The Goddess Test

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: April 19, 2011
Hardcover: 304 pages
Price: $9.99
On the library stacks: YA Fiction 

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Kate is a high school senior whose mother is dying from cancer. As part of her final wishes, she takes Kate to the small town of Eden, Michigan to live out her remaining days. Kate makes friends with a loner from school named James and seems to spark the ire of a beautiful, popular girl named Ava straight away. When Kate is forced to make the decision to save Ava's life, she unwittingly enters herself into agreement to live with Hades (named Henry) for the next six months, and possibly become his wife.

This was kind of like Hades & Persephone meets Beauty & The Beast. I wanted to read this book because I was intrigued by the premise, but something was just off. I think the story needed to be more true to the accepted myths and personalities of the Greek gods. There needed to be more substance to the characters and their relationships, and more effort put into the world-building. The writing style was very simple, which seemed incongruous with the huge things happening in Kate's life.

There were parts of this book that I found really entertaining and I was hopeful that things would take a different direction than they did. But in the end it was pretty predictable and the characters were more wooden than I would have liked. This is the first in a trilogy, but I don't think I'll be reading more.

Source: e-copy provided by netGalley and Harlequin Teen for review purposes.