March 1, 2012
Fasten your seatbelts, lower your expectations, then sit back and enjoy the modest pleasures of this mostly smooth sequel. Kate has graduated to deity status and married Henry (Hades, Titan-born Greek deity of the Underworld, reconfigured as a category-romance hero). She looks forward to her coronation as Queen of the Underworld, but Calliope (Hera) has other plans. She awakens her father, head Titan Cronus, enlisting his aid in a scheme to take down her victorious rival and promising his release from captivity in return. For that, she'll need help from her fellow deities, and there'll be collateral damage--destroying the Olympians and wiping out humanity. This may strike readers as overkill (and a shameless Rick Riordan retread), but it makes a nifty plot complication. Kate chafes at being left behind when the top Olympians leave to prevent catastrophe. She feels responsible, and, worse, Henry is in danger. Joined by Ava (Aphrodite) and James (Hermes), her trek to rescue him is the tale's main event. Henry remains the series' weakest link--less intriguingly mysterious than exasperatingly vague. Kate spends much of the text pondering and misinterpreting his intentions, but one can hardly blame her; this is a marriage badly in need of intervention from Deborah Tannen (You Just Don't Understand, 1990, etc.). A good bet for readers mostly interested in the romance. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
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