Review of Goddess Interrupted and Q&A w/author Aimée Carter

Q&A with Aimée Carter
Goddess Interrupted book two of the Goddess Test series

Debbie - Aimée, welcome to the General Fiction book club forum

Aimée - Thank you so much for having me!

Tell us a little about your newest release Goddess Interrupted

Goddess Interrupted, sequel to The Goddess Test, continues the story of Kate Winters and modern-day Greek gods. Now that Kate has earned immortality, she must take her place beside Henry, King of the Underworld (and a modern-day Hades). But despite her growing love for him, he’s becoming more distant and secretive, and she’s as isolated as ever.  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’s 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.

Is there a planned number of books in the series

I originally planned on the series being a trilogy, but now that I’ve written all three books, I could easily see continuing it if there’s a demand for more story. In addition to the trilogy, there is an e-novella, The Goddess Hunt, that takes place between the first and second books. And in July, The Goddess Legacy, a book of five novellas about the gods’ history, will also be released. So as we’ve gone along, the number of stories has expanded, but in an organic way I’m very happy with.

Your bio says that you started writing fan fiction at eleven, was that when you first wanted to be a writer, or does it go back even further than that.

Even when I wrote fan fiction, it never occurred to me I could write for a living. It wasn’t until I was around fifteen that I realized it was possible, and it all snowballed from there. I wrote for hours just about every day, completing around two dozen “trunk” manuscripts before The Goddess Test, and I was determined to one day see my stories in print.

Was The Goddess Test you first published work

It was my first traditionally published work. When I was a teenager, my father had a few of my early manuscripts self-published to encourage me (and it didn’t hurt that it looked good on a college application). That was a good ten years ago though, and I consider The Goddess Test to be my first book.

Okay so why write about mythology and mythological beings

I’ve loved mythology since I was a kid – they were some of the first things I read on my own, and I dove in with gusto. As for why I wrote The Goddess Test specifically, Hades always intrigued me. In pop culture today, he’s generally regarded as being evil – a sort of Satan figure, if you will. But in actual mythology, he’s strictly neutral, and I desperately wanted to explore that.

As for mythology in general, there’s such a variety – a huge cast of characters to work with, several different versions of the more prominent myths, and timeless stories that still resonate with people today.  When I started The Goddess Test, other YA and Middle Grade stories dealing with the Greek myths (Percy Jackson, etc.) hadn’t been released yet, and as a reader, I felt that lack. It was the story I wanted to write, so I figured why not?

Your bio also states that you’re not very interesting, well I beg to differ, but just to prove either you or me wrong take us through a typical day in the life of Aimée Carter

Thank you! That’s so sweet of you to say. Really though, I’m boring. The most interesting thing about my daily schedule is probably the hours I sleep – usually 7am to 3pm, because I tend to work best at night. I usually do errand-type things shortly after getting up, and while sometimes this includes writing in a bookstore or café, I tend to save writing for later. The evening is usually taken up by family time or the insane amount of TV I watch, and after that, I tend to spend all night writing, especially if I’m in the middle of a project or up against a deadline. Even when I’m not, I have a few things I write for fun on my days off. So, other than the hours and the fact that my 9-5 job is really 11pm-7am, it’s pretty typical stuff.

I think that your books are mature enough for the adults
How do you feel about being placed on a certain genre shelf

As a huge fan of YA books, I’m honored to have The Goddess Test series among them. In general, I think most YA books could be placed on several different shelves, including adult fiction sections. There’s a ton of crossover appeal, especially with older teen protagonists (Kate is eighteen in the first book, for instance). But a book has to be placed somewhere in the bookstore in order for people to find it, and YA is a great place that reaches a ton of readers across all ages and genres.

Who’s your favorite author

J.K. Rowling. Maybe that’s a stereotypical answer, but really, the Harry Potter books changed my life. I was eleven when the first book came out, and in a way, I got to grow up with Harry. And my mother died when I was ten, so to read about a character my age who was also dealing with death helped immensely. The Harry Potter books are the reason I started writing seriously in the first place, and I regularly reread them. They never get old, and the plotting, the characters, the world – there’s nothing like it.

I’m also a huge fan of Orson Scott Card, Suzanne Collins, Anne Bishop, David and Leigh Eddings, Rick Riordan, and many, many others. But J.K. Rowling definitely takes the cake.

I’m sure the fans here would love to meet you in person, do you have any B&N events or signings

I love meeting readers! Right now I don’t have any upcoming B&N signings, but I always update my blog (www.aimeecarter.com) and Twitter account (@aimee_carter) with upcoming dates as I schedule them.

Thank you so much for spending time with us and good luck with the new novel.

Thank you so much!

Buy the book here

And be sure to check out the other book and her novella as well

 

My Review of Goddess Interrupted

Goddess Interrupted
Aimée Carter
Harlequin Teen
ISBN 13:9780373210459
304 pages

Kate Winters passed “The Goddess Test”, became Henry’s (Hades) wife and is now returning to the Underworld from her required six month stay on the surface. She’s hoping to reignite the fires that burned between she and Henry and hoping against hope that she can be the wife and Queen he needs to rule beside him, she’s also hoping against hope that the doubts she’s had before disappear and that Henry will give her some sign that he’s over his first wife, the one who left him for a mortal, her sister Persephone.
Upon returning she finds the realm in chaos when she learns that Cronus, the titan the Gods imprisoned is in the process of escaping with the help of one very unforgiving and unhappy Goddess, Calliope (Hera) and that Henry has been captured by them when he and the others tried to prevent his escape. Kate takes it upon herself to help and while the others prepare for the battle to save the world she goes in search of the one person who’s knowledge will help stop the war and find and rescue Henry, the same sister that abandoned him. The war has begun in earnest but Kate and Henry are still in a battle of their own, does he love her, does she love him enough to stay even knowing that his love may still be a prisoner to a love lost. Will she leave, will she stay what will happen to “Goddess Interrupted”.

Aimée Carter in her second novel in this series continues to give a brand new look to the Olympian Gods, to what role they have in humanity and how they pick and choose new Gods so where her storyline is as old as time, it’s her perspective that is refreshingly new, inventive and enchanting. Her dialogue is a mixture that well represents each character’s personality. Her characters will also win the test of time in that they are Godlike and human together. Her hero and heroine Henry and Kate are not exactly what I had in mind for the King and Queen of the Underworld but they quickly grew on me and in addition Aimée gives me a multitude of co-stars to fill her pages and to fill in the blanks for me and to explain how they all came to be. Her love story is fraught with heartache, heartbreak, yearning and hope and I empathized with each sob and each feeling of joy. Her love scenes are well clouded behind innuendoes contain nothing that would offend any aged reader.
This series is shelved with the YA and is published under Harlequin Teen but this very adult reader could not put either the first novel or this one down long enough to forget the previous sentence.
This is the second in the series and I would recommend reading them in order.
Aimée Carter thank you for my second look at Kate and Henry and all the other Gods that rule Olympus and I can’t wait for my next visit to see where you take them.