Tag Archives: Mythology

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Review: Goddess by Josephine Angelini

Title: Goddess
Author: Josephine Angelini
Series: Starcrossed series
Rating: ★★★★★

I held off from reading anything about Goddess before reading the book itself. I loved Starcrossed and Dreamless so much that I didn’t want to have anything spoiled for Goddess, whether it was plot points or swayed feelings. I knew absolutely nothing going into reading this final book.

I loved it. It was the perfect way to end this series. Everything isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough. People are happy, but the future is still unknown. That is how an ending to a series like this should be.

Helen has gone through a lot for her family and friends. She’s faced down evils and traveled into Hades. She’s spent two books learning about herself and the world of gods and now it’s time to put all her knowledge to use. She has to be ready mentally and physically, and I liked that about the book. It doesn’t focus on needing to be the strongest or the smartest, but finding the best balance between the two. Helen has to figure out which battles to fight and which to outsmart.

Lucas and Orion. Angelini made me love them both. I felt just as torn as Helen when it comes to these two men. There is nothing that sets one far above the other, but I knew through all three books which way I wanted Helen to go. I think what made me happiest, though, was Angelini didn’t leave it up to fate. She didn’t make it seem as though Helen had to end up with one because the fates made it so. Helen listened to what her heart and mind was saying and made her choice that way, not letting fate decide for her.

The entire Starcrossed series has been amazing to read. Angelini created a fantastic world revolving around the Greek gods and goddesses that felt as though it fit in perfectly to the real world. I’ve fallen in love with these characters and am sad to see the end of their story, but I look forward to rereading in the future and falling in love all over again.

If Goddess sounds like your kind of novel, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

Title: Wings of the Wicked
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton
Series: Angelfire series
Pages: 516 pages hardcover, 544 paperback, 533 ebook
Rating: ★★★★★

I had heard of Angelfire a couple years ago. I thought it sounded a little meh and predictable. I didn’t look at it again for almost two years, when the final book in the series was getting ready to be released. I both love and hate myself for that decision. I love that by putting reading it off for two years, I don’t have to wait a year to see how the series ends.

I hate myself because that is two years that this book series wasn’t in my life.

Wings of the Wicked was spectacular. If the action and drama of having to destroy the demonic wasn’t enough, Ellie must deal with finding a way to balance every piece of her. She needs to be Gabriel, she needs to be Ellie, and she needs to be Will’s. There is always the worry in her mind of losing one of those pieces and not knowing what her world would be like if a chunk of it was suddenly gone.

Will and Ellie’s romance was superb. It wasn’t the typical Young Adult, teen love angst. Yes, some of that was there, but there was another layer to it because even if they looked young, their souls had been through so much. I felt so caught up in their every interaction, my heart hurting at one moment and soaring the next.

I’m so happy and relieved I was able to get Shadows in the Silence the moment I finished Wings of the Wicked because I would have crumbled if I had to wait. I want to dive right in and let Moulton’s story wrap its arms around me and take me right back into Ellie’s life. I am officially a Courtney Allison Moulton fan.

If Wings of the Wicked sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Review: The Goddess Inheritance by Aimee Carter

Title: The Goddess Inheritance
Author: Aimee Carter
Series: Goddess Test series
Pages: 283 pages paperback, 289 ebook
Rating: ★★★★

After the cliffhanger ending of Goddess Interrupted, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book. I wanted to know how Carter would end this lovely series. Despite a couple hang-ups, The Goddess Inheritance was a fantastic book and a perfect way to end the series.

It felt like this was more of a plot-driven novel than a character-driven one. I have no problem with that, but I would have liked a little more Kate and Henry interaction and relationship development. There was a bit of a disconnect between how they said they felt and how they acted. While I can understand some of it, I still feel like there could have been more between them.

I am sure some people will look at how often Kate cries and think she’s weaker in this novel than in the others. I don’t believe that’s true. Crying doesn’t always make you weak, nor is it a sign of weakness. Sometimes, crying means you care so much, there’s no other way for you to express it. And that is why I still think Kate is a strong character. She stands up for herself and what she believes is right. If in doing that, she needs to cry occasionally, then I can’t fault her for it.

