The Goddess Test

Aimée Carter

Before I could do just that, a pretty blonde girl attached herself to his side and gave me a once-over.  She might’ve been smiling, but with the way she was leaning against him and clutching his arm, she might as well have peed on him.  He was clearly marked territory.

Katherine Winters aka Kate returns to her mother’s home of Eden, Michigan when her mother is on her death-bed.  Kate has spent the last few years taking care of her mother while she was ill.  Now, she has to start a new high school so she can graduate.  While going to school, she meets Ava, a cheerleader who invites her to an after school party.  While they are out after school, Kate meets Henry and makes a deal with him.  At first, Kate thinks Henry is crazy until things happen and she realizes the severity of the bargain that she made with him.  With her mom in the hospital in a coma, she makes a deal with him to give her more time with her mother.  In return, she will take the goddess tests and possible become Henry’s future bride and the Queen of the Underworld.

“Kate.” His soothing voice did nothing to calm me. “You look beautiful.”

“Th-thanks,” I stuttered, attempting to curtsy.  It didn’t work too well.  “I see they didn’t make you wear a dress.”

Henry chuckled.  “Even if they had, I wouldn’t have looked nearly as lovely as you do.”

Goodreads synopsis:

It's always been just Kate and her mom—and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld—and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy—until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

"I care," he said in a trembling voice. "I care so much that I do not know how to tell you without it seeming inconsequential compared to how I feel. Even if I am distant at times and seem as if I do not want to be with you, it is only because this scares me, too."

I like the way that Aimée Carter portrays the different Greek Gods and Goddesses in this book.  It is interesting to see how their personalities match up to what you would think they would be.  It wasn’t until the end of the book that you are enlightened as to whom people really are.  The way that she portrays Henry makes you want one in your life.  

"Do you think he's cute?"
I rolled my eyes. "He's a god, Mom. Of course he's cute."

This is the UK cover of this book.

"Maybe you'll win when hell freezes over."

He raised an eyebrow.

"That could be easily arranged."

UPCOMING BOOKS

January 2012

The Goodreads synopsis:

Kate Winters has won immortality.

But if she wants a life in the Underworld with Henry, she’ll have to fight for it.

Becoming immortal wasn’t supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she’s as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he’s becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate’s coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.

Henry’s first wife, Persephone.