GODDESS GIRLS 1-3

I'm not going to have a set structure for reviews. This first one is 3 books for a reason, but future ones might be multiples or single books.

The Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams began on April 6, 2010. There was a trend back then to release the first two books of a new series on the same day, and then future releases would be individual books. So Athena the Brain and Persephone the Phony came out on the same day. Aphrodite the Beauty followed in August, Artemis the Brave in December, etc.

The first three books of this series are shorter, which is why I've decided to review them together. The books grew in length starting with Artemis', the fourth book. They're still a great length for a quick read, but I'm glad they're so much longer than they originally were.

Now the first rule of Goddess Girls: DO NOT EXPECT ACCURATE GREEK MYTHOLOGY.

Seriously, if you're a stickler, this series is not for you. It's like if you go into Ever After High thinking Raven is going to marry Apple's dad. You can't apply actual Greek mythos to these books because they're their own world.

For example, Principal Zeus is the father to, like, half these students, yet only Athena calls him Dad. Artemis and Apollo? Nope. Ares? Nope. Hephaestus? Nope. Meanwhile, both Ares and Hephaestus exist despite Zeus not even knowing Hera at this point. And Poseidon and Hades, both older than Zeus, are now kids. Hestia, too, based on the upcoming book.

Who's an adult, you ask? Zeus, of course. Hera. Demeter, who's got to be for Persephone, one of the mains, to exist. (Although if you look at Holub's other series, Heroes in Training, she does not always follow this rule. Kid Apollo and Athena are right there alongside Kid Zeus and Hera.) And Hermes, only to continue the joke of him running a messenger/mail service. All the other main Olympians are kids.

So the main premise is that Zeus runs a school for goddessgirls and godboys. There are some mortals included, like Medusa and Pandora. The main four goddessgirls are Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite and Persephone. As the series goes on, we see other characters stepping forward to earn books. Thankfully, because I found myself wanting to learn more about those characters when they were peppered throughout the earlier books.

Athena is the star of the first book and we get an introduction to the school and other characters when Zeus suddenly summons her there. Athena's mom, Metis, is a fly living in Zeus's head, which is a point of embarrassment for her. Medusa's one of the mean girls in the early books and she and her sisters tease Athena about this, as well as calling Aphrodite "Bubbles." Athena had been living with her best friend Pallas, which I thought was a nice touch, though of course they can't do the actual Pallas story, being kids' books. Athena's 12. I think the other girls are 13.

Anyway, yeah, so the first book is about brainy Athena struggling to fit in and bumbling her way through goddess stuff that the others have been doing all their lives. (The brainstorming bit is hilarious.) She's quite a likeable character. Rather Twilight Sparkle.

The second book focuses on Persephone, who has two big problems. First, her mother always told her to "go along to get along," so she gets roped into doing things she doesn't want to because she can't say no. Second, Demeter is extremely overprotective. She meets Hades early on and likes him a lot, but struggles when both her mother and her friends disapprove. He's got a bit of a bad rep in school, which Persephone eventually gets to the bottom of. She spends the book finding herself and realizes she's a cute balance of light and dark things, as she should be. Hades and Persephone are the only couple I really "'ship" from this series. They're adorable. I really love Persephone. She's my favorite of the main four, though unfortunately, she's the most underused. She doesn't even get a second book until #11.

The third book features Aphrodite having some love problems. A lot of the boys like her, obviously, but she likes Ares most, though she can't really figure out why, because he's kind of a bully. She gives Athena a makeover and Ares pays a ton of attention to her, so Aphrodite gets jealous. She's also dealing with the affections of Hephaestus, who she only likes as a friend. And to top it off, a mortal comes to her for some love advice. So she spends the book trying to help the mortal, trying to figure out how to tell Hephaestus they should just be friends, and patching up her friendship with Athena. Aphrodite realizes that Ares is pretty much an ass by the end of the book, but he, like Medusa, is one of those characters that ends up redeemed(ish) later on. Aphrodite is a fun character because she's an interesting mix of typical beauty and OCD. She likes everything in her room just so, and that's one of the reasons she's so focused on her appearance, too.

In sum, these books are really light-hearted fun if you can suspend your Greek mythology accuracy needs. Heh.