The addition of Milo, Kate and Henry’s son, was fantastic. It gave Henry and Kate something more to fight for. It was no longer just them and the counsel they had to think of when making decisions. Now they had a baby to figure into the equation, too. It made them both stop and think each and every plan through to make sure it was the right path to choose.

The one other thing that didn’t feel quite right was the climax of the novel. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it and reading it made me anxious, but as soon as it happened, I felt like there was a lot of build up and tension and right at the pivotal moment…it fizzled a little bit. The scene still worked, but I had felt like there was going to be something more, and yet it wasn’t there.

Overall, The Goddess Inheritance was an action-packed conclusion to the story of Kate and Henry. The ending is sweet and loving and leaves the future wide open for their family’s happiness. It was a great end to a great series.

If The Goddess Inheritance sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

Thank you to HarlequinTeen and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Title: Angelfire
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton
Series: Angelfire series
Rating: ★★★

I liked Angelfire. I wasn’t wowed by it, but it also wasn’t even close to being dull or hard to read.

Heaven versus Hell books run the risk of either being too preachy or way too different from “the originals” and losing readers either way. Angelfire was able to straddle the line well, sticking to Ellie’s discovery of her true self and finding a way to defeat the bad guys. The angels and Fallen angels play a big part, but there isn’t a focus on going to Hell or getting into Heaven.

Ellie is the typical teen. She wants to graduate, get into college, and spend as much time as possible with her friends while doing that. She starts having nightmares that feel entirely too real, and then on her 17th birthday, the nightmares become her life. Enter Will.

Will is Ellie’s guardian. He has been watching over her and basically being her partner in crime for the past 500 years. It’s easy to see right from the beginning how Will feels about Ellie. He may not know Ellie, the body, but he knows the soul well. All he wants to do is make sure she stays safe and alive.

The action is intense and I liked that. If an author can write a scene in a book well enough that I can picture the entire thing in my head, I consider it well-written. Every scene was like that. It played out in my head with every word I read.

Angelfire is a good book. It’s not the most spectacular Angel and Fallen Angel story out there, but it’s pretty good. I’m definitely invested enough to want to read the rest of Ellie and Will’s story, but I don’t need it at this exact moment. I will certainly be reading more, but I might wait until the last book comes out, just so I don’t have much waiting time between.

If Angelfire sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

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Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

When I first started reading, I thought there would be too many stories being told, and the novel would end up being too busy and crowded. Childs was able to write the very distinctive characters and voices and managed to avoid making the too big for the novel.

Gretchen is the huntress. It’s all she’s really known for four years. She’s accepted it as her future and works hard to make sure monsters don’t roam free for too long. Grace is new to town, looking to make herself different with this new move. She starts seeing monsters and her world gets thrown a little off-kilter. Greer saw a monster once, but years of therapy have molded her into the perfect daughter her socialite parents want her to be.

When these three girls discovery their connection, the world starts to change. The rules Gretchen has known and followed begin to change. Grace starts to get a backbone. Greer has a chance to be something more than a rich family’s daughter. Gretchen and Greer have the hardest time with these changes. They live their lives how they were, when they knew what to expect and what to do. Grace has the easiest time embracing the truth. This is the change she was looking for.

Sweet Venom is a beautiful book that brings mythology into the modern world. It has the stories of three very different girls interwoven in a clear way and it doesn’t overwhelm with details and backstory. Childs could easily have had a bit of a mess on her hands, but she wrote this book so well that I never once felt the 3 different points of view was a bad idea. Childs got the stories of all three girls across without losing the main plot of the novel.

The boys in this book are pretty swoon-worthy as well. Nick enjoys getting under Gretchen’s skin and Milo is the sweet jock everyone couldn’t help but love in high school. They weren’t a huge part of this first book, but they were in the novel enough to make me smile. I’m looking forward to reading more of these relationships’ development.

