(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

She has a destiny so great that even the gods fear her.

Constant hallucinations and the frequent conversations with the voices in her head, have earned eighteen-year-old Chloe Clever the not-so-coveted title of “Whack Job” in her home town of Adel, Georgia. With the onslaught of prescription medications and therapists threatening to push her over the edge, she wishes for a life far away from the one she has, a life where she is destined to be more than the butt of everyone’s jokes and mockery.

Be careful what you wish for has never rung more true.

After living through an attack from her worst nightmare, she awakens to find herself far from home, surrounded by glorious riches and servants and a few demigods who enjoy killing things.  Upon learning that her favorite rockstar is an Olympian god, she is thrust into her new life as the Oracle of Delphi, the prophesier of the future, and the great Pythia that the gods have been anxiously awaiting to arrive for centuries. Setting out to fulfill the prophecy she has been given and to keep her family safe from a demigod Princess that wants her dead, Chloe learns of how great she is to become, all the while fighting mythical monsters, evading divine assassins and trying to outwit the ever-cunning Greek gods who harbor secrets of their own. In the hopes of discovering the Most Beautiful and the truth of her destiny, she strives to uncover the mysteries of the demigod Prince who has sworn to protect her with his life and threatens to win her heart in the process.

[Full disclosure: I found Prophecy of the Most Beautiful on The Masquerade Crew and was so interested in it that Mark Lee put me in contact with Diantha Jones so I could request the book.  Yes, I actually requested the book myself.]

Prophecy of the Most Beautiful is what fantasy should be: fast-paced, unique, well thought-out and unpredictable.  It’s a book you won’t be able to put down, not only because of the awesome characters, but because the plot takes so many twists and turns you won’t have a clue as to how things will end!  I know I didn’t.

In the beginning Chloe seems like your typical YA heroine, but this is certainly not the case by the end of the book.  The main difference between Chloe and other female leads is that she actually has a backbone and doesn’t faint away at the sight of blood or agonize about killing people.  She does what she needs to do to survive as the first Oracle of Delphi in more than four decades and doesn’t look back.  In fact, you won’t find much teenage angst in Prophecy of the Most Beautiful.  Sure, Strafford is a little tortured and seems like your typical bad boy, but the hints Diantha Jones is dropping seem to say that we’re not finished with him yet, that there’s much more to be learned about the Sun Prince.

Now for the plot: holy crap.  I was absolutely glued to my computer screen and didn’t stop reading for anything.  Prophecy of the Most Beautiful is a whirlwind journey and, at the risk of being cliché, you will not be able to put it down.  It’s 266 pages of pure excitement and the cliffhanger on the last page was downright cruel, but certainly achieved its goal: getting me to want the next book.  The last series I was this excited about was Krystal Wade’s Darkness Falls trilogy, so you know I’ll be following this one closely.

The way Diantha Jones set up her world, mixing in Greek myths and a bit of her own flair, was brilliant.  The ‘iceys’ (immortals celeste) created to worship the gods and preserve their immortality, the demi-gods and even the gods themselves are not cliché because she has put her own spin on them.  Not all demi-gods are created equal, as we learn and the iceys may not have things all that great up in the realm of the gods.  It will be interesting to see more of this hidden world in the next book, Prophecy of the Setting Sunrise.  I can’t wait to read it!

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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