Persephone (Daughters of Zeus #1) by Kaitlin Bevis
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Mythology, Fantasy
Release Date: July 6, 2012
Buy Links:
Amazon ♥ B & N
Book Description:
There are worse things than death, worse people too
The “talk” was bad enough, but how many teens get told that they’re a goddess? When her mom tells her, Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind.
It isn’t until Boreas, the god of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother was telling the truth.
Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at nothing to get Persephone.
Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat Boreas and reclaim her life.
One of my favorite things to read is a modern day telling of an old story or myth and Persephone by Kaitlin Bevis did not disappoint me. Persephone is living in the modern day world with her Mother attending school, working, and oh yeah, being stalked by some kind of mystical force. Time isn’t on her side and if that wasn’t enough Persephone has absolutely no inkling of who or what she truly is.
I love, love, love that Persephone is a teenage goddess, well technically she doesn’t even know she’s a goddess. I think Bevis did a great job of jumping right into the story. Right off the bat we know something isn’t right. Persephone feels like she’s being watched and every time she touches people something strange happens to them.
But the real craziness kicks in when she driving home with her best friend Melissa and the wind and ice try to kill her! I mean Oh my god. The scene was crazy and done incredibly well. You get the sense that there’s something going on and all the characters around Persephone know a it more than they are letting on.
I don’t want to give away the entire plot, but once Persephone is attacked and saved by Hades the story really starts catching fire. I think my favorite part of the story was a mix between all the different Greek myths that were thrown into it and the relationship between Persephone and Hades.
Bevis’s depiction of the underworld having layers and not being this terrible place was a welcomed relief. Not that I don’t love me some torture because Hades does have a pretty dark side haha, but I really like the idea of him caring about the souls and making a place they can live and have a good afterlife.
I loved Cassandra as well. She was so bubbly and snarktastic. I absolutely couldn’t get enough of her and oh my god Hades jokes about his depiction in other media, hilarious. When they mentioned the hair on fire you know I was totally picture Disney Hades in my head!
One thing I absolutely enjoyed was how Persephone wasn’t your typical teenager. Sure she snapped and got crabby, but in a lot of books when something doesn’t go a characters way they lash out and are terrible to the people helping them who care about them, but Persephone isn’t like that at all.
She gets the urge to be bitchy, but then pushes it aside and realizes that if she said or did that she’d be acting liked a spoiled immature child and I adore that realization from the character. We see Persephone do a lot of growing up over the course of the story and the way she started out is definitely not how she ends up.
I really loved this story and would absolutely recommend it to anyone who loves Greek mythology or a retelling of any kind!
Author Bio:
I spent my childhood curled up with a book, and a pen. If the ending didn’t agree with me, I rewrote it. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and I spent high school and college learning everything I could so that one day I could achieve that goal. I graduated college with my BFA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and am pursuing my masters at the University of Georgia. My young adult fiction novel “Persephone,” will be released this summer. I also write for Athens Parent Magazine.
I agree, this was such a fantastic read! I'm so glad I came across your review because I had completely spaced getting my hands on the second book and it has renewed my need to continue the story :)
ReplyDeleteIt really was! I'm so glad my review reminded you about this! Haha Thanks for stopping by! :)
Delete