tiredDescription from bookdepository.co.uk:
Lina's trendy bakery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is proving to be less than lucrative and she must come up with a plan to save it. When she stumbles upon an Italian Goddess cookbook, she can't help but think she's found the answer to her problem - even if it means invoking a goddess to save her business. Soon enough, Lina finds herself face-to-face with Demeter, who has a plan of her own. She proposes that Lina exchange souls with Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, who will breathe new life into the bakery. In return, Lina must set order to the Underworld. Before all this, Lina's problems mostly involved dough and second dates. Now that she embodies the enchantingly beautiful Persephone, Lina has weightier things on her mind - like the formidable task of bringing Spring to a world of spirits. But when the handsome, brooding Hades kindles a spark in her heart, Lina wonders if this Lord of the Underworld might be the man of her dreams...
Thoughts:
Despite its rather dark nature (rape, kidnapping etc), the myth of Persephone and Hades is my favourite of all the Greek myths. Persephone, in fact, is my favourite goddess, and I have every intention of naming my first daughter after her. That aside, this story takes the myth of Persephone and Hades and plays with it, replacing Persephone, in mind and soul if not body, with Lina, 40-something Okie bakery owner, while the goddess herself moves into Lina’s body and life. The trade sparks a romance between Hades and Lina that is somewhat different than the union of the god and the goddess in the myth. In some respects, I preferred this version of events, but also, in some respects I felt really sorry for the real Persephone (who takes over Lina’s job at the bakery in Tulsa) who seems to lose out in the whole thing. I know the myth of Persephone and Hades is generally pretty nasty, but I guess I like to subscribe to a more romantic view of things (perhaps the rather hilarious take in Marie Phillips’ Gods Behaving Badly) and the fact that the real Persephone didn’t end up with Hades made me a little sad. Still this book does a good job of setting up the world to be used throughout the rest of the Goddess Summoning series (seeing as I’ve now read all of them even if I haven’t written up the reviews), setting itself apart from the previous book in the series Goddess of the Sea (which I read last year and which seems to be set in a completely different universe). Overall, an enjoyable read.
Book 16: Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs – 417 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
Her plans for a romantic vacation interrupted by the discoveries of two murdered bodies and a small plane crash, Tempe Brennan traces leads to an isolated North Carolina farm.
Thoughts:
Bones is pretty much my favourite TV show ever (two weeks to go!), and I started reading the books ages ago, in the hope that I’d get more Bones awesomeness when the show wasn’t on. I know a lot of people will disagree with me (and have in the past) but I don’t enjoy the books anywhere near as much as the TV show. Booth and Brennan (TV) have a chemistry that is just unmatchable, and whilst I enjoy the romance between Ryan and Brennan (book) its just not the same. Also Brennan annoys me in the books – she’s melodramatic and whiny, whereas Brennan in the TV show is, well, less clichéd as a character, which I think is her appeal to me. Anyway, this book is the sixth of the now 14 Temperance Brennan books. I honestly can’t remember almost anything about the plot. I do remember that it was set in North Carolina (the books alternate between Charlotte and Montreal, unlike the TV show which is set in Washington D.C.) and that Ryan had come down from Canada. I also remember that this book was the one where Ryan and Brennan finally hooked up. This is the sixth book; Bones has just finished its sixth season with the announcement that Bones is pregnant to Booth…coincidence…? I think not!
I'm so ridiculously behind in my reviews its not funny. About 10 behind now. My reading (and writing) has been so crap over the last five months or so. I'm busy trying to find a new job, help with renovations to my house, train my puppy, plan a trip to the US (again!) and another to Tasmania in Jan 2012, and a variety of other things. I'm hoping I'll be caught up on life by about 2015!
Currently reading:
- The Iliad by Homer – 408 pages
- The Legend of Banzai Maguire by Susan Grant – 327 pages
- Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Story by Eric & D’eva Redding – 239 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson – 500 pages
- The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory – 437 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer – 324 pages
