When Phoebe’s mom returns from Greece with a new husband and plans to move to an island in the Aegean Sea, Phoebe’s well-plotted senior year becomes ancient history. Now, instead of enjoying a triumphant track season and planning for college with her best friends, Phoebe is trying to keep her head above water at the überexclusive Academy. If it isn’t hard enough being the new kid in school, Phoebe’s classmates are all descendants of the Greek gods! When you’re running against teammates with superpowers, dealing with a stepsister from Hades, and nursing a crush on a boy who is quite literally a god, the drama takes on mythic proportions!I have been so excited to read this since I totally loved Childs' Forgive My Fins and I totally loved books based off mythology. For these reasons, this book was on my wishlist for a very long time. There were so many part of this book that had me giggling or gasping, but unfortunately, parts of this book fell pretty short for me.
I think my main issue with this book was that I didn't really connect with it. The story and characters lacked substance, meaning that this book felt very superficial. I think it seemed a little rushed and unplanned to me, for example, near the beginning Phoebe's mum tells her that shes marrying this guy that she's known for six days and moving to Greece... because she loves him, this seemed very rushed. Phoebe takes in the fact that she's going to a school for descendants of the Gods pretty quickly and the characters 'powers' didn't seem thought out...
There was also an obvious lack of character development. Phoebe lacked personality and while it was obvious that Childs tried to give her some personality by giving her running as a hobby this seemed forced, it was like there was a reference to running every two paragraphs and that really annoyed me, I was like; "We get that she's a runner Tera, now get on with the story!".
I also found that there wasn't much of a plot, most of the story revolves around Phoebe and Griffin's budding relationship and Phoebe training hard to place in the race, so that she can be on The Academy's track team. There was a little side-plot which dealt with somebody trying to find out the secret of The Academy, which I thought could have been built up to a hilarious but action-packed climax but this was resolved very easily.
Honestly though, did I like this book? Yes. Despite all of the above factors I really enjoyed reading it. It's a short and fun read with a cute story. I enjoyed finding out about the different cliques in the school and what God they descend from. Phoebe's friends are cute; Troy and Nicole from The Academy and Granola and Cesca from her old school. The scenes where Phoebe is with her new family is great and the family dynamics seemed very realistic.
Overall, while it wasn't great, it wasn't bad either. It was the perfect time killer cute and fun, despite having little substance and not too long to get boring. There is a cute relationship developing and the story is fun to read. I might get the sequel but it is nowhere near top on my wishlist.
Overall Rating: C
Stand Alone/Series: First in a series
(This edition) Release Date: May 14th 2009
Publisher: Puffin
I received this book as a present from my boyfriend (YAY! :D)
oh no! I know how excited you were to get this one... gutting that you didnt like it as much as you thought!! :(
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