A review by patchworkbunny
The Goddess Legacy: An Anthology by Aimée Carter

5.0

The Goddess Legacy is a series of stories which form a prequel of sorts to The Goddess Test. They go right back to the beginning, when the Olympians defeated the Titans and run through the gods’ tales in chronological order, from Hera to Aphrodite, Persephone to Hermes and ending up at Hades. The finish squarely where The Goddess Test picks up but is designed to be read after (and therefore this review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series). It does not follow on from Goddess Interrupted and could be missed out but adds a lot of wonderful back story for dedicated fans.

The Goddess Queen deals with Hera’s unhappy marriage to Zeus and shows her slow spiral into depression. The thread of Hera’s woe, which contributes to her actions in The Goddess Test, runs throughout all five stories but the first really gets to the source of her bitterness. The second story, The Lovestruck Goddess is devoted to Aphrodite and her two defining relationships with her lover Ares and her husband Hephaestus. I always feel poor Hephaestus gets left of out retellings of myths so it was lovely to see him included here.

Persephone’s side of the story gets told in Goddess of the Underworld from her arranged marriage with Hades, her unhappiness at living in the Underworld and the events that lead up to her deal to live elsewhere for spring and summer. It also goes into the reasons behind her thorny relationship with Aphrodite and why she left Hades.

God of Thieves feels a little out of place but does include some important information on the transition from ancient Greek gods to the characters we came to know in The Goddess Test. Hermes is in Zeus’ bad books yet again but when Helios and Selene go missing, he knows he can use his superior tracking skills to find out what happened. This takes him to medieval England where he meets a young girl and her band of merry thieves.

This all leads up to God of Darkness in which Hades makes his deal with the council, 100 years to find a queen or they will let him fade. It’s quite a short story but does give a little insight into the girls that came before Kate. I liked the fact that Ingrid informed him of the myth of Persephone that is now well known and it highlights the fact that myths evolve over time and gives credence to Aimee’s versions as told here. As someone who loves Greek mythology I was interested to see the changes she made to the myths that helped them become her modern day tale.

So read it if you’re interested in back story goodness but if you’re after more of Kate and Henry you might find yourself disappointed. I personally loved it (maybe even a little more than the novels). This has become my favourite young adult series by far, keep them coming!