Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Partholon #0.5

Darkness Divine: Divine Beginnings / The Amazon's Curse / Voodoo / Edge Of Craving

Rate this book
Enter a world where darkness rules and love must stand the tests of war
Join four favourite authors, including P.C. Cast, bestselling author of the House Of Night series, on a deadly journey where love and survival are intertwined.

In Divine Beginnings, healer Aine must choose between treating an enigmatic enemy and letting him die, whilst The Amazon's Curse could kill the paasion that Nola and vampire warrior Zane share.

Toying with New Orleans Voodoo leaves Tessa haunted by a sinfully sexy man, while last scion of the dragon clan Rhys is tormented by his desire for Aila as he struggles to fight the Edge Of Craving.

179 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

10 people are currently reading
2597 people want to read

About the author

P.C. Cast

163 books28.3k followers
PC was born in the Midwest, and grew up being shuttled back-and-forth between Illinois and Oklahoma, which is where she fell in love with Quarter Horses and mythology (at about the same time). After high school, she joined the United States Air Force and began public speaking and writing. After her tour in the USAF, she taught high school for 15 years before retiring to write full time. PC is a #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today Best-Selling author and a member of the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame. Her novels have been awarded the prestigious: Oklahoma Book Award, YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, Booksellers’ Best, and the Laurel Wreath. PC is an experienced teacher and talented speaker. Ms. Cast lives in Oregon near her fabulous daughter, her adorable pack of dogs, her eccentric Maine Coon, and a bunch of horses. House of Night Other World, book 4, FOUND, releases July 7th, 2020. More info to come soon about the HoN TV series!

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
208 (39%)
4 stars
144 (27%)
3 stars
132 (25%)
2 stars
26 (4%)
1 star
16 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for Cora Tea Party Princess.
1,323 reviews861 followers
September 25, 2015
Four very different tales tales brought together, which made for interesting reading. Supernatural Seduction...

My favourite of the tales was the third, Voodoo by Maggie Shayne. It was very creepy and really got to me - it was subtle and gentle and more than a little terrifying.

I least liked the last one, Edge of Craving by Rhyannon Byrd. The story didn't flow right to me and didn't seem so passionate as the previous three.
Profile Image for Samantha.
570 reviews
December 19, 2011
I really enjoyed these short stories, all of them approach the angle of paranormal romance from a different and original aspect they are entertaining and they leave their reader wanting more of the story. They are skillfully written in the sence that after so few pages the reader is engaged enough with the characters to feel sympathy and to care about what happens to them. I think the erotica does not detract from the story only it hightens the characters passion for eash other so it is not sorded or seedy in anyway.
Profile Image for NotAnotherEmptySkull.
243 reviews2 followers
March 24, 2021
☆5 Stars☆

NOTES & THOUGHTS
• 4 stories with amazing storylines in one book.
• I couldn't put the book down.
• All 5 stories are full of details, descriptive and well written.
• Dark, beautiful, sexy and seductive.
• Perfect incorporation of "sexy scenes" in the storyline - it doesn't take away from the storylines.
• I want to read more of all 4 books!!!
• All 4 stories compliment each other - an amazing combination.

I LOVED
• That the stories are all easy to read and a lot of fun.
• That all 4 stories are well written and detailed.
• The dark and seductive themes and storylines.
• That they're perfect, bitesized stories!

I DIDN'T LOVE
• Part of me wishes the stories were longer - although I'm aware that's the whole point of the book, that it's a combination of 4 short stories.
342 reviews3 followers
July 28, 2018
Divine Beginnings only (haven't read the rest):
4 stars
Good, quick read, makes me interested in reading the rest of the books.
Profile Image for Chrissy.
8 reviews
February 14, 2025
Absolutely loved these short stories. They were really engrossing and wonderfully written. I would definitely be reading more by these authors.
Profile Image for Laura Summers.
343 reviews113 followers
December 30, 2010
Reviewed for www.bookchickcity.com

'Divine Darkness' is a compilation of short stories from four popular authors in the paranormal romance genre. There has been a trend for compilations of this nature for a while and for the most part I've avoided them. There's a sceptical part of me, that thinks that they're a bit of a marketing ploy. I also often struggle with short stories and find myself wanting a bit more detail and depth.

But I took my sceptical hat off, and sat back to enjoy my reading. I've read books by two of the authors before - Gena Showalter and Maggie Shayne, but not the other two. So this gave me a chance to see if I would enjoy the other two author's writing styles & stories. I've wanted to pick up a P.C. Cast book in particular, for a while.

The first story of the book is by PC Cast and is obviously from one of her developed series. It tells of a healer who ends up falling for an enemy soldier. It has a fantasy setting and not having read any of the other books, I wasn't fully aware of the rules or background of the story. It did feel a bit rushed, with the characters meeting on one day and falling in love in the next. That being said, however, the story intrigued me. I very much liked the two leads and wanted to learn more about them and the setting captured my imagination. As a consequence the first book of this series is now on my wish list.

The second, is Gena Showalter's we meet a sultry vampire Zane who is being held captive by a tribe of supernatural amazon women. They have captured a group of powerful men and then begin to battle to decide who will mate with whom in order to produce the strongest children. But Zane has a long lost love, Nola who is being punished and exists invisible to everyone, she can only watch as Zane is tortured. Nola needs to break her curse in order to save both herself and the man she loves. This book is a light, paranormal romance written very much in the style Gena Showalter is known for and fans will enjoy, even if the scenes of the women fighting over the men did make me cringe a little.

Maggie Shayne writes the third story, named 'Voodoo'. The name says it all, it is a tale of voodoo magic. Holidaying with her sister in New Orleans, Tessa becomes plagued by strange dreams and fascinated by their handsome tour guide. But as the dreams turn to hauntings and her fascination with the handsome guide leads her to do some research into the local history, Tessa discovers something about herself she could never have imagined. The second two stories of the book are certainly better than the first. Maggie Shayne managed to pack a nice amount of tension into a small amount of pages, an enjoyable short story.

The phrase saving the best until last definitely applies here. I've never actually heard of Rhyannon Byrd so I wasn't sure what to expect from her story. Set in the 1800s, it tells of warrior Rhys who has been assigned along with his troupe of soldiers to protect Alia and her father. Since his assignment began, Rhys has admired Alia from afar since, knowing that he can never have her. But a deadly betrayal changes all of their worlds upside down and Rhys and Alia must work together to save her father's critical work. A riveting read, filled with believable chemistry simmering between Rhys and Alia. I definitely want to read further books from this author.

VERDICT:

Despite my skepticism, for the most part I enjoyed this book. I did feel particularly with the first two stories that they would have worked better fleshed out with some more detail and as longer stories. I was expecting more from PC Cast, but it gave me enough of a flavour to want to read more of her books and I think I'm officially now a Rhyannon Byrd fan. So, perhaps the marketing did its work after all ;-)
Profile Image for Tanya.
1,152 reviews36 followers
December 3, 2025
i loved this book all four of these stories are great reads and definitely worth reading highly recommend this book


I absolutely love the partholon series by the talented author PC Cast. This book was no exception I absolutely loved reading this book. It’s a prequel to the events that occurred in divine by mistake where we are introduced to the story of Shannon and clanFinton. In this book we are introduced to the healer Aine and a kind fomorian Teagan this is their story that connects to Shannon’s journey. This book was highly entertaining and enjoyable book to read and a great addition to the series.