Sweet Venom is a novel that could have gone in the opposite direction and been a bit of a mess. Childs worked some sort of magic and kept it entertaining, flowing, and wonderful. This is definitely a book for anyone who likes a touch of mythology in their novels. It was a great read and I’m certainly going to be reading the next book.

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The Mephisto Kiss by Trinity Faegen

The thing I like most about book series like The Mephisto Covenant is that one story does not entirely depend on the other. Unlike trilogies, where if you don’t read book 1, books 2 and 3 don’t make sense, it helps if you read book 1, but it is its own story. It’s part of a whole, but separate as well.

The Mephisto Covenant was a fantastic book. The Mephisto Kiss was even better. Kyron, Key gets his turn at finding redemption in the Anabo Jordan. However, as much as she can get past his being a son of Hell, there are certain other things that she doesn’t know if she can forgive and accept as a part of him. That’s the major influence of this book; finding that understanding and being able to love all of a person, including those parts that are the toughest.

I liked Jordan. She wasn’t princess like at all, even though she could have easily been taken that way. She wanted to fight for herself right away and refused to let anything hold her back. She was going to work to be what she needed to be, and she was even able to sacrifice part of herself to help people she just met.

Key is broken in a unique way. He keeps himself closed off from his brothers, being the leader instead of having a relationship with them like they have with one another. He doesn’t show emotion and keeps everything under the skin, away from where people can see it. Jordan can see right through him and makes him confront the parts of him he’d rather hide. Their relationship felt like a slow build, even though it didn’t take much time at all. It still felt completely right and wonderful.

The ending nearly broke my heart. I definitely wasn’t prepared for that, but after finishing it, there was no other way for this book to end. I can’t wait for the next book to come out and I get the chance to see who the next brother to be featured is. Faegen has created a world and a family I’m 100% invested in and I love her for it.

The Mephisto Kiss is definitely a book to read, even if The Mephisto Covenant wasn’t your favorite book. The Mephisto Kiss will grab your heart and not let go, but in the best way possible.

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The Mephisto Covenant: The Redemption of Ajax by Trinity Faegen

I put off reading The Mephisto Covenant because I had read some not so good reviews and I wasn’t really in the mood to read a book that might let me down. And I kept putting it off until I finally decided I was being weird and just needed to read it for myself. My only regret is that I did not read it sooner.

This isn’t a huge thought-provoking read. It’s not going to turn you on your side and twist you around before leaving you a little dazed and confused. There’s a ton of clichés, some inconsistencies, a few too many convenient coincidences, and quite a bit of info dumping in the first few chapters. And yet, I really enjoyed it. Somehow, the new twist on the mythology was able to make up for everything else in the novel that would usually annoy me.

Sasha’s life is upended in the span of just a couple days. She escapes death at the hands of some of her classmates, her mother is sent to Russia, she moves in with an uncle she didn’t know she had with an aunt that hates her, and she learns she is an Anabo, a daughter of Aurora (the daughter of Adam and Eve). Despite all of this, she doesn’t give up on her life and makes the best of what she has been dealt. Yes, she is a bit of a damsel in distress at times, but she can also take care of herself.

Jax is the son of Mephistopheles, a son of Hell. He can only find redemption in the love of an Anabo. He comes across Sasha one evening while on a raid of Eryx’s Ravens, lost souls, and he knows that there is a reason he has found her.

These two don’t fall in love immediately, like so many young adult novels have their characters do. Instead, there’s lust at first sight, but both characters try to act the way they think they should, and don’t act upon that lust (much). Only after spending time with each other, which admittedly is still not much time, do they start to fall for one another.

There was enough action to keep me turning from page to page, not wanting to take a break. There was enough romance to make me smile and swoon. The story was unique and not the typical angel story. The Mephisto Covenant is a fantastic book that despite a shaky start, and having more of the typical Young Adult pitfalls than I can usually read, managed to pull me in and make me enjoy it. This is definitely a book for anyone who likes a bit of angel mythology wrapped up in the action and romance.

