Carter, Aimee: The Goddess Test (The Goddess Test, #1)

April 19, 2011
304 pages, Harlequin Teen

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.


If she fails...

Honestly, I liked the concept of this story a bit more than I thought I would be. Recently, I seem to  be a bit - jaded? pessimistic? - about the quality of YA fiction. Characters are redundant. Plots fall through like the hole in a donut. However, The Goddess Test was a rare exception.

That isn't to say the story was completely perfect. The main aspect that made my sister and I have a good laugh was the name Henry. If you're a mythology geek (like moi) you are probably aware that besides his main title, Hades, the God of the Underworld has several different names that he is called by. Henry evokes a picture of a stuffy young English man with lace about his collar, rather than a tall, dark and handsome immortal.

Also (not really a big deal) the high school and its surrounding areas instantly makes me think of Forks - or that might be the little blurb stating Henry as being "dark and tortured"...Edward Cullen, anyone?

The other bone of contention happened near the end - a brief, not-at-all described night of intimacy between Kate and Henry that I thought was unnecessary. If this doesn't bother you, please overlook my morals, but for me that was a bit of a squicky situation, as was the "discussion" afterward about the circumstances that fueled their, ahem, lust. As a teenager, I can tell you straight off that adding intimate scenes in a YA book doesn't convince me that it's meant for my age group.

(Then again, I guess you can't expect less from Harlequin.)

Other than that, the story was an intriguing idea - what if Persephone couldn't adapt to Hades? What if there was a need for another Queen of the Underworld? I liked Kate well enough - up until the part I mentioned; her desire to have more time with her dying mother was honorable, although I don't think that quickly accepting the proposal of a strange guy - no matter how cute he is - is really a smart thing to do. (Don't try this at home, kids.)

To make a long story short, it wasn't Rick Riordan, but it was an interesting opening to the series, and I can't help but want to see what happens next.

Warnings: Brief scene of intimacy, not described, but you know what happened. There's also a girl with loose morals when it comes to the opposite gender, if you get what I mean.

Just a quick commentary on the cover. I think that the designers were very appropriate with the model and the way they positioned her. She sort of gives off this desperate, yet resigned, look (does that even make sense?), and the way her hand rests on her chest makes me feel as though she's taking her last breath.

I'm all about the symbolism.

Knight, Karstin: Wildefire (Wildefire, #1)

July 26, 2011
393 pages, Simon Teen

Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. 

When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. 

To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

No. Just no.

So I logged onto PulseIt for the first time in weeks to find this book was already up for free, and was like, "Why not?" I love mythology, particularly those types of books that try to put it in perspective with the present - such as Rick Riordan, the amazing guy that he is - and the multicultural aspects that people kept raving about sounded appealing.

All I can say is, I have no idea why I went through with finishing the story.

First of all, a guy writing from a girl's POV (honestly, I didn't know he was a guy until the end) = trouble. No matter how many sisters you have, how close you were with your mom as a kid, you do not know what goes through my mind as a teenage girl, bub. Don't even try to.

Ashline is just a horrible protagonist as it is. So, we start out with her beating up the girl her boyfriend cheated on her with, and leaving the guy practically untouched. She can try to kill the girl for herself, but when her sister goes ahead and finishes the job for her, it's a major issue. Oh, sorry, did you want the blood on your hands for yourself?

I could not connect with any of the teenagers in this book. It was like one major party of underage hookups, freaky blow-ups and...well, I can't think of any ups. Let's just say it was bad.

Yeah. I don't think the author's going to like me after this.

Warnings: Lots and lots of hookups. And not the good "get a worm on your fishing hook" kind. And there's this part where the goddess of trees (or whatever she was supposed to be) tries to assault the god of weather. Yeah.

Final notes:

1. Colorless.

I don't even deign to elaborate on that. As I said before, just no. Don't do it.

Wood, Maryrose: Why I Let My Hair Grow Out (Morgan Rawlinson, #1)

March 6, 2007
218 pages, Berkley Jam

Being sent to your room is one thing. But being sent to another country? 

Morgan's boyfriend dumped her on the last day of school - it seemed the only thing to do was to hack off her hair and dye the stubble orange. Unfortunately, Morgan's parents freaked and decided a change of scenery would do her good. So they're sending her off on a bike tour of Ireland. 

But Morgan gets more than she bargained for on the Emerald Isle - including a strange journey into some crazy, once upon a time corner of the past. There, she meets fairies, weefolk, and a hunky warrior-dude named Fergus, and figures out that she's got some growing to do-and she doesn't just mean her hair.

So Morgan might be reacting a little badly to her recent breakup.

Well...badly might be an understatement.

After she takes the shears to her hair, Morgan's parents totally hit the roof and ship her off to Ireland for a bike tour, hoping (perhaps a little too optimistically) that a little time away from home will straighten her out. The country is unexplored, the fellow tourists all with their own interesting quirks and reasons to get away - and of course, there's Colin, who seems to Morgan to be the perfect rebound boy for her heartbreak.

Of course, this is all before she knocks her head and wakes up to long hair, a beautiful ancient warrior with a familiar face, and a talking horse standing guard over her body. Can anyone say, time travel?

After meeting her and reading her other two series (The Poison Diaries and The Incorrigable Children of Ashton Place - both are still in progress, and both are amazing), this book sets a different tone than Maryrose Wood usually has. Still, though, the writing is pretty good; she hits the feel of a hurt, troubled teenager spot-on. My only complaint would be the coarse language, of which there is a LOT, and a lot of unnecessary innuendo.

Warnings:

Mature language, extremely obvious innuendo, alcohol served to a minor, a bitter teenage girl with no verbal or mental filters - you get the idea.

And let's tally up the rating points!

Points for:

Historical research

Realistic character

Accurately retelling mythology

Minus for:

Language

Innuendo

A rather rushed resolution ending, in my opinion (I felt almost like I was living out someone's confuzzled nightmare after eating cheese right before bed - it was that confusing)

Final notes:

I'm not sure if I'll keep reading this series or not. It's definitely something different, but the language issue is always a touchy spot for me. And besides, I still have the second book of the Poison Diaries (ARC! I am so glad to have a generous younger sister) to finish up... ;)