Hello there! So, after I finished reading Hera, Queen of the Gods, quickly, I immediatly dived into Hera, Queen of Mortals, Book 2 of the Goddess Unbound series. Also, right after that, I jumped into the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, so I will make some comparisions, if you don't mind. Also, there will be spoilers for Hera, Queen of the Gods, as it's impossible not to.
You can read my review of Hera, Queen of the Gods here.
After we solve the main plot on the first book, all the Gods go back to the heavens, but something is wrong. Ekhidna is on the loose and she's plotting something real big. She's hidden big parts of Earth, using the same kind of cloud from the first book, so the Gods can't see.
An army is around and now the Gods will take turns on Earth and try to find out the issues and fix them. Hera feels responsible and, as such, she volunteers to stay fixed on Earth. The others will take turns, but she will only go back to the Heavens once it's all solved.
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| Yes I stole the image from Amazon. |
((BIG SPOILER)) Even if Justin dies on Book #1, we have him, sort of, in Book #2. Not going to spoil more than that, but to say that it's an interesting relationship and that I'm interested in how it'll continue. I'm a bit frustrated about the power abuser that he becomes when he's... On Dream-mode, so to say.
Now, I have to say I liked Book #1 better. Not sure why. Possibly because on the first one, we have the Gods as characters and they are already known, so we can work with character development from a known base. With the heroes, on book #2, we don't have their background and at the same time, they are developing and we are trying to find new heroes and everything seems a bit rushed. Hera, however, is weaker, more human than ever. It's an interesting character development and I guess it's interesting because Hera is one of the Gods that we hear the least about. She's usually just the wife of Zeus who gets jealous and curses people who he fall in love with, mostly. So it's something new to see her for herself.
Comparing to Percy Jackson, you can see clearly that Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series intended for 12 to 15 year olds. Even if Percy is 16 when the book finishes, I don't think it was intended as a book for older teens. It's innocent and sort of childish, while the Greek Myths aren't.The Goddess Unbound series is much more interesting, it's intended for older audiences and even if the Gods take over teenagers bodies, you can feel they're older teens, the heroes are teens, but they are older teens too, it's never mentioned, that I remember, but you can see in their attitudes and feel it. I'd say it's a book for post-teens (young 20's) and I'd like to see the Gods go on taking bodies of older people, so we can see the story develop in a more mature way.
Also, I'd like the books to be longer. The story has many nuances that could've been explored but weren't, because it was a bit rushed, I'd like to see more relationship between the characters - not have their personality described and determined by a couple of sentences - and some plot developments felt rushed too. I see lots of potential, but we have to keep up with the Book #1 rhythm.
You can buy Hera, Queen of the Mortals at Amazon.
You can read my review of Hera, Queen of the Gods here.
