Review: The Goddess Test

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

publisher: Harlequin Teen

release date: April 19, 2011

paperback, 304 pages

intended audience: Young adult

rating:




source: from publisher through Netgalley

description:
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.

Review: I'm going to try to keep this review short, because this story is full of little surprises and twists and turns that can easily be given away in all my blabbering and gushing, but I will say...I loved this book. The main character, Kate Winters, was courageous and selfless and completely relatable. Because her mother has been sick for so long, taking care of her is her whole life, there's been no room for anything else, no friends, no boys, no hobbies. Her mother moves them back to the town where she grew up. She insists that Kate go to school, make some friends, and hopefully let the town grow on her enough to stay after she is gone. While attempting to do just that, Kate meets a few new people, some of them not quite what they seem, and a jealous prank sets in motion a chain of events that Kate never could have expected.

I loved the unusual relationships in this one. Kate and her mother's, of course,---you easily feel how precious each moment is with her mother on the brink of death. I also loved the slow-blooming and sometimes tumultuous feelings between Kate and Henry. I love that it's not just cut and dry, sometimes she admires him, sometimes she can't forget that he is on some level her captor. Its a little bit Beauty and the Beast, a little bit Jane and Rochester; he is not at all what you first expect him to be. Not to give too much away, but there some moments between them that definitely had me feeling a little swoony.

The little twists and fun surprises in this were great, and even when I predicted a turn of events correctly, I couldn't wait to see it play out. A huge applause for Aimee Carter for the way she expertly wove the old mythical characters into her story, giving them fresh new lives and personalities. Not at all a rehashing of the old legends, but a wonderful newly-imagined tale!

This is a must-read! Don't pass this up!

Visit Aimee Carter's site here.

Purchase The Goddess Test at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound