The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

***1/2

From HarlequinTeen:                                           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.

I have read a lot of mythology related books and this is probably the most unique take on the gods I have read.  Kate is a teenager, all alone in the world, except her terminally ill mother.  They move back to her mother's hometown and Kate meets two boys.  One dark, handsome and mysterious.  The other the cute, geeky boy from school.  When she meets the dark and mysterious Henry, she agrees to his test because she thinks she has nothing to lose, but there's always something to lose. 

Kate must come to terms with losing her mother and dealing with the consequences of her bargain with Henry.  If she 'fails' the test she loses everything she cares for, even Henry. In true Greek Myth style, Kate is manipulated and deceived, while the puppet-masters watch from a distance. 

The Goddess Test is very well written and keeps you guessing until the very end (seriously, right up to the last few pages).  I am looking forward to seeing where Goddess Interrupted takes us in the Spring... 

~Shel 

Abandon by Meg Cabot

Pierce Oliviera died.  No really, she drown in her family's pool while trying to save a bird.  While in the Underworld she runs into John, a young man she met when she was 7 years old in the cemetery after her grandfather's funeral.  She rushes to John hoping he can help her, as he did when she was young and gets much more than she bargained for.  Scared and confused, Pierce escapes the Underworld.  Abandon takes place a year and a half after Pierce died.  In a series of flashbacks, Pierce tells us how she came to be on Isla Huesos (an island off the coast of Florida where her mother grew up & her mother's family still lives).  Pierce is trying to come to terms with her death, her new life, the terrible things that seem to follow her now and John's involvement in these terrible things. 

Abandon brings together two things I adore, Meg Cabot and Greek mythology.  I have read nearly all of Meg Cabot's books. I even met her with Maggie Stiefvater and Libba Bray at a recent This Is Teen event (my copy of Size 12 is Not Fat now sports her autograph!).  I equate Ms. Cabot with the quirky, funny, pop culture worshiping books like the Heather Wells Series, The Boy Series, or the Princess Diaries.  Abandon has a much different tone and voice than Ms. Cabot's other works.  In fact, the book was much darker than I was expecting and I was mesmerized.  Telling the story in flashbacks kept me constantly guessing what had happened to bring Pierce to this place in life and where the story would go. 

This is a unique perspective on the story of Hades & Persephone.  The Furies got a whole new purpose and identity.  I had a little problem with Pierce's anger towards John in the beginning of the book as it seemed a little disproportionate to his "crimes", but as Nat and Bel always tell me, she is a teenager, so that was easy to get over to enjoy the book.  Of course, Abandon is the first in a trilogy; therefore, the ending left me feeling... unfinished.  And so begins the torture of waiting until next summer for the next installment - - Why must you torture me so Meg, why?!  I might forgive you for this punishment if you announce a (hopefully soon) release date for Heather Wells Book 4!

~ Shel

A retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone.