Goddess of the Rose

Title: Goddess of the Rose
Author: P.C. Cast
Series: Goddess Summoning (Book 4)
Genre: Romance


The Goddess Summoning Series is books that are based on fairy tales. Goddess of the Rose is based loosely on Beauty and the Beast. I thought it was interesting that the dedication page said, "This book is for everyone who fell in love with the Beast, and then was truly disappointed when he turned into a handsome prince."

Mikado Empousai is a single woman who has a hard time finding someone to date. She loves her roses and feeds them her blood to keep them healthy and one of a kind. After a date gone wrong she is wandering around a Rose Garden where she volunteers when through a series of events is transported to another realm, where she is celebrated. Mikki has been entrusted with the "job" of keeping all of the roses of her new realm alive and happy. It is a pretty sweet job, except for the whole sacrificing yourself thing.

The Guardian (the Beast, Asterius) is exactly what his title suggests. He keeps the bad things away from the realm and helps Mikki in her work. He was recently freed after a long imprisonment. He had fallen in love (so he thought) with the previous Empoisa and helped her escape so she didn't have to be sacrificed. He has paid his toll but is afraid of getting close to Mikki. Unfortunately for him, Mikki has other ideas.

I felt like this was a beautiful story. Very far from Beauty and the Beast, but beautiful none the less. I love Mikki trying to break through all of the Asterius's walls and defenses as well as learning about the Dream Weavers. I really felt for Asterius throughout the story and felt as if he was a much better version of "the Beast"

Goddess of Legend

Title: Goddess of Legend
Author: P.C. Cast
Series: Goddess Summoning (Book 7)
Genre: Romance



Isabel is doing what she does best, taking photographs, when on the way home she accidentally goes over a bridge. This is a death situation. She is intercepted by a water goddess and brought to Camelot to help Arthur find love so Merlin can live. Isabel and Arthur fall in love.

This book was slightly disappointing. I love when authors take well known mythology or other legends and put a modern twist to them. But in this case, Isabel was not the character for it. I usually love that P.C. Cast puts modern day references in her stories, but this time there were just too many.

I also kept waiting for a conflict, but it never really happened. Guinevere got sick and I thought for sure it was some magical meddling making her turn against Isabel, but that was definitely not the case.

On a related note...how did I miss books 3-6?

Goddess of Spring

Title: Goddess of Spring
Author: P.C. Cast
Series: Goddess Summoning (Book 2)
Genre: Paranormal Romance


Carolina is a middle aged bakery owner who just found out she owes the IRS a lot of money. She's decided to do something to expand her bakery to make more money to pay them off. She finds a Goddess Cookbook and follows the ritual, which includes making a offering to a Goddess, to make a new type of pizza. Near the end of this ritual a Narcissus grows on a tree. Lina smells it and is whisked away to trade places with Persephone.

Persephone needs to grow up and her Mother has concocted the plan of Lina and Persephone switching places for 6 months. Lina wall travel to the Underworld to bring joy to the undead while Persephone will try and breathe new life into the bakery.

The story then follows pretty much only Lina and her Underworld Adventures. On her way to meet Hades, she meets a young spirit who she adopts as a keeper of sorts. Then she meets Hades.

Who would have thought that he could be a romantic love interest? And a fabulous one at that. This book blew me away. I had gotten it from the library once, but returned it before I read it. Boy, I didn't know what I was missing. Hades is a majorly lovable (yet often gruff) character. So many interactions between he and Lina made me laugh out loud, or sometimes burn with lust. I also enjoyed all the contractions that were made from the mythology stories that I already knew.

Goddess of the Sea

Title: Goddess of the Sea
Author: P.C. Cast
Series: Goddess Summoning (Book 1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance


Christine Canady (CC) has an okay life. She isn't overly attractive, nor ugly. She is a Sargent for the US Air Force, but lives alone. Her parents have forgotten her birthday as has her best friend. To top it all off she's about to be deployed to Saudi Arabia and has to take several planes. She hates to fly.

Her life dramatically changes when the cargo plane she is traveling on crash lands in the Mediterranean Ocean. There she meets a Mermaid and is kind of tricked into changes bodies and lives with her.

CC now finds her self being called Princess Undine. She is the daughter of Gaea, Goddess of Earth and Lir (think Poseidon), God of the Sea. Her half brother is lusting over her and tries to rape her. When Gaea finds this out she decides to send Undine/CC to live temporarily on land. CC must return to the sea every 3 days to turn into a mermaid else she will die. If she finds true love on land, she will be able to petition her father for the ability to keep her legs and live on land with her true love.

The only flaw to this plan is that she falls in love with a handsome merman, Dylan. Although it isn't as easy as that with her half brother constantly interfering.

This was a bit Little Mermaid meets Splash in my opinion but I loved every minute of it. I picked it up because it is by the same (well one of the same) authors as the House of Night series. There were several times when I just sat there reading with my jaw dropped. It was not short on action or surprising me. I cannot wait to pick up Goddess of the Spring, the next in the series. Simply Fantastic!