Title: The Goddess Inheritance (The Goddess Test #3)

Author: Aimee Carter

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Age Group: Young Adult

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N

Love or life.
Henry or their child.
The end of her family or the end of the world.
Kate must choose.

During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can’t stop her–until Cronus offers a deal.

In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he’ll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of the council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.

With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.

Even if it costs her eternity.

The Godess Inheritance is the final conclusion to The Goddess Test series, a thrilling ride of a book, offering suspense and action from start to finish. Kate is captured by Kronos and Calliope and held captive until her child is born. Henry doesn’t know about the captivity and has no idea what’s going on, so Kate is left to fend for herself. The Titan gives her a deal, but it still means her mother and the other gods will die, so of course she can’t take it, but Kate has to do something to save her child.

Eventually she’s saved, but it comes at a high prize. Henry falls into a coma, unaware of what’s going on around him and that they need him. With Henry gone to protect her and the other gods slowly succumbing to Kronos’ threats, it’s up to Kate to save the day. She has to find the power within herself to go on, to keep on fighting, even if everyone else already has given up. For her child. For the world. But Kronos’ powers grow every day. Calliope’s vengeance seems almost a certainty with the Titan by her side.

Kate is still as whiny and emotional in book two, but at least she grows up every now and then and takes charge of the situation as well. I’m all for character growth, and it definitely worked here, because it made her a lot more appealing for me than the whiny teenage brat we get in the second book. There’s less Henry, and whenever there is a glimpse of him, he doesn’t act as distant as in the second book, another bonus. I thought the whole baby thing was rather silly as a cliffhanger at the end of book two, but it gave Kate opportunity and reason to grow up and start acting like an adult. The plot, again, wasn’t as strong though. We have Kronos trying to destroy the world and Calliope wanting her vengeance on Kate, so the villains definitely got their priorities set up, but the “good guys” seem to switch ideals rather often. First it’s all about protecting humanity, but these gods are quick to give up and only defend their own skin when things get a little worrisome.

As usually, I adored James. He’s everything Henry isn’t and would be a so much better match for Kate than the tormented lord of the underworld. When I read about Henry, he’s like this forty-something guy who’s already seen the best years of his life gone by during his first marriage. James is young and vibrant, and not scarred by previous experiences. But alas.

All in all, I liked this conclusion to the series, even liked it a lot better than Goddess Interrupted. The story is better, story progression has improved, character development is solid and there’s a lot more at stake.

Title: Goddess Interrupted (The Goddess Test #2)

Author: Aimee Carter

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Age Group: Young Adult

Rating: 3 stars

Purchase: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N

Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Winters has won immortality.
But if she wants a life with Henry in the Underworld, she’ll have to fight for it.

Becoming immortal wasn’t supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she’s as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he’s becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate’s coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.

Henry’s first wife, Persephone.

Goddess Interrupted is the second novel in The Goddess Test series. I enjoyed The Goddess Test, and was looking forward to the second installment. Unfortunately Goddess Interrupted didn’t move me the way its predecessor did. I thought the story was a little clumsy and the pacing was off. It started out fast-paced, practically jumping straight into the action, with the King of Titans, Kronos, breaking free from his prison. Instead of being able to adapt to her life as a goddess, Kate’s training is cut short when everyone focuses on stopping the Titan. On top of that, Henry gets kidnapped and brought to Tartarus just when Kate is about to get crowned Queen of the Underworld. Along with James and Ava, Kate starts on a journey through the underworld to get Henry back, but she’ll need the help of the most unlikely person to help them…Persephone, Henry’s ex-girlfriend and Kate’s older sister.

I liked the start – it was all pretty hectic, all events following each other rapidly, but I liked the pacing. The book slows down once Henry and some of the other gods get kidnapped though, and from then on it’s more about Kate’s journey and character development. Which would be great, if Kate wouldn’t be such an annoying character. She has her moments of greatness, even moments where I genuinely like her, but she spends half the book moping about why Henry liked Persephone more – they were married for over a thousand years, so that’s bound to happen – and how she can save the gods. Then for some reason Kronos decides he wants to become Kate’s friends, which makes absolutely no sense to me because he’s an evil overlord and he likes Kate because she was ‘nice’ to him. Yeah. Totally evil overlord behavior.

The most annoying part though is Henry. In some stupid quest to protect Kate and/or give her the ability to choose for herself, he’s become even more withdrawn, barely sharing anything. As far as husband material goes, Henry has a lot to learn. He’s afraid to let anyone in his heart, even Kate, who’s done nothing to earn his distrust. By halfway through the book, I was pretty much rooting for James because Henry had turned out to be even more annoying than I thought possible.

Calliope was, as usually, a mixed bag of emotions, which I loved. For a villain, she makes a really interesting character. She’s not evil just for the sake of being evil – in fact she’s more lonely and heartbroken than evil, and I don’t really blame her.

I liked finding out more about the gods and their pasts and interactions. The bits and pieces about the gods and goddesses various affairs was fun too: of course with supernatural beings who are basically immortal they can’t stick with one person for the rest of their lives. It made their relationships all the more complicated and entertaining.

The story didn’t move me as much as I had hoped. Kate is too whiny, her major concern Henry’s love. Henry is a total idiot who can’t see clear about who’s being honest with him and who isn’t, and who constantly wants to protect Kate and risks his own life for no reason. James and Ava made up for a lot of the main characters’ flaws, but not enough. The story wasn’t that original either – I had kind of expected to see the Titans introduced sooner or later, considering how closely linked they are to the Greek Gods. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to the last part in the series.

Goddess Interrupted, although not my favorite, is an interesting, entertaining read with solid writing and intriguing mythology.