Review: The Goddess Test

Book Details

Title: 
The Goddess Test (Harlequin Teen)

Author: 
Aimee Carter

Genre: 
YA Fantasy

Page Count: 
297

Publishing Info:
April 19, 2011 by Harlequin Teen

Why I Read It:
netgalley review copy

Grade:
C+ (enjoyable, but not great)

Cover Thoughts:
I'm not exactly sure what's going on here on the cover, or how it relates to the story exactly.  It's kind of a typical YA cover 

My Review

Kate's mother is dying, and before she dies she wants to move back to her childhood home in a small town.  Kate starts going to high school, and (as we so often see in YA) seems to catch the eye of the good-looking boy with the jealous girlfriend.  So the girlfriend plays a prank on Kate, and that's how she meets Henry, who is actually Hades, god of the underworld.  Kate doesn't believe him at first, even after he brings someone back from the dead.  But eventually she believes him, and agrees to live with him and try to pass seven tests (judged by the Olympians) where if she passes, she'll become immortal, and also his wife.

Kate is nice enough, but I got annoyed at how she took the blame for every single thing that was going on around her.  And Henry, your typical brooding, gorgeous YA boy was not very believable as Hades.  At times I think the author forgot she was supposed to be writing Greek gods and goddesses.  I wasn't really feeling the romance either, mostly because Henry was just so blah about it all.  I don't really care about the reasoning behind it; the way it was written doesn't make me root for the romance.  On the plus side, there weren't any characters I hated, and the eye-rolling was minimal.
 

The gigantic house/manor they were all living in was very nice, and although you'd think it'd get boring having the whole story pretty much set in one house, it really didn't. 

If you're a big fan of Greek mythology, you really won't see a whole lot of it in this story.  In fact, if you go into it looking for that, you're bound to be quite disappointed.  On the other hand, if you completely forget that aspect of it, and are just looking for an easy to read, enjoyable YA, you might like this one.

It only took me a couple of days to finish The Goddess Test, and it's a very quick and easy read (that also happens to be quite predictable).  I was thinking the tests she was going to have to pass would have been harder--more focused on Greek mythology maybe, and less on Christian morality (the seven deadly sins).  The story was kind of a mish-mash of different things, but really overall it was enjoyable enough and good if you're looking for something that doesn't require a lot of thought (and in fact, may require you to not think about certain things).