KEEP CALM AND LOVE BOOKS: mythology

Pages: 401

Publication Date: February 1st 2011 (first published August 3rd 2004)

Publisher: Piatkus Books

ISBN: 0749953713 (ISBN13: 9780749953713)

Lina's trendy bakery in Tulsa is proving to be less than lucrative, and she must come up with a plan. When she stumbles upon an Italian Goddess cookbook, Lina can't help but think she's found the answer to her problem—even if it means invoking a goddess to save her business.

Soon enough, Lina finds herself face-to-face with Demeter, who has a plan of her own. She proposes that Lina exchange souls with Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, who will breathe new life into the bakery. In return, Lina must set order to the Underworld.

Before all this, Lina's problems mostly involved sourdough and second dates. Now that she embodies the enchanting Persephone, Lina has weightier things on her mind—like the formidable task of bringing Spring to a world of spirits. But when the handsome, brooding Hades kindles a spark in her heart, Lina wonders if this Lord of the Underworld might be the man of her dreams.

Now, What I Thought:

Like I said in my previous review for, Goddess of the Sea, Cast's writing style is just so intriguing that I had to read what else she had written in this series. I honestly loved the idea of a Greek mythology romance! In this book we follow Lina and her quest as Persephone in the Underworld with Hades. I mean, yes, technically this was pretty far off considering Hades was supposedly a hateful man that literally stole Persephone from a garden and raped her. So, clearly the accuracy and adaptation was far off but I still loved this nonetheless. I found it interesting how easy it was for me to fall in love with Hades. Cast did an amazing job with her characters and fleshing them out so vulnerably so that we can really see their true intentions. The whole novel was just so magnificent, I will probably read it again haha.

Lina was a delight to read. She was caring, smart and thought with her head. Her connection with animals was perfect for this role she had to play considering there is the famous three headed beast in Hell, Cerberus. I really did think it would be difficult to read from the point of view of a 43 year old women, considering I'm only 18 myself but I found myself forgetting the matureness of her as she embraced Persephone's youth. Maybe since she was an older, matured women, I found her so smart and level headed. That being said, when it came to Hades, she was just all love and lust. WHICH IS A GOOD THING. I enjoyed the romantic portion of the book and instead of, Goddess of the Sea, romance seemed to encompass the novel entirely and the main plot was getting to unravel Hades while keeping the Underworld a better place with a women's touch.

“Ultimately, the body is just a shell; it is the soul which defines the man or woman, god or goddess.”

Hades was delicious. I really like the men in P.C. Cast's books. She makes them sound so juicy and I found myself liking Hades fairly quickly. Having read and know about Greek mythology myself, I usually (like said in my other review) detest false depictions of mythology but I was actually okay with this. Everything despite Hades nature and personality, was actually quite accurate. We got to see Demeter, Apollo and even have mention of Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes etc. I liked that connection when we would see into Persephone's own mind and see the grand feasts the Goddess of Spring would host.

"Soul mates will always find each other. Do not weep on their behalf...they will be together again."

All in all, I really do see myself loving and reading all of P.C. Cast's novels in this series. Rest assured, after this review gets posted I will move onto the next novel in the series, Goddess of the Light, following Artemis and Apollo, YAY. As usual, I loved this novel and this author especially!! A great book if you love Greek mythology and interaction with some of the famous Gods and Goddesses.

P.S. Yes, the original cover was just so boring I had to use the 2008 paperback edition one because it's clearly more interesting. The ISBN is of that edition, just to be clear.

Aphrodite - 12:33:00 AM

Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning #2) by P.C. Cast | Review

Pages: 401 Publication Date: February 1st 2011 (first published August 3rd 2004) Publisher: Piatkus Books ISBN: 0749953713 (I...

Pages: 333 pages

Publication Date: September 10th 2013 by Tor Teen

ISBN: 0765334437 (ISBN13: 9780765334435)

The Goddess War begins in Antigoddess, the first installment of the new series by acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake.

Old Gods never die…
Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.
Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.
Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.
Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

Now, What I Thought:

I loved this depiction of Greek Mythology! For those who know me personally, you'll know that I love mythology, and it's always been a tie between Norse and Greek. So you can imagine my excitement when this book came out by the same author as Anna Dressed in Blood. I'm very excited to say that this novel was amazing, Blake has a way of writing that is so descriptive. I can just remember the first couple of pages and how I knew right away that this was going to be a great book.

This novel is about the fight that the Gods and Goddesses never thought they'd be fighting- losing their immortality. The thing is that you'll probably need some pre-knowledge for this book, I will say. For example, you should brush up on your facts about the Trojan War, Odyssey, and Troy. Those are talked about in this book, and obviously in their own fictional depiction but still Blake uses a startling amount of accuracy. There are moments in the novel where you'll have to think back to High school english or College English and remember the relations these Gods and Goddesses have, and what their most known for. For example, Athena, our main protagonist, is the 'virgin' Goddess and cherishes Owls. Just stuff like that and you should be fine with fully comprehending and understand what is happening or rather, why it's happening. Blake does do a great job at explaining past events and the characters, which I do appreciate.

Get ready for graphic descriptions haha. I mean, Athena is pulling blood- covered feathers out of her own throat so... It is so much fun to read about the feud between Athena and Hera, her father's wife. It's pretty crazy what these Ancient Olympians will do to prolong their lives. Poseidon probably surprised me the most with his feral actions.

Anyways, this book is pretty interesting and I definitely loved the Greek Mythology knowledge we got from it. Definitely a staple in someones reading collection that loves mythology and just learning about it. Blake did a great job with this novel and her depiction of myths and legends.