ARC Review: The Goddess Legacy by Aimee Carter

       Title: The Goddess Legacy

Author: Aimee Carter

                       Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 395 pages

              Publication Date: July 24, 2012

                                             Format: ebook received from publisher on Net Galley

Goodreads 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

My Feelings:

This collection of short stories offer us insight into the why the gods and goddesses act the way they do now.  For some, I still kept my opinion of them but for others this little bit of background information pushed me toward more understanding of them.

I love how Carter included other lesser gods/goddesses in some of the stories so we realize it isn't just about the big ones.  I would really like to see another book about some of the interactions of the other gods/goddesses, especially Iris.  I really like Iris.  

The first short story is about Hera.  Carter takes the original mythology of the gods and she twists it and spins it to create a something very new.  Everyone knows Zeus became the "king of the gods" but in this story we learn Hera truly wanted to be the queen of the gods, mainly without Zeus.  

I wanted to like Hera because of what she has to go through; but in the end I just couldn't.  She came off as a proud snotty goddess who believed she was better than all of them.  

I didn't agree with the way she handled  things, especially blaming the children for Zeus' ways.  

The second story is about Aphrodite.  From all the ancient mythologies we assume that she is conceited, petty, and vain.  And for the most part...she is.  But we also see what a great mother Aphrodite became and how she discovered the love she has inside of herself.  She, of course, is the Goddess of Love.   Through this short story I got to see the other side of Aphrodite; a caring person who risked her privacy to save someone.    

The next story is about Persephone and the misery she and Hades has to go through.  This short story was probably the most important of them all so we can finally see what Hades went through to become the lost and empty husk of a man Kate falls in love with.  

I tried to like Persephone, I really did!  I promise!  And there was parts where I finally understood why she thought the way she did.  But in the end, I still found Persephone to be spoiled and plain bratty.  

I thought Kate felt sorry for herself a lot in the first book, but Kate has nothing on Persephone at all!  Which makes no sense because Persephone had it all... except what she believed was true love.  

But I don't look at Persephone as the "whore" that everyone else seemed to think she was.  She was feeling trapped and just didn't understand her part to play.  I think if her mother and father would have given her the chance to actually have a say so in her life then she very well might have chose Hades... but I doubt it.  

She was too into what Persephone wanted to care about Hades.  Though she does to seem genuinely upset that she is hurting him it is almost like she doesn't care enough.  

I did enjoy the fact that she was willing to give up everything, including her immortality, for a human.  I think that showed us that she could redeem herself.  

Then we have a story about Hermes.  By far this is my most favorite of all the short stories which pretty much shocked me!  I think this story shows us what he loses and gains to become who he is today.  

I enjoyed reading from his perspective  and it gave me more respect of him.  He realizes the mistake he made with Persephone but he doesn't want the coldness that he gets from his family.  

We also get introduced to another goddess, Iris, in this story and I have to say I LOVE Iris.  I would be very happy to see more of her in upcoming releases of Aimee Carter.  In fact I think we might see more of her and maybe something will creep up between her and Hermes???  I am keeping my fingers crossed...

Hermes takes it upon himself to go and find out why the older god and goddess, Helios and Selene, can't be found anywhere.  This adventure takes him onto the surface and he meets a few mortals that make him realize what love and family really is.  

From the sacrifices that Hermes makes, he inadvertently saves them all.   

And the last story is ...can you guess?  It is about Hades.  

Growing up reading about the Greek myths, I always liked Hades.  I know that was weird, huh?  But it was just cool to think he ruled over the dead, in another world almost.  

I actually like that these stories show us Hades as a gentler softer person and much less petty than the other gods and goddesses.  

I mean think about it: he doesn't have to live with the others vying for power and affection because he has all the power in the Underworld.   Why wouldn't he be more mature and more serious, as well as more faithful?

Hades' story is the only one that isn't written in first person point of view but it still feels like it.  I guess in this way, Carter allows us to see Hades and the others' emotions objectively.  

I did, however, feel like Hades seemed to be a little naive when it came to Hera's feelings for him.  And for some reason, I just cannot look at Hades as naive.  So that didn't go for me there.  

