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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Finding Abigail by Carrie Ann Ryan

 

http://www.carrieannryan.com/

Tyler Cooper is the town sheriff and, in the past, had been the only person keeping Holiday steady. Though the community is now finding out that it’s town is magical, Tyler has always known itit’s in his blood. He has always known his fate of becoming a cupid, striking love into the hearts others, but an enemy from his past is set on keeping him from finding his own destinyand love.

Abigail Clarke is leaving Holiday for good. She has to. After years of trying to fit in and make Tyler notice her, she’s giving up. She’s watched her friends fall in love and it’s heartbreaking. Acknowledging that the one man she’s always loved doesn’t want her, it’s time to move on and find her own future.

Right when the stars align and Tyler opens his eyes, his enemy is back and has his sights on Abigail. Abigail is in danger and Tyler may be the only one to stand up to him and save her.


Warning: Contains one sexy sheriff who turns into cupid, complete with bow and arrow, the sweetest teacher you’ll ever meet who needs to find her bad girl side, and a love of candy hearts that’s sure to bring them together.

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I have yet to come across an author who brought together the magic of the holidays and romance together until now. We all believe when we are younger the magic of Santa Clause, Cupids, and so many others. As we grow older we lose that magic and only as parents do we help that magic grow within our children. But what if it was in your blood to be a deity of a certain holiday? Well in this series that Carrie Ann Ryan you learn about the Cooper family that does just that in a small town called Holiday in Alabama. I for one am looking forward to reading the next book(s) to be coming out as well as finding out what happened before Tyler and Abigail's story.



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Because it is so close to Valentine's Day, and this book comes out right before I thought it would be fun to do a little research on the legend of Cupids and share it with you.
 
The earliest recorded version of the story is the one told by Apuleius, which goes like this.

Psyche is a princess who is so beautiful that people begin to treat her like a goddess, making symbolic gestures and even sacrifices to her. The goddess Venus is jealous of this and decides as her revenge she will ask her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with some ugly mortal. Cupid reluctantly agrees, and flies to Psyche's bedside. But as he is about to shoot one of his fateful arrows, Psyche wakes up, startles him, and he scratches his own leg. He falls in love with her.

Meanwhile, Psyche's parents are concerned that Psyche has no suitors. She is so beautiful that no one dares to propose to her. They go to an oracle of Apollo, which instructs them to prepare her for marriage as one would be prepared for human sacrifice. The parents tearfully carry out this instruction, escorting her in procession to the top of a cliff. Psyche accepts her fate boldly, saying she is eager to meet her beautiful new husband.

The parents and their entourage leave Psyche to her fate. Psyche is then transported to a wood, where she finds a beautiful palace. She goes in, and begins to live there, served by invisible spirits. She even has an invisible lover. But he tells her she is not allowed to look at him directly, and he visits her only at night. She doesn't even know who he is.

But Psyche can hear the voices of her sisters calling to her from the mortal realm. She goes back to visit them. They hear her stories about her new life, and jealously they urge to look at her husband, raising doubts in her mind that he might be a monster. So that night she looks at him, using a lamp. She sees that he is a god. But she frightens him, and he jostles the lamp, spilling hot oil on himself, which injures him. He leaves her and goes back to the realm of the gods.

Psyche returns home and is miserable. She then goes to temples and makes sacrifices to all the gods to find out which one it was that had been her lover. The only god who will answer her is Venus. The god turns out to be none other than her son Cupid (i.e. Desire or Eros; Venus means sexual desire, and Psyche's name in turn means "soul"). Psyche begs Venus to help her find Cupid, and Venus then imposes a series of labors on Psyche - including a descent into Hades. Psyche is able to achieve these labors with help from divine assistants, including, for the last labor, Cupid himself.

Her successful completion of the labors means that Psyche is at last able to marry Cupid officially - she becomes immortal and they are united in eternity.

Then Psyche and Cupid have a baby, Voluptas (Pleasure) - who was, however, conceived before their official wedding.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche

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