Tera Lynn Childs

Is it possible for one average American teen to fit in with a class of Olympic heritage? Phoebe has just this question to figure out and answer when out of the blue her mother whisks her off to a secret Greek island as she prepares to be married to a man she only met a week ago. Phoebe predicts colossal failure, her Mom assures her this is a god sent opportunity for her and I was left with the question of why there are so many insinuations about this being such an epic big deal.

The dialogue is quick and shows a real eye (or ear?) for how teens speak. There isn't any forced moments when Childs tried to force me to believe this was how teenagers really spoke or acted. It flowed easily and the transition between scenes made for a quick, light read. The story moved along without dragging down and Phoebe's observations, and sometimes lack thereof, are really funny and her narrative voice is engaging.

Despite the fact this is a novel about the descendents of the Greek Gods, it doesn't veer off of the stereotypes for teenagers too much. Phoebe comes off a little smug, and as if she knows everything. Her stepsister is the typical 'evil' stepsister and the students are of the classic mold. Not that this is a problem, Childs still has dialogue that is fun and witty and there are certainly some ha-ha moments, but I expected a little more by way of fleshing them out. The author relies too heavily on the stereotypes to explain a character's motivations.

The 'surprise' isn't that surprising given the contextual clues and a grasp of Greek mythology, but I found the dynamic of Phoebe and her two friends from America to be more surprising. Throughout the entire novel Phoebe is motivated by her need to get that scholarship and get back to America so that her and her friends can be together. The plan had been in place for years. When things change, it made me wonder if Phoebe had been the driving force behind that decision and her friends didn't want to disappoint her. I wanted to learn a bit more about the time between Phoebe's leaving and the end of the novel.

Oh. My. Gods. was an entertaining novel that gave the gods a spin that would be fun for anyone to imagine as their ancestors. The sequel, Goddess Boot Camp, is set up and the future endeavors of Phoebe amongst the godly descendants promises to be engaging.
… (altro)

So what's a girl goddess to do when everything she wants is just a race away? Phoebe is back and has a new challenge of Olympic proportions to master. The question isn't whether she'll win the race, the question--can she win it and control her powers so she doesn't get smote? Between learning to control herself, preparing for a race that's older then the Olympics and holding onto her love life, Phoebe has a lot on her plate and Childs manages to retain that witty narrative tone in this sequel to Oh. My. Gods.

Whereas Phoebe spent the majority of Oh. My. Gods. in the dark about her parentage and feeling like a fish out of water amongst her peers, she spends a lot of this book struggling to do what most teenagers have to accomplish. Her development felt more natural here, as she learns (often the hard way) how to control her powers so she doesn't get the ultimate smack down from the Gods for being reckless.

The romance between she and Griffin moves at a good speed as well. Now that they're both on even ground, more or less, it was fun watching their competitiveness both drive them to be better at their running, but also support each other without reserve. There was never a moment when I felt as if either one would rather the other was less so they could be more.

The race, and the end result, was tense. I could feel how badly Phoebe wanted to win and felt my heart go out to her after everything she went through to get to that point. I never thought she'd use her powers (consciously or otherwise) to win the Pythian Games, but there was that nugget of doubt in my mind that maybe the ultimate lesson for Phoebe would be learning that losing would be okay.

Goddess Boot Camp was as engaging and lively as its predecessor promised it would be. A lot of the character flaws I found in the first book were fixed and a new layer was added to Phoebe's emotional development that I appreciated. Enjoy this second helping of Phoebe's life and join me in rooting for a third book.… (altro)