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A review by crankyfacedknitter
Goddess of Spring by P.C. Cast
4.0
I liked this one pretty well. It plays on the Persephone myth, has your standard Dark Brooding Misunderstood God-like Hottie (in this case, actually a god) who needs the sweet attentions of a feisty ESFJ heroine with a heart of treacle and a porn star's ass to teach his lonely, wounded soul to love again, while she discovers that Sex Is Awesome And I'm Good At It, Oh Yeah, that her life before meeting him wasn't actually fulfilling or interesting, and that all she ever needed to Be Herself was a Good Man With Impossible Abs (And Maybe Also The Benefits Of His Supernaturally Huge Bank Account). This is all fairly standard for the paranormal romance genre.
That said, this heroine is older, and not beautiful (though when you switch bodies with a goddess, it's kind of cheating) but not Ugh I'm So Ugly Why Is Everyone In Love With Me, and also not Adorably Clumsy/Incompetent. The reason she gets into the situation she does is that she IS competent, experienced and emotionally mature, and the goddess whose body she joy-rides in for a while is not. She's a little too perfect, but it's really nice to read along with a heroine who doesn't act like a ninny all the time. There's a big difference between naivete and bad judgement; a lot of people don't see that.
The hero is a big scary alpha male at first, because that's the role he finds it necessary to play when he's around other Greek gods who are pushy jerks who don't respect anybody or anything, but that's not who he is. He is very, very careful with consent. He respects her space, her opinion, her borrowed authority.
I enjoyed the different takes on various Greek myths we're familiar with, and how they worked into the story. A romance in the Underworld doesn't seem like it would be a very good one, but Cast does a good job of making it interesting, not gloomy and terrifying.
That said, this heroine is older, and not beautiful (though when you switch bodies with a goddess, it's kind of cheating) but not Ugh I'm So Ugly Why Is Everyone In Love With Me, and also not Adorably Clumsy/Incompetent. The reason she gets into the situation she does is that she IS competent, experienced and emotionally mature, and the goddess whose body she joy-rides in for a while is not. She's a little too perfect, but it's really nice to read along with a heroine who doesn't act like a ninny all the time. There's a big difference between naivete and bad judgement; a lot of people don't see that.
The hero is a big scary alpha male at first, because that's the role he finds it necessary to play when he's around other Greek gods who are pushy jerks who don't respect anybody or anything, but that's not who he is. He is very, very careful with consent. He respects her space, her opinion, her borrowed authority.
I enjoyed the different takes on various Greek myths we're familiar with, and how they worked into the story. A romance in the Underworld doesn't seem like it would be a very good one, but Cast does a good job of making it interesting, not gloomy and terrifying.