The Goddess Legacy by Aimee Carter

Author: Aimee Carter
Title: The Goddess Legacy
Publication: July 24, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 400
Audience:Young Adult
Rating: 4 out 5
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
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For millennia we’ve caught only glimpses of the lives and loves of the gods and goddesses on Olympus. Now Aimée Carter pulls back the curtain on how they became the powerful, petty, loving and dangerous immortals that Kate Winters knows.

CALLIOPE/HERA REPRESENTED CONSTANCY AND YET HAD A HUSBAND WHO NEVER MATCHED HER FAITHFULNESS....
FIVE ORIGINAL NOVELLAS OF LOVE, LOSS AND LONGING AND THE WILL TO SURVIVE THROUGHOUT THE AGES. 
AVA/APHRODITE WAS THE GODDESS OF LOVE AND YET COMMITMENT WAS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT DEAL....
PERSEPHONE WAS URGED TO MARRY ONE MAN, YET LONGED FOR ANOTHER....
JAMES/HERMES LOVED TO MAKE TROUBLE FOR OTHERS—BUT NEVER KNEW TRUE LOSS BEFORE....
HENRY/HADES’S SOLITARY EXISTENCE HAD GROWN TOO WEARISOME TO CONTINUE. BUT MEETING KATE WINTERS GAVE HIM A NEW HOPE....
FIVE ORIGINAL NOVELLAS OF LOVE, LOSS AND LONGING AND THE WILL TO SURVIVE THROUGHOUT THE AGES.

I enjoyed reading how events transpired to make these five the way they are. The first story focuses on Hera and her relationship with Zeus. Anyone that is knowledgeable about mythology knows he cheats on Hera a lot. It has to be rough being the goddess of marriage and fidelity and having a husband that could give a rats butt about it. For me, Zeus is a jerk in this one and a snake after his prey. Basically once he gets what he wants, the thrill of the chase is no longer important, and her feelings seem to mean nothing to him. He is power hungry and in a way, she may be just a little bit. This is what leads to her craziness and may just come to bite Zeus in his bottom. Now, I don't want to fault Zeus or the others for her actions because she is an individual that can choose to be better but she is being lead by her emotional mind rather than what's right in her heart. Hera’s pride can prove to be deadly.

Aphrodite is in love but has been betrothed to a man she doesn't want to marry. She wants to be able to live her life as she chooses but her Daddy Zeus has other plans for her and feels that he knows best. However, Aphrodite knows her heart and it belongs to Ares not Hephaestus. She realizes that the only way to have who she desires is to leave Olympus. I like her story and her emotional battle with her confusion and uncertainty about what she truly needs. 

Persephone's story does nothing to endear me to her at all. She can be so darn frustrating. She really doesn't give Hades a chance and the fact that she know he loves her, just sucks. This story shows how insensitive she is to how he feels because she is so focused on what is bothering her. She knew she was going to have to marry him...she should have ran away before then, and maybe poor Hades wouldn't be so damaged by it. It's irritating that she feels that being intimate with him will make her love him, which is absolutely incorrect. But then again she was forced into it by her parents for whatever reason. I also suspect that something else interfered and caused her to act towards him the way she did.

The last two stories are about Hermes and Hades, who both suffer loss in different ways. I liked getting see more of what makes Hermes the way he is and how alone he feels in his family because they fault him for certain things that happened. He seems more human and in that aspect he plays a role in helping his family figure out why gods are disappearing. Hades story gives a more heartbreaking reality to the loss of all the girls who failed and how close he comes to completely giving up on existing. It is so fascinating that Hades and Hermes have so much in common but unfortunate circumstances have distanced them. I wonder if they will ever be able to have more of a friendship. Overall, these stories provide good insight into the making of the gods and what makes them act the way they do in the series.