Title: The Goddess Test
Author: Aimee Carter (site)
Published: April 19th, 2011 by Harlequin
Pages: 293
Buy: Amazon / Book Depository
Rating: 4.5/5
Synopsis: 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 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. (Goodreads)
Review: What a great book! I loved the characters. Kate was a great heroine- strong when she needed to be, but far from confident. Things start out mild and normal and then BANG! everything goes nuts. Nothing in her world is as she thought it was, she has a chance to bring her mother back from the dead, and everyone has an ulterior motive. She manages to navigate through all of the insanity without losing her mind. The love interest is cold and seemingly uninterested in her, despite the fact that the purpose of this whole ordeal is to make her his wife (not a spoiler if you've any sense at all). Henry was a great character. Very much Young Mr. Darcy + hundreds of years of guilt. I wish we'd learned more about him, spent more time dealing with his past. I'm hoping that this is something we'll see develop further in the sequel. The plot had plenty of twist bits, although none of them were too very surprising. This didn't, however, make the book dull or predictable. It gave it more of a movie feel. You know: "DON'T DO IT! CAN'T YOU SEE THEY'RE CRAZY AND INTENT ON MURDERING YOU?!" The romance was slow (almost non-existent at first) and, after we learn more about Henry, believable. I love that the reader is presented with the same Henry that she is and then, as we begin to learn more about him, the reader falls in love with the character in the same gradual way that she does. Final words: this book was amazing, one of my favorite releases this year. Go out and read it!
