The Goddess Legacy by Aimee Carter Review

I received an advanced copy of the book from NetGalley on behalf of the publisher (and no I did not receive a Porsche for my review).

Goodreads Synopsis:

For millennia we've caught only glimpses of the lives and loves of the gods and goddesses on Olympus. Now Aimee Carter pulls back the curtain on how they became the powerful, petty, loving and dangerous immortals that Kate Winters knows.

Calliope/Hera represented constancy and yet had a husband who never matched her faithfulness...

Ava/Aphrodite was the goddess of love and yet commitment was a totally different deal...

Persephone was urged to marry one man, yet longed for another...

James/Hermes loved to make trouble for others-but never knew true loss before...

Henry/Hades's solitary existence had grown too wearisome to continue. But meeting Kate Winters gave him a new hope...

Five original novellas of love, loss and longing and the will to survive throughout the ages.

Am I the only one who has mixed feelings about these in-between stories? I've read a few where I've been like the WTH was the point of that? The good thing about The Goddess Legacy is this doesn't seem like the case where the publisher is trying to charge some poor slouch eight bucks to read some short story that should have been given for free as a bonus chapter in the ebook. Since The Goddess Legacy is five novellas, it reads like a completed novel.

What I Liked: I breezed through this book in only a couple of sittings. I had doubts about my interest in the back story of the gods and goddesses, but this book explained a lot in regards to many of the plot points that occur in the previous novels. Since each novella was told in first person POV, you really felt like you understood the motivations behind each of the character's actions. My favorite of the novellas was of course Henry's at the end (albeit way too short). He's such a mysterious character in the novels, it was wonderful to be inside his head and understand his despair over his existence.

What I Didn't Like: The gods and goddesses are AWFUL. I mean like downright despicable that you find it hard to like them in the least. I'm not sure if the stories are intended to create sympathy for their characters, but it had the opposite effect on me. Most of them came off as egotistical and selfish a-holes. Calliope/Hera and Persephone were especially nonredeemable. James/Hermes story made him more likable in a way, but still didn't erase his previous transgressions against Henry. And you know I heart Henry/Hades, but even his behavior at times while married to Persephone made me want to reach through the pages and shake some sense into his immortal brain.

Rating: Four out of five stars