her body while sleeping. I got the impression the only reason for the book to have a goddess was so the heroine could be a priestess.--Edith (25 Feb 02)
Hmmm, there were a few annoying things about GODDESS BY MISTAKE. At one point I was resolved to finish it about page 200 because it seemed the best parts of the book were over. But it got better again in part 3.
We have wise-cracking Shannon, a school teacher from Broken Arrow, who sings loudly and likes movies with John Wayne and dreams about Batman, Superman, and Pierce Brosnan. She exchanges places with Rhiannon, who is not quite the perfect witch with a B but comes close to it. And suddenly she finds herself in another world, in the middle of a hand-fasting with a centaur, wondering just how she's going to keep covering up that she's not the goddess who's body she took over.
The annoying things? From a technical viewpoint, there was a lot of mixing of Irish, Celtic, Gaelic, and Scottish customs that might be excused because "it's just a fantasy, but I would have preferred a particular set of customs. The style was somewhat off-putting in the beginning. Set in the first person, but not the more intimate first person we're familiar with - more a "story-telling" first person. Very little descriptive narrative, quite a lot of introspection. It is this same, almost detached, narration that makes some events seem too glossed over - like how does a centaur sit on a chaise lounge? How does she sleep against his chest? And while a few of the secondary characters a quite vivid, the rest are placeholders. The bad guys are classic, unremitting evil guys with no virtues, no wants, no dreams--just bad guys.
The style finally grew on me. Our heroine is smart-mouthed, has only one TSTL moment when she takes off across a land she doesn't know without a map in order to rescue her father's body from a swarm of creatures that have been ravaging the countryside. She gets smarter .<g>
So this is a mild recommend. GODDESS BY MISTAKE is a definite romance, a good change of pace. It's a bit uneven in pacing and (like many first tries) appeared to be a expansion of short story arcs that grew into a more cohesive story. Cute without taking itself too seriously.--Barbara (31 Mar 02)
I enjoyed GODDESS BY MISTAKE a lot. It is one of those novels where you see the flaws (the heroine has one truly too-stupid-to-live moment, but gets better and also some of the writing needs some polish as it is a little too flippant at times) but you enjoy the ride anyway.--Shelley (19 May 02)
I'm going to have to be a discommend on this one. I couldn't finish it. It was just too silly - not that I'm against all silly - but it was badly written silly.--Suzanne (20 May 02)