In divine beginnings Aine is a healer who is warned by her dying centaur huntress friend of the dreaded Fomorians. She is contacted by the horse goddess epona who leads her to a wounded fomorian a winged, fanged humanoid looking creatures that are compared to demons. His name is Tegan and she’s torn between helping an enemy or not, but she’s drawn to his unusual kindness and love for nature and Epona that she does help him. He loses control and feeds on her than has her drink his blood to heal her creating a shared bond they can feel each others pain but it’s also how his kind love and choose mates. They grow closer together and make love. She keeps him hidden from the others in guardian castle she’s kidnapped by Nuada the leader of the fomorians to treat heavily pregnant woman that they’re trying to breed new species aine kills them painlessly to stop the births and Tegan rescues her but his wings get cut off. Epona comes to them as a reward for their heroism she sends them to the world outside of partholon. Fifty five years later in Oklahoma in an old mansion that is having an auction they watch a red haired woman buy Epona’s urn she is Shannon Parker the one who will be tasked to stop the fomorian invasion. The old couple watching the events unfold are aine and Tegan. They are happily called home to the goddess eponas meadows after a long happy life.
Profile Image for Eyterna.
105 reviews2 followers
August 9, 2011
Well, this was a fast read. Usually short stories mean i would read it really fast, and i was taking the train most of the time to uni which mean an hour each way reading (though normally, i'm sleeping), which was good.

I must say, some developments had me going, "WHAT?!" then at other times i literally started giggling, chuckling, manically laughing on the train at the way some things were written. I considered buying the book (yes, it was a library book), and i'm still considering it. One of my favourites was definitely, The Amazon's Curse which had it's fair shares of laughter, and smiles.

There are some parts in 3 of the 4 stories that makes me wonder, "Um...what was the age recommended for this book audience again?", really, it seemed too...*ahem* adult, for a young audience, which i'm assuming starts at 13. o.0. Heaven Forbid.

All the stories were very well thought out, and the supernatural theme included was very alluring. In stead of only traditional supernatural creatures there were a few others thrown in there which made things very interesting. There are similarities between stories, which made me ask, "Did someone purposely edit it to be like this?" But that doesn't really matter.

This is a good, fast read, though i'd prefer the older half of the "Young Adult" readers to read it. The fighting seems to be glossed over at times, and others are SLIGHTLY more explicit.

Onto the next library book!
Profile Image for Lihini Wijesinghe.
241 reviews9 followers
July 9, 2013
This book contains four small novels, and since i've already written a review on the first one, Divine Beginnings which you can find HERE I won't write another review of it.

I liked these novels more or less, I felt that they could really have been turned in to something more, something more deeper. The Amazon's Curse kept talking about an Island that made me very confused, because everything that happent in this short novel was founded from everything that happen't on that Island, I felt left out, and that is very very amateur. you should NEVER make a reader feel left out like that. I give The Amazon's Curse 2 stars because I would love to know what happened on that Island.

Then we have Voodoo which I really liked while reading it, I thought It was something extra, and I wanted to know what would happen later (which I never will because there is no follow up book) but now thinking back I have to admit that everything happen't way to fast.

Edge of Craving was a bit of a joke, the lead male character was just so funny and not in the good way funny, no I just could not hold myself from laughing at this character, the character never laugh's, never smiles, always mean and grim, etc etc, but of course the innocent girl has to fall for this stone, but hey, oh nono, the guy is not a bottle of negativity after all, he actually likes her and want her body.
And the girl is not so innocent after all, very demanding. This was like a fantasy, very very very short
Profile Image for Lore.
762 reviews
April 11, 2011
This book is epicly laughable. I'm quite sure what it is about it but I just COULD NOT take it seriously.

I liked the Amazon's curse one(iyt was the best of out them all) but I believe there's really only so many times you can use the word 'cock' on a page.

Divine beginnings- COULD have been epic, if it was a long story, but sadly the author just squished it in thus ruining the awesomeness.

Voodoo- wasn't that bad, pretty clean and not a bad plot but it was kinda laughable still.

Edge of craving- now thats a laugh, it was one fo those stories where the author was like 'Hmm....I wanna write sex scenes, oh....I need a plot too...damn...' so there was this weedy kid of a plot jamed in between all the sexual thoughts and scenes.

So in short, NO don't read this, unless your in the mood for bad writing. The most laughable thing is that it's avertised as a YOUNG ADULT novel. Laugh with me people, I mean come on, THAT cannot be YA, far too many dirty though and scenes.


Profile Image for Gemmoi.
31 reviews
July 27, 2011
I must say that after reading this anthology of paranormal seduction stories, my favorites were Maggie and Rhyannon. The book is headlined by PC Cast but that was my least favorite of all the stories.

