Goddess by Josephine Angelini
Genre: Romance, Mythological, Adventure
Published by: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 450
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★.5
Series: Starcrossed (#1) | Dreamless (#2) 
Where to Find: GoodReads | Amazon

The final instalment to the ‘Starcrossed’ trilogy – Josephine Angelini came at this book with all guns blazing. Her protagonist has transformed from ditzy school girl to deity superhero. Who saw that one coming? Being honest, I found this finale to be borderline ridiculous, as in, Helen’s powers went to new heights, almost literally, that it was hard to read without laughing at the outcome. How can one girl bring down all of Olympus? Percy Jackson didn’t manage it and he’s the best man for the job, by far. So, what are my true thoughts on ‘Goddess’…

As I said, ‘Goddess’ goes above and beyond the other two books in the trilogy. I’ve mentioned that Helen gained a new power every other chapter, near about. In this book, it’s no different, except Helen has way too much power. Now, she’s neighbouring on villain territory. Everyone’s afraid of her. She could crush the world under the thumb, then create a new world before lunch. It’s scary.
The final third of this book is taken up by battle plot. Because the battle was build up to be so immense, I was disappointed at how Helen managed to outsmart the gods. They’re immortals?! Surely it’s harder than pointing in a different direction and shouting, “Ooh, look, a tree!”
(That’s not actually what happened, but the real thing is equally silly!)

What really annoyed me throughout the book was Lucas’s lack of understanding. Helen loves you. Surely, she’s proven that like a Borgia Pope. But no, Lucas is so insecure over Orion, he can’t seem to grasp that young Cassandra’s developed a crush on the Shield. Which was COMPLETELY convenient. Every male character in this book, and there were many, had a love interest. If the love interest wasn’t present in the first two books, she’d be whisked up and served for the boy to enjoy in the finale. And we are talking love-at-first-sight romance. Unrealistic, but what’s meant to be realistic about a bunch of demigods trying to save the world.

Helen’s heritage was a shade sketchy for me. It was a tad sketchy for Lucas too, apparently, hence all the misunderstanding. I didn’t really understand how she managed to woo multiple gods and manipulate others. It’s like they were all impervious to the fact she was a teenage girl and not master of the universe.

That sounds like a lot of negatives, but I’m giving ‘Goddess’ half a star more than ‘Dreamless’. I enjoyed the book. I was certainly immersed, and the amount of plot twists that built up since book one (suddenly everything makes sense!) were enough to keep me rapidly turning the pages. It helps that, even though these books are all massive, they’re very quick reads. Although, why there are only nineteen chapters in 500 pages I’ll never know. I thought the epilogue was successful, unlike some epilogues out there, and all of the intertextuality with the Trojan war was cyclic and nicely tied off. I felt that, after nearly 1500 pages of this trilogy, the story was executed brilliantly. I’d recommend the ‘Starcrossed’ trilogy for anyone interested in mythology as a genre, but be warned. These gods are nothing like the Percy Jackson Olympians we know, love, and love to hate.