y'know what? I see you, PC Cast. I see you. 3.5 stars.

This was better than I expected but it seems like the golden rule of romance in Trade Paperback format being just...better...holds true so far!

The Greek myth stuff really drew me in when it was recommended to me (predictable, I know), and I was really pleased that there were tons of it in here. Not just a twist on the original tale, but some remixes & commentaries of other small stories, as well as some nice commentary on the gods as a whole. Some things threw me off (why was Artemis 'Diana' when everyone else was using Greek names...?) but overall I really loved rediscovering it with a more modern tone. we know this is all i live for.

And...the romance itself? I dunno. It kind of gained most of its points for me in avoiding typical romance pitfalls (other than describing so many things as 'erotic'???? oh no please), which isn't the best way to review books, I know. Didn't care about the romance, started skimming the drama. What I liked most was Lina's exploration of the Underworld, Eurydice, and how it took on something very different: a middle-aged woman coming in to accepting herself and all she's (still!) worth. Hades was...NOT a total shithead, so there's that. I appreciated the angle that he was chill and aloof not because he was such a Romantically-Challenged Sex Machine with a Dark Past, but because all the other gods did that job for him and he'd seen and longed for a soulmate connection instead. (also neat because it woulda been incredibly easy to make him think romance is worth Jack Shit because of how people are torn apart at the end.) man why are men so boring when you're supposed to be falling for them tho

This is a bad review. But hey I enjoyed it. I grabbed another one from her series at the same time, and I'll be heading into that soon, and I'm pretty excited about it, so - job well done! ( )

I felt like this one started slower than the first one but I knew it would get better because it's by PC Cast and, hello, I love her! Once it picked up, it tore my heart out and I was once again just in love and crying for the heartache ... Love!

Adrianne ( )

I really wish I had more articulate words to share with you my love for this book. The only thing I can really say is that I truly love this book, it is my second favorite book in the world. The characters are real, beautiful, and amazing. Ms. Cast has a true talent for re-imagining and retold the tale of Hades and Persephone with an emotional, fun, and sexy twist. I have read and re-read this book so many times I have lost count, and if you haven't read it, you need to.

The one thing about this book is...it makes me want to bake.... ( )

This is the second book in Cast's Goddess series. When I started this book my main worry was that it was going to take a lot of my favorite Greek myths and turn them into big piles of fluffy mush. This, thankfully, didn't happen. I was also impressed with how much detail of the Underworld was given. Besides descriptions of how the place looked, there was also background given on a lot of the scenery without it feeling intrusive.

As for the two main characters, Lina’s not the young inexperienced heroine you often see and she knows what she’s talking about. She has really strange taste in pet names though. Patchy Poo the Pud Santoro? She also has a special connection to animals, as in they all love her. I actually liked that and didn’t find it as unbelievable. I can kind of understand why Cast gave her that ability. Lina’s in a goddess’s body with “special powers” for 75% of the book and so she needed to have the ability to do something that was all her own so she wouldn’t fall into the shadow of Persephone and her abilities. It was also probably so that Hades wasn't always admiring powers that she could only do with Persephone's body. Speaking of Hades, he was a very well rounded character and has a lot of interesting aspects to him.
The one problem I had with some of the scenes between him and Lina were the Batman references. Those started to annoy me a little bit as I progressed through the book. ( )

I love this book! After reading this book I'm now in love with this type of Hades character, all the other portrayals of Hades make me sad and annoyed. He is a misunderstood god because he is so close to humans and their love and soul mates. Lina the female lead is an awesome strong, not perfect female character. This is one of my favorites in this Goddess Summoning series (Goddess of the Rose is my other favorite). I love how these books are part of a series, but they have their own set of romance characters, some of the books connect more than others while some have no connection at all.

Awesome series, awesome book! ( )