When requesting this title at NetGalley I actually thought it was part 1 and when I realized it wasn’t I bought and the first part, The Goddess Test, which didn’t convince me at all. To my relief part 2 “Goddess Interrupted” was indeed way better, which is noteworthy as I think second parts of trilogies tend to turn out as lame bridges between a compelling start and a big finale.Kate and James have spent the summer as friends in Greece, but now that the summer is ending it is time to return to Henry and the “palace”, but Henry seems quite distant to her. Kate is about to be crowned as new Queen of the Underworld when Hell breaks loose and Henry is being abducted by the King of the Titans.
Kate, Ava and James set out through the Underworld to free Henry, to Kate’s horror they need the help of the last person she wants to put her trust in. Persephone, Henry’s first wife and big love, he never got over. During the rescue mission Kate starts to discover a new talent she is developing, unfortunately she has no control about it yet.
Kate actually goes through a character development after I found her quite colourless in part one she gained some depth. Henry is mostly his stern, silent and dark self, but the moments he does open up, are precious. The relationship between Kate and Henry moves on and I enjoyed the story around their relationship most in this book. There are some really heart-warming moments. Until we get there however, Kate goes through pages after pages of wondering whether Henry loves her or not, whether she wants to stay or not.
I enjoyed the setting of the novel a lot, it is almost completely set in the Underworld, partly in the underworld palace and partly in the Tartarus. There was a unique mood both around the palace and the underworld, which I enjoyed. The places were well described and really came to life for me. The scenery is definitely the highlight of this novel. I wished the characters were as memorable and worthy to be called “Gods”.
Maybe I made my peace with the fact that Ms. Carter’s gods are one-dimensional cartoon figures but in the sequel I was far less disappointed by way the gods are portrayed.
I had a few problems with the arc of suspense in this novel, there is no overall arc but a few smaller ones with a massive cliffhanger in the end. This led to some slow passages in the second half. But the end? Wow. I am no fan of big cliffhangers at the end of books within a series/trilogy, but here it really was the saving grace of the story. I rarely met such an unexpected moment at the end of a part of a trilogy. And now there is no way I won’t read part three even though I am not really convinced by the series.
As in The Goddess Test I enjoyed the idea of Greek Gods in a modern day young adult novel, but wasn’t too convinced about the outcome.