Marriage is hard… Hera will make sure of it.Everyone knows the bitter story of Zeus and his long-suffering wife, Hera. But Helen Logo never could have anticipated that the embittered battle she learned of in Greek class would one day become hers.Trapped in between Zeus’s machinations and Hera’s will, Helen does her best to rebuild her life and set herself apart from the Goddess of Marriage. … from the Goddess of Marriage. Which means asserting her independence, going back to work, and hiring the blindingly handsome and surprisingly sweet Sebastian Harris to look after her two-year-old.
But the Queen of Olympus will not stand for defiance and soon Helen finds herself in a situation more dire than she could ever have imagined. Will Helen escape the divine and legal chains of marriage, or will Hera win dominion over her mind, body, and soul?
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Zeus and Hera
I really love Greek Mythology, but to be honest, I’ve never liked Hera, and I like Zeus even less. Zeus is a philanderer, and Hera is a bitter and spiteful woman… and it turns out I STILL don’t like them. They are ruining Zach and Helen’s lives and marriage. These two would be doing great, without their obnoxious “hosts” getting in the way, acting out, and messing everything up.
I find myself super intrigued by this series, and can’t wait to read more.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
We first meet Zach and Helen when they are teenagers learning about Zeus and Hera in Greek history class; they believe themselves to be genuinely in love. It flashes forward to 10 years later when they are married and are parents to a little girl named Cassandra. She is two, and Helen is ready to go back to work, so they’re looking for a nanny but without much success until they interview Sebastian. He has experience taking care of his siblings as well as working as a nanny for three different couples. He’s hired. In his personal life, he’s engaged to Kat and has only recently moved to Elysium.
If you aren’t familiar with this series, characters in it become essentially possessed by the spirits of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses. This inhabitation is typically familial, as it is here for Helen and for the heroine in the previous book of the series. So she and Zach aren’t just Helen and Zach; they also hold within themselves the spirits of Hera and Zeus. These Olympians can make themselves heard in their hosts’ minds as well as make them act out; the hosts pass out and don’t know what has happened. If you’re familiar with the legends and myths of Hera and Zeus, you will understand that Helen and Zack are not having the best relationship.
Along with following Zach and Helen’s relationship, we also follow up Sebastian and Kat’s. He’s quite content to be a nanny, though he has other dreams as well. She is really pushing him to go back to school to learn about business.
I enjoyed the first book of this series, and I enjoyed this one as well. My goodness, Hera and Zeus really put Helen and Zach through so much. Those love-struck teens didn’t stand a chance once the Olympians possessed them. Hera is not happy that Helen is considering divorce. She is the goddess of marriage after all, and she cannot inhabit a divorced woman’s body, and her host must be married to the man who is possessed by Zeus. The drama on all sides made for a good read. The very end of the book was a total shocker that I didn’t see coming. Oh, my gosh! I won’t give it away, but it completely follows from what we know even though it is a surprise.
If you enjoy ancient Greek mythology, you might enjoy this series’ modern spin on it. I quite enjoy watching the gods and goddesses torment these poor humans; it’s cool to see the myths come to life.