5. P.C. Cast - Goddess By Mistake

Shannon Parker, a 35-year old high school English teacher, goes to an estate auction in a remote part of Oklahoma and finds this incredible looking vase. However, when she goes in for a closer look she quickly discovers that the Celtic goddess on the vase looks exactly like her, even down to a scar on her hand! She feels compelled to buy the vase and on the way home, something terrifying happens to her: the vase explodes and the car is filled with flames. She is positive she is dead, but instead finds out that she has been transported into another dimension, into a land called Partholon where what she has regarded as myth is actually reality. On top of that, she discovers that she is a goddess, the High Priestess of Epona, who is being forced to marry a handsome centaur. To make things even more complicated, she finds that her alternate self is a self-serving evil bitch and she must correct a lot of the mistakes her predecessor made. On top of all of this, she discovers her beautiful land is under attack by the Formorians, a race of demonic, vampire-like creatures.

I really liked this book. At times, things seemed rather far-fetched (I mean, come on....how is a human supposed to have sex with a centaur?) but Cast managed to weave such a good tale that things always seemed to work out for the protagonist. Personally, I liked this book much better than "Goddess by the Sea," which had more of a romance setting than a fantasy one. I highly recommend this one.