ARC Review: The Goddess Legacy

Young Adult
July 31st 2012
Harlequin Teen
ARC from Netgalley
Ebook
395 pages






Summary:

For millennia we've caught only glimpses of the lives and loves of the gods and goddesses on Olympus. Now Aime e Carter pulls back the curtain on how they became the powerful, petty, loving and dangerous immortals that Kate Winters knows.

Calliope/Hera represented constancy and yet had a husband who never matched her faithfulness....

Ava/Aphrodite was the goddess of love and yet commitment was a totally different deal....

Persephone was urged to marry one man, yet longed for another....

James/Hermes loved to make trouble for others-but never knew true loss before....

Henry/Hades's solitary existence had grown too wearisome to continue. But meeting Kate Winters gave him a new hope....

Five original novellas of love, loss and longing and the will to survive throughout the ages.


Review:

The Goddess Legacy exceeded all of my expectations.  This is a book with five back stories.  I think that when authors try to blend that many stories together sometimes the stories just get lost.  Aimee Carter is not one of those authors.  I have never read a multiple back story book that was written so seamlessly.  This was just magical.  I loved every second of this book.  I really felt like I could connect with each and every character.  It made me understand the choices that I have seen them make throughout this series.  I look forward to seeing what will happen as this series progresses.

Hera/Calliope:

This book takes us back thousands of years to start with our most hated character Hera/Calliope.  I never expected to like Hera but after seeing all of her pain, well I still don't like her but I understand her a little more.  Hera's biggest problem is her pride.  She is in love with Hades/Henry but winds up married to Zeus because she felt that he had changed and she believed that he would keep his promises to her.  Zeus had promised her the world and while for a while he delivers it was only a matter of time till his true colors showed.  Her was unfaithful to her and winds up stripping her of everything she has ever loved.  She begins to hate everything and everyone over the years.

Aphrodite/Ava:

Next comes Aphrodite/Ava.  She is the goddess of love.   She falls in love with Hera's son Ares even though she has been promised to Hephaestus by Zeus.  Ares and Aphrodite run away together to a remote island to be together.  After a few years and one son later Ares decides he must return to his duties as the god of war.  He leaves and Aphrodite is left alone till she rescues a shipwrecked mortal.  While she nurses him back to life she realizes that she needs to be with someone who can understand her for who she is.  Hephaestus winds up becoming that man for her.  He agrees to marry her even if she chooses to have affairs with others, which she does, a lot.  Aphrodite went though a lot in this book but in comparison to the others she seems to have it made in Olympus.

Persephone:

Persephone's Story is tragic.  She is a young women betrothed to Hades.  She has known him her whole life but only as a friend.  She doesn't want to marry him but Zeus and her mother Demeter demand that she go through with it.  After a very horrible wedding night she realizes that it will never work and she leaves.  Once back on Olympus Zeus demands she return to her duties as Queen of the Underworld.  She resents being stuck in the underworld and in a attempt to make her happy Hades grants her six months on the surface every year to do whatever she would like.  She winds up spending those months having an affair with Hermes/James. 

Hades/Henry is heartbroken by the affair but says nothing.  Once Persephone learns what an affair feels like she promises to never cheat on Hades/Henry again.  She keeps that promise for many years but then she falls in love with a mortal and when that mortal is killed she gives up her immortality to spend their afterlife together. 

I found that Persephone is hard to dislike.  She is stubborn and a little selfish but she does care about everyone.   She could not break the wall in her heart that blocked Hades/Henry and even though we were never told why I think Hera had everything to do with it.  I hope we get to see more of Persephone in future books.

Hermes/James:

Poor, poor Hermes/James.  He has been outcast from his family ever since Persephone gave up her immortality.  He loved her and hates what happened but is was his choice.  He just wants to have a family again. 

The council realize that Gods and Goddesses are fading and they don't know why.  Hermes/James heads to the surface to find the answer.  He is led to a girl named Tuck.  She has run away from the evil Earl and she has banded together with three other boys.  Hermes/James quickly realizes that she has no idea who the Gods are and it quickly becomes clear that the Gods are fading because the mortals have forgotten them. 

Hermes/James finds a sort of family with Tuck and the band and decides to stay with them.  The band gets captured by the Earl and just when Hermes/James gets ready to rescue them Zeus pulls him back to Olympus and forbids him from going back.  Hermes/James loses everything in this story.  I really hope we get to see a happy future for him in the next book.


Hades/Henry:

Last but certainly not least we hear Hades/Henry's story.  Henry is my favorite because he has such a pure heart.  He loved Persephone with everything he had and when she gave up her immortality it nearly ruined him.  He decides to fade but eh council demands one more century to find him a new queen.  It starts with Ingrid a seven year old orphan who he befriends.  Once she becomes of age he tells her the truth about who he is and the tests begin.  Before she can complete her test to become a goddess she is murdered.  Hades/Henry is devastated however they must try again.  Ten more times they try and ten more girls die.  He says he wont do it anymore but then Demeter/Diana convinces him to let her go to the surface to be a mortal so she can have another daughter.  This time her daughter will have a choice.  That daughter turns out to be Kate.