PC contributes a story about a healer in a mythical land who falls for a hybrid vampire slash demon. It started off just fine, but then she veered back her annoying present day crap where the lead characters find themselves old and grey in some hick city in the USA. Her books would work alot better if she just left the characters in the mythical land.

Gena's Amazon ghost vampire story was a bore all the way through.

I love love love Maggie! She has a way of putting you right in the scene and building a wonderful story of timeless love that will leave you breathless for more!!
Profile Image for Mrs Wilson.
221 reviews3 followers
February 27, 2016
Darkness Divine (No Spoilers)

Really loved the short stories in this book. I bought this book as it featured further stories from the Parthalon series by P.C. Cast and the Atlantis series by Gena Showalter however the stories from the other two authors Maggie Shayne and Rhyannon Byrd were also really good. The story from P.C. Cast Divine Begginings tells the story of the healer Aine and gives a nice little slant on the formorians. The story from Gena Showalter The Amazons Curse tells the missing story from the Atlantis series of Nola and Zane which I have been waiting to read since they were trapped on the island with Poseidon and his wicked games. A definite must read for P.C and Gena fans.
Profile Image for Tara.
60 reviews1 follower
February 5, 2011
This book has four little snips of 4 books. I think it is a great idea because you can read what the books are about and if you like them you can buy the bigger version of it. I did not read it all because I did not like two of the books that are in it. Anyways, I think it is an awesome idea and if you want to know more about a book that is in this book that you are not sure of buying, I would recommend it.
Profile Image for Hannah (Sakurahan or ForeverBooks18).
462 reviews37 followers
March 10, 2016
NOTE: I've only read the first novella as it finished off the Devine series by PC Cast.

It was a really good novella however. We see Aine lose her friend at the beginning. We see her fall in love with a forbidden Femorian and we see them make choices to help each other.

If this had been longer I would have given it 5 stars just because it focused on the thing I love in novels - the romance.

I will probably read the other novella's at some point when I get into those series'.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Claire Allan.
73 reviews24 followers
April 6, 2019
read this book twice now and have to say every story is amazing in its own way but also has the same sort of love which played out differently which kept it refreshing and I remember the first two more vividly than the last two but I enjoyed all 4 stories but I may be a bit biased since the only author I know of all 4 authors is P.C. Cast but I enjoyed Divine Beginnings the most.
Profile Image for Kim the Bibliophile.
190 reviews25 followers
September 23, 2012


3.5 stars... While I enjoyed the last three short stories, I wasn't completely hooked on P. C. Cast's story. I had to keep reminding myself, though, that they were indeed SHORT stories, because I was getting frustrated with how soon they ended. I just wanted to keep reading about Rhys and Alia, Nola and Zane. But still an okay book if you don't want to get too involved.
Profile Image for Belyse.
62 reviews
January 6, 2013
It's actually 4,5 stars. I loved loved loved the first two stories (PC Cast & Gena Showalter) the third was interesting and enjoyable too, the last one (by Rhyannon Byrd) was a little lame, I didn't really like it.
58 reviews14 followers
October 9, 2010
i stopped when i figured out it was an erotic book!! i cant find my innocence anywhere???? help me
Profile Image for Ruby Replogle.
42 reviews
March 15, 2012
3.5 stars. If you have read this book, you will know why im not explaining the plots.
Profile Image for Beckie Harry.
7 reviews3 followers
June 20, 2013
Love this book!!! Recommended for I'd say 17-18 yrs + tho as its really quite raunchy!!!
Profile Image for Sonia.
128 reviews
May 28, 2013
Great stories, great authors , well written and I really enjoyed reading the book with the different stories glad I pick it up. :)
Profile Image for Amy victoria.
153 reviews4 followers
November 4, 2013
I loved this all the story's were good I'll have to find some more
561 reviews
April 25, 2019
Divine Beginnings (Partholon 0.5) - P.C. Cast
The Amazon’s Curse - Gena Showalter
Voodoo - Maggie Shayne
Edge of Craving (Primal Instinct 0.5) - Rhyannon Byrd
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.