Darkness Becomes Her Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I enjoyed the read overall. There was a plot (sad that I have to say that, but so many YA paranormal books seem to lack them lately) and it moved right along. The paranormal world was well-drawn if based on all the same-old characters. I really liked the idea of a rebirth (post-hurricane destruction) New Orleans. The heroine was likeable and the secondary characters were interesting. I read the entire thing even though it definitely wasn't the best written book out there.
However, I did have a couple of real dislikes.
The profanity: The heroine is supposed to be a hard-edged, foster-child type teenage girl. She fights like Buffy the Vampire and solves her own problems rather than waiting for a hero. She also swears as part of her `edge.' Only it didn't work for me because she is also wishy-washy about making decisions (she changes her mind a lot), emotionally overwrought (passes out from over emotion kind of stuff), and falls in love so fast it makes her look stupid. And all this made her seem not hard-edged at all. So the profanity ended up being forced (like the author trying to prove how hard she was) rather than real.
The detached body parts: There really are real detached body parts in this book- it's got a Buffesque grotesquery to it. However, even better was the grammar. The best (worst?) was so funny that all my kids came running to see why I was laughing so hard. On page 178 the author intended to say that the heroine rolled her eyes after someone made a snarky comment. Then the heroine glanced over at some couples on a dance floor. However what the author put into print was, "My eyes rolled, falling onto the dancers..." (writing this made me laugh all over again).
The Big give away: The giant story has to do with the heroine's identity. Her deceased mother left her a message to `run' because someone is trying to catch/kill her. So she runs, gets chased, and tries to figure out what it going on. And the answer to why this is all happening is pretty unique (or at least I hadn't run into this exact scenario before). I would have liked this book a lot more if I'd been able to slowly unravel the mystery as the clues were dropped, etc. But the author RUINED it by putting a clue on page three that was so obvious that it explained everything and gave the entire mystery away. I don't know if she did it on purpose or not, but it totally spoiled the surprise.
The romance: By far the weakest part of the story. Within hours of meeting Mr. Perfect-but-Attractively-Grumpy, the heroine falls in love. It happened so fast it was boring. The romance scenes could have been cut/pasted from other books they were so unoriginal.
But even with all that, this wasn't the worst book I'd ever read. I probably won't read more in the series (is this a series? Probably), but for a quick read, it did its job.


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Aphrodite the Diva (Goddess Girls) Review

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(More customer reviews)Excuse me, a D in Hero-logy? Aphrodite deserved nothing better than an A in everything. Everyone A-dored her, A-dmired her, A-ccepted her . . . why even her name began with an A. Now she was going to be known as a dumb airhead at Mount Olympus Academy. It was Hero Day, the start of Hero Week at MOA and she'd have to work fast to convince Mr. Cyclops to raise her grade before anyone caught wind of her predicament. Aphrodite was positive that her best friends Persephone, Athena, and Artemis had to have done well in Hero-logy and if malicious Medusa heard about it, it would be all over the academy before a single snake on her head could even bat any of their ugly eyes. There was that "unfortunate incident" in which she started a war on earth, but perhaps Mr. Cyclops might be willing to overlook it. When Aphrodite brought up the possibility of raising her grade he simply told her to "Spend a little less time on being a diva and more time on your studies." What nerve! Looked like spending Hero Week on vacation with her friends was definitely out.
Athena was the one with the brains, but in a pinch Aphrodite could come up with a plan if she tried hard enough. She had to admit that trying to match up Paris with Helen was a flop, but her sixth diva sense told her that creating a Lonely Hearts Club might just be the ticket to raising her grades. It would be a club for mortals who wanted to "find love." After all, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and a matchmaker superior (or so she thought). The first thing to do was to make up excuses as to why she was staying at MOA during Hero Week and secondly she'd have to dispatch Pheme, the big mouth who "could spread news faster than a herald in a speeding chariot," to let the mortals know about her new club. In the meantime Zeus was so mad about that little war he was storming around MOA like a tornado in Kansas. Before long she overheard mortals talking about her. "Aphrodite is starting a Lonely Darts Club." Oh, no!" She soon got half a letter from some guy named Pyg and soon found herself being challenged from some "hoity-toity Egyptian goddess" who claimed SHE was the goddess of love. And then there were those strange riddlescrolls from someone who was obviously crushing on her (didn't everyone?). What is the world was going on? Was she barking up the wrong olive tree trying to raise her grade by starting a Lonely Hearts Club?
Adorable airhead, Aphrodite, will charm the sandals off everyone when she starts her Lonely Hearts Club for mortals. Aphrodite might be the beautiful goddessgirl, but she also might be the one that could use a bit more common sense. This storyline, as all those in the goddessgirl tales before it, kept me reading right along with high interest. No doubt the Goddess Girls series is an easy way to learn about Greek mythology, but now in "Aphrodite the Diva" we meet her Egyptian rival, Isis, and learn a bit about what goes on with another equally determined goddess and her admiring passel of mortals. I loved the humor and sentences like "Pinky swear was obviously a universal language" made me chuckle. In this book we meet a new pigheaded character named Pygmalion that everyone will fall in love with as much as they have with the many other godboys in this series. Aprhodite certainly meets her match with Isis, but I'm not going to tell you what happens with the rivalry because you'll just have to read the book. If you've read any of the series before you'll easily immerse yourself in this tale and if you haven't, you'll definitely want to check out the other goddessgirls!This book courtesy of the authors.

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In book 6, after a teeny misunderstanding in class, Aphrodite is failing Hero-ology. To raise her grade, she concocts a brilliant plan--an extra-credit project for matchmaking mortals. This brings her face-to-face with fierce competition--an Egyptian goddessgirl named Isis. Now the race is on to see which of them can matchmake Pygmalion--the most annoying boy ever! Will Aphrodite wind up making a passing grade after all? Or will she end up proving she's a diva with more beauty than brains?These classic myths from the Greek pantheon are given a modern twist that contemporary tweens can relate to, from dealing withbullies like Medusa to a first crush on an unlikely boy. Goddess Girlsfollows four goddesses-in-training - Athena, Persephone, Aphrodite, andArtemis - as they navigate the ins and outs of divine social life atMount Olympus Academy, where the most priviledged gods and goddesses ofthe Greek pantheon hone their mythical skills.

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