I found Aimee Carter through her Blackcoat Rebellion Series. I devoured Pawn and Captive within a week of each other, but had to wait a month for the release of the finale, Queen. While I was waiting, I decided to check our her first series, The Goddess Test.

The Goddess Test Series
1 – The Goddess Test
1.5 – The Goddess Hunt
2 – Goddess Interrupted
3 – The Goddess Inheritance 

by Aimee Carter
Release Date: 2011 – 2013
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Summary from Goodreads:

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…

OH GODDESS TEST, I am so torn. While the series was far from perfect, I didn’t totally hate it either.

I enjoyed the first book. It was something different from what I had been reading. It was quick and easy and kept me interested during my breaks and commutes.

Kate Winters was an “ok” main character, but she was a standard trope in the YA world – the dreaded Mary Sue. (I don’t use this word lightly.) She came off holier-than-thou to everyone – including GODS! Everything happens way too easily for her and when the slightest thing goes wrong, she has a fit and cries!

My major problems with this series was how the Greek Gods were represented (or not, really). They are modernized versions, barely shadows of their former selves. What I hated, HATED most of all, was that Aimee Carter changed all of their names. I would have had a much better time if they had kept to their original Greek names.

I breezed through The Goddess Hunt (1.5) in a single sitting. It didn’t add much to the story, which is why I rarely read the novella add-ins.

It was Goddess Interrupted where the series took a sharp decline. Call it the Second Book Syndrome, this book had it. Forget that the title didn’t flow with the others (pet peeve of mine!) – the book was a total drag. It mostly revolved around Kate feeling sorry for herself, hating Persephone and sulking because Henry (HADES omfg ) didn’t love her. Oh, and a healthy dose of slut shaming. (These are the Greek Gods we’re talking about… they pretty much banged everything and everyone, stop being such a prude.)

Here’s something I’ve noticed – when the narrator feels/is left out, useless and weak, it makes me as a reader feel useless. There’s no desire to keep reading. I seriously skimmed quite a few pages of internal monologues than I’d like to admit.

Still, I pressed on. I don’t like leaving series unfinished. (Case and point: The House of Night Series.) I skipped over the Goddess Legacy set of novellas and went straight for book 3, The Goddess Inheritance. But when I cracked it open, I just couldn’t bring myself to read another 300 pages of whining, so I put it back for now. I might finish it later on, but right now I have 25 new books from Book Outlet waiting to be read on my shelf.

My ultimate advice for this series (even though it’s too late) is that when an author wants to use real-life gods, myths, etc – then stay true to them or suffer the consequences.

I’m not at all surprised that Cassandra Clare is blurbing for this series. I’ve tried twice this year the Mortal Instruments and failed… In the end, what I learned from this was that Aimee Carter has definitely improved her skills since writing her debut and she’s still an author that I will follow.

PS – My favorite part of this review was getting to use Disney’s Hercules gifs. :3 Disney FTW!