Review: The Goddess Legacy by Amimée Carter (Goddess Test #2.5)

Title: The Goddess Legacy by Amimée Carter

Publication date: July 31^st, 2012 by Harlequin Teen

Source: eGalley from Harlequin Teen and NetGalley

Format: eBook

Challenge(s):  eBook

Grade rate: A

For millennia we've caught only glimpses of the lives and loves of the gods and goddesses on Olympus. Now Aimé e Carter pulls back the curtain on how they became the powerful, petty, loving and dangerous immortals that Kate Winters knows.

Calliope/Hera represented constancy and yet had a husband who never matched her faithfulness...

Ava/Aphrodite was the goddess of love and yet commitment was a totally different deal...

Persephone was urged to marry one man, yet longed for another...

James/Hermes loved to make trouble for others-but never knew true loss before...

Henry/Hades's solitary existence had grown too wearisome to continue. But meeting Kate Winters gave him a new hope...

Five original novellas of love, loss and longing and the will to survive throughout the ages.

My Review

The Goddess Legacy is a compilation of five novellas that basically read like a book and build upon each other.  These stories are based on the Greek myths and are revamped by Ms. Carter and her infinite craft and imagination.  I like this book much better than Goddess Interrupted (my review is here).  As I read an ARC eBook, the formatting was off and it was hard to understand when one story ended and the next started.

The Goddess Queen - The first story starts when the original six Olympians siblings (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia) have just won the war against the Titans.  This is mainly Hera’s story and her struggle to find love, respect and most of all, power.  I definitely understand why she is so bitter and unhappy, but I think that happiness is also a choice and some of her choices were not the best.  Not only did she choose not to be happy by holding on to her power, but she made others most unhappy by being so strict and unforgiving.

The Lovestruck Goddess - Aphrodite is, overall a very happy person, but since she is the goddess of love, she craves loves, like we do food and she needs to feel constant adoration.  She is, as you might know, gorgeous, which helps a lot.  This story involves her struggle to find a partner that can give her the unconditional love that she craves, but allows her to be herself too.

The Goddess of the Underworld – We met Persephone in the previous book and now we get to know the whole story and how much suffering she endured, but must of all, it made me feel very sad for Hades.  I do not like Hera (I’m trying to avoid spoilers).

God of Thieves – Oh, James!  I don’t know how these gods were alive for so long and still made so many mistakes.  Overall I liked this story, although not so much the ending. 

God of Darkness - Hades / Henry is my weak spot.  I feel so bad for him and all he has endured, the loneliness, the lack to love and companionship, and his one sided love for Persephone.  In this story (the shortest one of all) we find out more about Henry and the role that Hera plays in his unhappiness, as well as Diana’s struggle to keep him from fading.

Good Lord!  Greek mythology is like reading a soap opera!  The comings and goings, affairs, infidelities, married siblings and the like are hard to fathom and very easy to get lost in. It was very helpful and this story could have very well been published sooner as a LOT was explained here.  As a matter of fact, someone please give a copy to Kate ASAP! Ms. Carter’s writing is always a delight, easy to read and follow. 

The Goddess Legacy is a great addition to the series and a must for Ms. Carter’s fans.  Thank you to Harlequin Teen for the opportunity to review this great addition to the Goddess Test series.

About the cover:   These books have such amazing covers, don’t you agree?  I imagine that the girl in the cover is Ava/Aphrodite (being blond and all) and in a very natural setting looking to the heavens.  

Have you read the Goddess Test series?  Do you like Greek mythology?  What is the best book about mythology that you've read?