Again, I think Hermes is so much more than what he seems and he deserves much more respect than the other gods give him.  He plays a special part in Hades story as well as Kate's story too.  

I find it very romantic that his favorite memory of Kate is also her favorite memory with her mother.  That definitely makes things much more interesting!  

All in all, I really enjoyed these collection of stories about the gods and goddesses and the background information we get on them.  I cannot wait for the third book in the series, but I think this novella was a perfect companion to the Goddess Test books.  

I had to give it four hearts!

 

ARC Review: Obsidian and Blood: The Collected Acatl Novels by Aliette de Bodard

Title: Obsidian and Blood: The Collected       Acatl Novels
Author: Aliette De Bodard
Publisher: Angry Robot
Publishing Date: June 26, 2012
Format: print, ebook
Source: received from Netgalley for my honest review

ISBN:  9780857662378

Summary:
This is an omnibus that holds the Obsidian and Blood trilogy, as well as 3 short stories available on the E book version.  These are the titles included in the trilogy as well as their summaries from Net Galley:

Servant of the Underworld
 Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan – the capital of the Aztecs. The end of the world is kept at bay only by the magic of human sacrifice. A priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. Acatl, high priest, must find her, or break the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead.


Harbinger of the Storm
The year is Two House and the Mexica Empire teeters on the brink of destruction, lying vulnerable to the flesh-eating star-demons – and to the return of their creator, a malevolent goddess only held in check by the Protector God’s power. The council is convening to choose a new emperor, but when a councilman is found dead, only Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, can solve the mystery.


Master of the House of Darts
 The year is Three Rabbit, and the storm is coming… The coronation war for the new Emperor has just ended in a failure, the armies retreating with a mere forty prisoners of war – not near enough sacrifices to ensure the favor of the gods. When one of those prisoners of war dies of a magical illness, Acatl, High Priest for the Dead, is summoned to investigate.




My Feelings:

Bodard creates a beautifully crafted world within the Aztec Empire.  We are transported back in time to a time that is already mystical to us.  But with the creativity that Bodard weaves within the history of the Aztecs, we are the lucky few to walk among gods, goddesses, magical entities, and our narrator, Acatl, as we delve deeper into this rich civilization.

I was immensely drawn to this book just by the cover alone.  It is amazingly dark, eerie, and mystical.  Acatl, standing in the moonlight, shadowed like a savior in the night.  

But then when I read the summary of the stories, I was floored.  I haven't read many stories that go into the Aztec Empire so deeply and then combining  the magic of the priests, the gods and goddesses they worshiped as well as intertwining the beasts of our imaginations into the story; this was brilliant! 

Our narrator and protagonist, Acatl, High Priest for the Dead, is a very complex character.  He is honest, simple, and enjoys being in the shadows, instead of at the forefront of the politics involved around him.  He is also the one that tends to have the option of solving the crimes associated with death.  

There were times, though, I thought Acatl acted more naive than a High Priest should be.  I wanted to shout at him: "Man it is right in front of you!!"  But I understood his confusion added to the story to tie everything in together.  

There are other characters that we are introduced to that come to hinder Acatl and others that are there merely to help him, whether he realizes it or not.  

Besides Acatl, I had two other favorites suprisingly.

Mihmatini, Acatl's sister, plays a huge part in these stories and she is gutsy, fiery, and a woman definitely ahead of her time.  She is a strong female character that could teach many of these men a thing or two about saving the world.

Nezahual-tzin, the Revered Speaker of Texcoco, similar to a king of an neighboring town, and also an agent of the God of the Feathered Serpent.  He is proud, powerful, and smarter than anyone thinks.  I know he is in it for his own means, but he proves to be more of an ally.  Also, he is a ladies man and I think I fell for his charms as well.

These stories are dark and mixed with plenty of sacrifices.  There is blood and gore in some areas, but only added to the stories showing the reader how these people worshiped and lived in a place that was heavily shaded with magic.  

Surprisingly, many of the problems that Acatl and the others have to deal with  can still be found in our systems today.  Murder, betrayal, love, and even political upstarts run common in both worlds.  

I enjoyed these stories very much and I noticed as I read the momentum of doom would build as my heartbeat would race in time with our characters trying to save the world from evil.  

I have to give this omnibus 5 hearts!