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The Goddess Legacy by Aimee Carter

Finally, the Gods and Goddess I know and love. The proud, lying, cheating, crazy lot of them. They seemed a little too good in The Goddess Test, a little worse (in a good way) in Goddess Interrupted, and just perfect in The Goddess Legacy.

I love that I understand the characters just a little bit better. I was never strongly against any character’s actions, but to know their back-stories really gave me a greater understanding and appreciation for the other two books. Actions make better sense and the characters are even stronger. I really enjoyed looking into Calliope and Persephone’s stories. They made me like them, even though they ended up hurting so many people.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was a little disappointed in Henry’s story. I loved the peek into his head, but something was missing for me that kept me from being over the moon in love with it. I do love Henry a little bit more now, though, and feel like I understand him a lot better than I did the first two books.

Overall, The Goddess Legacy was an excellent group of novellas that gave a necessary peek into the lives of the characters we love to love, or love to hate. It makes them feel a little bit more like complete people, and I feel like I’ll have a better understanding of the choices and actions in the third novel. If The Goddess Test and Goddess Interrupted left you wanting just a little bit more, this is definitely a great book to pick up.

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Archon: The Books of Raziel by Sabrina Benulis

Archon is unlike any angel-centric book I’ve read recently. It’s darker, grittier, and more complex. It’s definitely not a love story with angel elements. It’s about the darkness that is so dark, the Vatican has created a special Academy designed to help them find and destroy the evil that has everyone so afraid.

Angela Mathers is an extremely strong and independent female character. She might start the novel suicidal and slightly off-kilter, but by the end of the novel, she’s powerful and steady. She’s faced demons, both personal and physical. Saying that she’s just a strong female seems like I’m diminishing her in a way; it feels more appropriate to simply label her an extremely powerful lead character, male or female. Not once while reading did she act like I thought she would. I devoured her.

There’s really not a good or bad side. Everything is muddled with personal reasons and vendettas. Just when you think you have someone figured out, they do something that makes you totally reevaluate them. You’re on your toes the entire time you’re reading, just waiting for the next twist that will leave you reeling.

There are a lot of things left open and a lot of confusion left at the end of this book. There’s not a completely cliffhanger ending, but it’s not sewn up prettily, either. The ending left me feeling content, and yet needing more.

Archon is unlike any book I’ve read before. It’s dark and moving, with lots of amazing action. There’s twists and turns where you least expect them and at times, it’s hard to tell which way is up. It’s an amazing book and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next novel.

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Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter

I have so many feelings after finishing this book and while some of these feelings hurt, they hurt in the best way possible. I know what I’ve read is amazing when, after finishing the book, I want to thank the author for crushing my heart. That is exactly what I want to do with this book. I’d like to thank Aimee Carter for writing a book that has ripped my heart out in the most delicious way.

My main problem with The Goddess Test was how the mythology was handled. I missed that sinfulness that has become so associated with Greek Mythology. In Goddess Interrupted, you get some of that put back in the story. The Gods and Goddess aren’t quite as put together as they appear in the first book and I absolutely loved it. I love more and more this world Carter has created.

I found Kate extremely interesting in this book. In The Goddess Test, Kate was very dependent on her mother. Nearly everything she decides is connected to her mother in some way. In Goddess Interrupted, Kate has lost the dependence on her mother, but instead needs Henry. She hasn’t quite become her own person just yet, but the ending of Goddess Interrupted gives me hope that Kate is finally coming into her own and finding the ability to depend on herself for something. Of course, the major cliffhanger has me salivating for more and hoping Kate is able to keep growing into her own person, not dependent on anything or anyone, but can stand on her own.

The romance part of the book takes a slight backseat for parts of the novel and I’m completely fine with that. The parts of the novel between Kate and Henry were frustrating, sweet, amazing, and perfect. They’re still trying to figure everything out about their relationship. They don’t fall into the perfect relationship right away. They dance around each other, make mistakes. It’s absolutely wonderful to see a relationship written the right way.

Goddess Interrupted is a book that has left me utterly crushed, yet hopeful and eagerly anticipating The Goddess Inheritance. It can’t some out soon enough.