Review of The Goddess Test by Aimée Carter

The Goddess Test

Aimée Carter

Harlequin Publish Date April 2011

304 pages ISBN 3: 9780373210268

After years of watching her mother fight Cancer, Cancer wins and so Kate and Diana Winters make the last journey they will ever take together, back to the place where Diana was born, Eden Michigan. But Kate is on a sojourn of her own only she doesn’t know it, for what seems like a small Midwestern community is much, much more. And what seems to be a silly high school prank is the catalyst that will determine Kate’s future, a future that she could never have imagined and the outcome is more than just a passing grade if she can’t pass “The Goddess Test”.

Aimée Carter has brought us a lesson with a twist in The Goddess Test, with her plot straight out of Mythology 101 but not like you’ve ever experienced it before, by bringing us a coming of age tale like none you’ve read before and a romance that is unlike any other. She keeps our interest in finding out what happens next with her mix of whimsy and reality. She accomplishes this with dialogue that is polite English combined with US slang and a narrative that keeps her readers wanting more, more of her descriptive and imaginative words and more of her magical and mystical places. Her characters are wonderfully created and portrayed in this drama and each one is perfect for his or her role. Her heroine Kate is an exceptional character, a loving daughter, a caring friend and capable of so much more. Her hero Henry is an enigma that each reader will turn pages to find out his true colors. Her co-starring characters are wonderful in their roles as the author leads us on her merry chase to the end. This is a love story, a romance and a drama. The romance between Henry and Kate is as tragic as it is sweet, as outlandish as it is believable and will keep her audience enthralled through out the whole novel. There are no love scenes that would offend any reader.

Even though Harlequin puts this in their YA category I think it’s a disservice to the novel because it’s much more than a teen read and would leave any aged reader wishing time along for the sequel of Goddess Interrupted to come out. It’s a whimsical, magical and wonderful story told by an equally wonderful storyteller and this reader can not wait for the next installment to find out what happens next to Kate, Henry and the rest of the cast.

Ms. Carter, you really have something here and I can only see wonderful things for you in the future and will look forward from here on out to whatever you decide to put on paper.