Sunday, June 26, 2011

What A Goddess Wants-Stephanie Julian

What A Goddess Wants
Stephanie Julian
Sourcebooks, Jul 1 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9781402251474

Charun was given no choice except to guard the Underworld. He must never leave his post but over two thousand years of ennui has left him deranged with an obsessed need to free himself from his eternal yoke. To break his chains of duty that bind him to Aitas he needs incredible power with the only easy source being the ignored Forgotten Goddesses.

Charun orders his demons to bring him Thesan the Etruscan Goddess of the Dawn of the Golden Light. Ignored by almost everyone, Tessa flees for Reading, Pennsylvania where she asks her Etruscan friend with the New York accent Salvatorus for help after telling him she believes Charun consumed the missing Mlukukh. He sends her to mercenary Cimmerian warrior Caligo to protect her. She breaks his wards and falls asleep waiting for him. When he arrives he thinks she is Goldilocks who became dinner in the real story. He also distrusts Goddesses since Venus conned him into challenging Vulcan. Unable to resist Sleeping Beauty, he wakes her with his sexual touches. They make love. As she brings warmth to the frozen tundra mercury and brings her a sense of safety, they fall in love while Charun’s demons keep coming for her.

The freshness to this exciting erotic romantic urban fantasy is the intermingling of various pantheons with an emphasis obviously on the Etruscan into a cohesive Julian universe. The lead couple is a terrific combo of an Etruscan Goddess and an immortal unfeeling Cimmerian warrior who loathes that SOB fame seeker Homer the muckraker for outing his race. Tongue in cheek, readers will enjoy What A Goddess Wants, a Goddess gets and she wants Cal.

Harriet Klausner

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