Elphame's Choice by P.C. Cast

On the Back of the Book

Please. Let's not start this old argument again. You know no one will marry me. There's no one like me and no one wants to get that close to a goddess."

Part-human, part centaur, Elphame has always been different. The hundreds of shimmering butterflies sent by the goddess Etain to mark her birth were only the beginning.


When Elphame is asked to breathe new life into the remote Macallan Castle, she goes along with it (well stranger things have happened...) and finally she's found her true calling.


But Elphame hadn't banked on her life being threatened when the bizarre Fomorian descendants (bat-like humans - it's a long story) return to Macallan with their own devastating agenda. Nor the fact she may have finally found her lifemate... at THE most inconvenient time!

My Thoughts

*** I feel the need to point out straight away that this is an adult book NOT a YA book as is suggested on P.C. Cast's website.***

I found this book to be very hard going and once again some of the content was sickening, vulgar is the word that sprung to my mind. In order for me to tell you the full occurrence would lead to spoilers and I try not to do that too often. Needless to say if you're a parent checking on whether your teenager should have this book, the answer's no.

The plot was extremely slow and for the majority of the 400+ page count, absolutely nothing happened. As the reader I found this extremely frustrating. Spelling and grammar are still issues for me. Some words are misspelled and should have been picked up instantly by a good edit. I also noticed that we seem to have gone a bit Scottish. Actually whilst I'm complaining (what can I say? I'm on a roll.) continuity is a bit of an issue. Some things have been added that should have been explained in the past three books.

For me Elphame had a lot of the same issues as Shannon. Neither of them were likeable characters and I had no sympathy whatsoever for Elphame. I also didn't like Lochlan, Cuchulainn or Etain. Now on a positive note I did like one character. (I know, it's only taken me 4 books.) Brenna was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her grow into a strong woman. I do have to say this though: why P.C. Cast why? (If you've read the book you'll know what I mean.)

In my opinion this is another lacklustre effort from Ms. Cast. This book gave me numerous headaches and I also suffered from severe boredom while attempting to complete this. I persevered with the book but the whole time I was thinking about what I could have bought instead.

My Rating

1.5 stars - I originally gave this 2.5 stars but then I remembered something about Elphame and Lochlan that you discover during this book. I was so disgusted that I promptly took a star off my final rating. Another book rhat I don't recommend.

A Final Note

There's sex, lots of sex. It's quite graphic as well so I'm going to reiterate that this isn't a YA book and I personally don't want to hear of teens reading it. Some of the content is pretty sick.