Review: The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Every girl who had taken the test has died.

Now it's Kate's turn.

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 that 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.
If she fails...

Paperback, 293 pages

Published April 19th 2011 by Harlequin Teen 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

This book gave me all the feels.  I laughed, I cried, and I swooned.  I swooned some more.  So seriously, all of the feels. 

Kate hasn’t been given the best of circumstances.  Her mother is dying and she had to leave her beloved New York City for middle-of-nowhere Michigan.  I mean, who wants to live in Michigan?   Ha ha ha… oh wait, that’s right.  I do.  But then an opportunity arises to save her mom by taking a potentially deadly test!  Because of her mom’s illness, Kate didn’t have a lot of time for friends, so her mom is really all she has, which makes it perfectly understandable for her to agree to basically being a creepy guy’s house guest for six months.  Kate’s misfortune made me care for her as a character and made it really easy for me to back her on her quest.  I wanted her to succeed.  And that’s not to say that Kate is a perfect character, or a Mary Sue; she has faults.  She is stubborn, kind of cold outwardly, among other traits that made her feel more like a real person rather than a fictional character.

All right, on to the romance (I mean, this is Harlequin Teen).  Oh tortured soul that are Henry, how I loved you, even if you are kind of creepy at first.  He’s been burned from Persephone in the past and is reluctant to get close to Kate.  During Kate’s test, Henry would visit her in the evening to play cards and just so they could get to know each other.  From that you see the two characters gradually fall in love and just… swoon.  They also felt like two people who would genuinely fall for each other, nothing felt forced in the story.  So yeah, did I mention swoon-ing?

Within all the craziness of moving, caring for a sickly mom, and being tested by the God of the Underworld, Kate also makes friends.  I particularly liked how Ava turned from the mean girl into Kate’s best girl friend.  It was sweet, as Kate had never had friends before as she was always busy with her mom and Ava’s cheerleader-ness added certain charm to the story. 

There’s also this awesome twist at the end that made everything that much more awesome.  And since I don’t want to ruin it for you, The End.  The Goddess Test made for a novel about relatable and endearing characters in a crazy circumstance enhance with the allure of Greek mythology.  I personally adored it and recommend it to anyone who likes sweet romance and Greek mythology.

Final Thought: 21 out of 25 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads