I borrowed an ARC of Goddess through Around the World ARC Tours -- thanks :)Goddess takes up right where Dreamless left off, with poor Helen all bloodied and beat up -- though still brave and defiant -- after her unpleasant encounter with Ares. And so begins the last book of this trilogy.There's a lot to wrap up in Goddess. As the blurb states, Helen inadvertently released the gods from Mount Olympus. Humans are dying mysteriously, and Helen and her friends -- Orion, Matt, Lucas, Hector, Cassandra, and Claire -- know that the gods are responsible and need to find a way to stop them. Then there's the matter of The Tyrant. You might remember that in Dreamless, Lucas and Cassandra are worried about the Tyrant -- a Scion of mixed Blood who was "born to bitterness" and "capable of reducing all mortal cities to rubble." The Scions aren't sure who the Tyrant is, but all signs point to Orion. And then, of course, there's the whole messy business of Helen and Lucas, and how they have been cruelly kept apart.Like Starcrossed and Dreamless, Goddess has a LOT going on both plot-wise and in terms of world building. At times throughout the trilogy, I struggled to keep track of all the complicated backstory: the four different Houses, the fact that Scions are reincarnated with the faces of well-known Greeks and Trojans, the special talents and powers (Descenders and Falsefinders and the like.) In Goddess, there are even more revelations: new powers, new characters, and new developments. My one criticism of Goddess as a reader would be that a) too much is told to the reader through dialogue and b) too much exciting stuff happens off-stage. I think if I had to pick a favorite book in the trilogy it would be Dreamless -- I thought of all the three books, that one was the most cohesive. But there's a creative exuberance about the whole trilogy that I enjoy, and ultimately I think you just have to go along for the ride and try to follow along. Josephine Angelini has a vivid imagination and a quirky sense of humor that are too rare in YA. So, yes, Goddess introduces more new developments (spoiler-free; don't worry!)There's a new character introduced in Goddess, a young woman with a mysterious heritage and talent. What could that be about? Hmmm…. We learn more about Orion and his parentage. (Also we learn who he is reincarnated from. Uh, only my favorite character in all of Greco-Roman-dom. Be still my heart!)Helen learns that she has new powers. She still dreams of herself as Helen of Troy, but also dreams about Morgan La Fay, Guinevere, Lancelot and King Arthur. Interesting that Helen is dreaming about two of the most legendary love triangles in history: Helen-Paris-Meneleus and Guinevere-Lancelot-Arthur. Which brings me to the love triangle.Though you could see the Helen-Lucas-Orion relationship as a love triangle, I don't. Helen and Lucas were kept apart by a lie. I was definitely not very fond of Lucas's whole broody/sulky act in Dreamless, and I grew to like Orion a lot. In Goddess, Lucas seems to have snapped out of his funk, thank goodness. But I never saw this as one of those nail-biter love triangles. It's pretty clear to me where Helen's heart is pointing her.But then… there's a twist. A very cool twist that threatens to tip Helen's hand, to take away her choice in the love department. The ending of Goddess is appropriately epic, featuring sacrifice, death, ingenuity, and unconditional love. Sob! Sniff! I'm sorry to say goodbye to these characters, but I thought this was a fitting ending to their story.
