Goddess

Goddess was surprising, and I'm afraid to say I didn't enjoy it half as much as Dreamless. There is the love triangle still rankling in the background that is still causing much strife and confusion. Another unexpected death from one of the main cast. Lots of going back in Helen's time as 'The Face', and more gods coming to the island causing havoc. Altogether the story drifted this way and that and tried to stay on course but I couldn't help thinking it was a little too all over the place.

Let's start with the flashbacks. Usually I don't mind these as long as they're in context to the story. There are lots of times Helen sees herself as different women from the past, mostly as Helen of Troy. The most relevant ones showed her about her relationship with Lucas (or Paris, should I say) but what annoyed me most was the Arthur and Guinevere flashbacks. Nearly all the backstory of this series so far has been credible. Okay, there might be a little artistic licence with the Gods and the Tale of Troy but Angelini really gave all this some character to enjoy and believe in. My main gripe with the Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere stuff was it just sounded and came across as a giant rip off from the film King Arthur (the one with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley.) While the Greek Gods myths are really well known, little was given regarding Arthur i.e. who he was, where he came from. The roles of Guinevere and Lancelot came over as forced.

The story takes us from the beginning to the rescue of Andy, a girl with an unusual background. The crowd from the Delos compound put 2 and 2 together and realise the Gods are returning and doing horrible things to women, then killing them. Andy is one that gets away. When she's rescued they come to terms with her being a siren. Unfortunately for Hector he has the face of her attacker, Apollo who is still chasing Andy. She hates Hector in the beginning, not willing to trust him until he defends her when Apollo comes a-visiting. Hector and Andy find a companionship. Matt is beginning to change also. He's grown stronger and develops scion gifts like better hearing. Although he stays with the crowd as much as he can he has another destiny thanks to an unlikely dagger. Helen and Lucas spend time away from the compound in another world. Helen's newest talent is a Worldbuilder. She creates a place for her and Lucas to go. They know they still can't be together but they enjoy the company. Orion and Cassandra also pair up.

With everyone finding a partner, and the flashbacks, Goddess was, for me, losing it's way. Although this series was written in 3rd person to give the story the depth it needed I can't help thinking I'd have preferred the 1st person point of views instead. While Dreamless was excellent at describing the flow of the story and keeping its pace, Goddess reading was clunky and half the time I kept thinking 'Filler!' for the sake of making a book a certain number of pages.

Altogether the series was enjoyable, the ending of Goddess tied up loose ends to a certain degree but not all. I think Helen and Daphne's relationship needed a bit of work on paper and nothing was said about the Delos father's, Castor and Pallas and how that all ended.

I liked Helen. I liked that she was so down to earth after everything that happened. It would be interesting to go back to the character in, say, five years to see how it all turned out for them!