The Goddess Test by Aimée Carter

The Goddess Test:
Every girl who had taken the test has died.

Now it's Kate's turn.

It's always been just Kate and her mom - and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear that her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld - and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy - until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride and a goddess.

If she fails...

In The Goddess Test Aimée Carter has completely re-written Greek mythology, and I fell in love with it all over again. She used a unique blend of the Hades and Persephone myth mixed with the present world to create an enchanting story about a seemingly ordinary girl. The relationship between Kate and her mother was what really drove this story and it was completely heart wrenching keeping me close to tears for most of the book. While I was unable to form much of a connection to Henry, was just no spark upon the pages when he was present. I kept waiting for him to sweep Kate off her feet with romantic gestures, but he constantly fell flat for me, and his constant apathetic personality made him hard to fall for. I did immediately love Kate; I loved her strength and her independence. But then I would remember that this story was never really about the romance; it was a story about Kate’s extraordinary courage, the prospect of second chances and new beginnings.

When Kate agrees to spend time with Henry, and to hopefully fulfill the role Persephone left behind, an additional benefit is extra time to say goodbye to her ailing mother. While her initial reasons for joining Henry seemed a little drastic to me, she quickly discovers that there is someone else that needs her help: Henry. He has given up all hope of ever finding a replacement for Persephone, and his love for her stops him from seeing what is in front of him: Kate. The more time she spends with Henry, the more Kate falls in love with him. And unwilling to let him give up on life, she sets out to prove that she can pass the tests set before her and become the one to rule at his side for eternity. But there are other circumstances standing in her way as well, like the mystery behind the deaths of the other women who came before Kate. Just when things begin to change between Kate and Henry…betrayal comes from someone unimaginable, and Kate might not get the chance to finish the tests set before her.