The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Over the past year, since I've been able to afford my own books, I've always had new books and have subsequently neglected one of my favourite past times: re-reading. So recently I've decided that I need to get around to re-reading some of my favourites and while this one is a recent favourite I really loved re-reading it in preparation for the sequel Goddess Interrupted!

 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.

(Taken from Harlequin website)

So I loved this book the first time I read it and I loved it even more the second. The intriguing plot and awesome characters make this book particularly hard to put down and I read it both times in one sitting completely ignoring the biological necessity of food until I was finished.

I love all the Greek myths and this book is a fantastically new take on a story as old as time. One of the aspects I enjoyed about The Goddess Test is that despite not having more than a rudimentary understanding of a lot of the mythology, it was still great fun trying to work out which of the characters was who.

The novel starts strong and keeps it going and despite there not being a huge amount of action through it, there is always something going on.

Kate, the protagonist, is an amazingly strong lead who you can't help but becoming fond of almost immediately. She has looked after her mother for so long that she's never really had a chance to make her own friends and watching her become more of her own person as the novel progresses and she experiences new things is amazing. Not to mention watching the romance between her and Henry!

A fantastic read that I couldn't recommend more highly and that everyone should pick up before the March 23rd release of one of my most awaited books of the year, Goddess Interrupted!

4.5/5 for this book I couldn't put down even while reading it a second time and knowing exactly what was going to happen. That is one of the true signs of an amazing book!

Laura H