Friday, February 7, 2014

Review: The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)

Title: The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)
Author: Aimee Carter 
Date Published: April 2011
ISBN: 9780373210268 
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 293
Summary
Every girl who had taken the test has died. Now it's Kate's turn.

It's always been just Kate and her mom - and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear that her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld - and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy - until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride and a goddess.
 
If she fails...  



Rating & Review


I've always been interested in Greek mythology. It's nothing that I've obsessed about and read everything that I can get my hands on, but I know most of the gods and goddesses so this book was pretty interesting for me. By no means to you need to have this huge amount of background info on Greek mythology in order to enjoy this book but I think that a bit of knowledge might come in handy. It will just give you a sense of a back story to The Goddess Test.

Jumping right in, this book was pretty good. I enjoyed how the author really stuck pretty true to the actual mythology and then wove her story in between those firmly established tales. Each of the characters that she created for this novel were pretty in line with how I would imagine that particular god or goddess to be in the modern day. Except for Hades. Hades is the god of the underworld, in case you didn't know. I just think someone who is in charge of world damnation would have been ... mean or have a gruff undercurrent to his character. I never really expected him to be almost timid or shy. Sure, I get that he's tortured by things in his very long past but still, something seemed off about him to me. I would think that Persephone leaving him would have made him more aggressive or dominating with his dark side but it really just turned him into a pansy in this book. I think I was waiting for him to come out of that shell and just take control or do something, I guess. I don't know. Like I said, something was off about him.

I really liked the character of Kate. Man, the author wrote a great history for Kate and her mother. I really liked the mother as well - especially the further that you get into the story. But Kate ... she started to get whiny. I haven't heard anyone else say that after they have read this, I could have just been irritated and looking for something to be wrong ... but I wrote whiny on a post-it, so if it was important enough to waste a post-it on, I figured that I would bring it up. Sounds silly but you have NO IDEA how many post-its disappear at our house. Our boys take them to write "tickets" or stick on the cats or their own faces. We blow through a lot of them. I don't take post-it usage lightly. Lol.

Anyhow, pretty good book ... there are quite a few characters, so make sure that you read this with a clear mind at first until you can get everyone straight. Worth looking into if you love Greek mythology or you're just looking for a change of pace from your other books.


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