Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by obsidian_blue
Goddess: A Starcrossed Novel by Josephine Angelini
3.0
Goddess by Josephine Angelini is the last novel in the Starcrossed Trilogy. I absolutely loved the first novel in the series (Strarcrossed) and except for a few plot elements in the second novel (Dreamless) really enjoyed that one as well. However, the third novel had a bit too much going on for me to really enjoy.
Goddess has Helen with her Scion and mortal friends doing their best to stop the 12 Olympians who are now able to roam free from Mount Olympus from destroying them and the rest of the world.
Let me start off with what I thought was done excellently in this novel.
First, the major plot with Helen and company battling the Olympian gods and goddesses to protect themselves and Earth was nicely done.
Second, the character of Helen grew. We have Helen growing up a lot more in this novel and actually fighting instead of passively sitting by and letting things happen to her while waiting for Lucas and Hector to save her. There is a bit of Mary Sue about her (seriously her constantly evolving powers got old after a while) but I was able to ignore that for the most part since Ms. Angelini did set up why Helen's powers were evolving due to the events in Dreamless.
We also get more backstory into the Helen of Troy and several other key figures such as Guinevere and Lancelot whom ended up being descended from Helen of Troy and Paris of of Troy as well.
That said I still only gave this novel three stars due to the following:
First of all instead of focusing on one person's points of view throughout this novel we switch back and forth between Helen, Lucas, Helen's mother Daphne, Helen's best friend Matt. There was literally way too many people's heads I was getting a look into.I understand why Ms. Angelini had to switch over to Matt's viewpoint so that the ending would make better sense.
Second, the stupidest lie that was ever told is still believed by everyone up until the end and because of this lie a character we have grown to care about believes something that causes him to give up on himself. I was so frustrated with this entire plot point since if your characters do not have the basic rudimentary math skills I pretty much don't want them to survive in the end since they have proven that they are not that intelligent.
Third, we don't really get a chance to interact with the Olympians that much in this novel. We do get some glimpses into what makes Apollo, Poseidon, and Zeus tick (apparently raping and murdering women) but the female goddess are pretty much ignored in this novel besides a few murmurings by Aprhodite about how much she loves Helen's face.
Fourth, readers are quickly able to glean that the Olympians gods at least are not good guys (see above about rape and murder) but we still have several characters allegiances swayed because of Helen's growing powers. I really thought that this part added nothing to the novel and when we get to a crucial moment where a character we readers have followed through three books now changes I can say honestly that the set-up for it just came out of left field.
Fifth, the battle scenes were pretty much boring. I wish that things had been described better and we actually had scenes with our characters fighting. Instead things seem to be described in a general way (except for two key fight scenes) and due to that I did not feel like anyone was really in grave danger.
Sixth, though it was nice to get backstory about Helen of Troy and other famous figures in history like Guinevere I really wish that that had been brought up only once in the novel. Instead we have Helen flashbacking to these characters lives and it was distracting when we had so many things going on in the present day. For me, it kept slowing the momentum of the novel. Also when we find out Helen of Troy's main reasons for betrayal I ended up not having a lot of sympathy for the character.
All in all this was an okay read but ultimately a letdown after how well I thought books 1 and 2 were in this trilogy.
Goddess has Helen with her Scion and mortal friends doing their best to stop the 12 Olympians who are now able to roam free from Mount Olympus from destroying them and the rest of the world.
Let me start off with what I thought was done excellently in this novel.
First, the major plot with Helen and company battling the Olympian gods and goddesses to protect themselves and Earth was nicely done.
Second, the character of Helen grew. We have Helen growing up a lot more in this novel and actually fighting instead of passively sitting by and letting things happen to her while waiting for Lucas and Hector to save her. There is a bit of Mary Sue about her (seriously her constantly evolving powers got old after a while) but I was able to ignore that for the most part since Ms. Angelini did set up why Helen's powers were evolving due to the events in Dreamless.
We also get more backstory into the Helen of Troy and several other key figures such as Guinevere and Lancelot whom ended up being descended from Helen of Troy and Paris of of Troy as well.
That said I still only gave this novel three stars due to the following:
First of all instead of focusing on one person's points of view throughout this novel we switch back and forth between Helen, Lucas, Helen's mother Daphne, Helen's best friend Matt. There was literally way too many people's heads I was getting a look into.I understand why Ms. Angelini had to switch over to Matt's viewpoint so that the ending would make better sense.
Second, the stupidest lie that was ever told is still believed by everyone up until the end and because of this lie a character we have grown to care about believes something that causes him to give up on himself. I was so frustrated with this entire plot point since if your characters do not have the basic rudimentary math skills I pretty much don't want them to survive in the end since they have proven that they are not that intelligent.
Third, we don't really get a chance to interact with the Olympians that much in this novel. We do get some glimpses into what makes Apollo, Poseidon, and Zeus tick (apparently raping and murdering women) but the female goddess are pretty much ignored in this novel besides a few murmurings by Aprhodite about how much she loves Helen's face.
Fourth, readers are quickly able to glean that the Olympians gods at least are not good guys (see above about rape and murder) but we still have several characters allegiances swayed because of Helen's growing powers. I really thought that this part added nothing to the novel and when we get to a crucial moment where a character we readers have followed through three books now changes I can say honestly that the set-up for it just came out of left field.
Fifth, the battle scenes were pretty much boring. I wish that things had been described better and we actually had scenes with our characters fighting. Instead things seem to be described in a general way (except for two key fight scenes) and due to that I did not feel like anyone was really in grave danger.
Sixth, though it was nice to get backstory about Helen of Troy and other famous figures in history like Guinevere I really wish that that had been brought up only once in the novel. Instead we have Helen flashbacking to these characters lives and it was distracting when we had so many things going on in the present day. For me, it kept slowing the momentum of the novel. Also when we find out Helen of Troy's main reasons for betrayal I ended up not having a lot of sympathy for the character.
All in all this was an okay read but ultimately a letdown after how well I thought books 1 and 2 were in this trilogy.