The time I reviewed a book -- 4

Here we are for week 5 of the Sassy Girl Swoony God Tourney.  The challenge this week was to read and review My Date from Hell, which is book 2 in the Blooming Goddess series. 

Now, this challenge is sort of bittersweet for me.  Yes, I adore reading and reviewing, but if any of you are friends with me on GoodReads, I'm sure you've noticed that the more I like a book, the less I have to say about it.

Before we see what sort of incessant rambling I'm going to try and pass off as a review, let's look at the book, shall we?

Sophie Bloom’s junior year has been a bit of a train wreck. After the world’s greatest kiss re-awakened Sophie’s true identity as Persephone (Goddess of Spring and Savior of Humanity), she fought her dragon-lady guidance counselor to the death, navigated mean girl Bethany’s bitchy troublemaking, and dealt with the betrayal of her backstabbing ex, Kai (sexy Prince of Darkness). You’d think a girl could catch a break.

Yeah, right.

With Zeus stepping things up, it’s vital that Sophie retrieve Persephone’s memories and discover the location of the ritual to stop Zeus and Hades. So when Aphrodite strikes a deal that can unlock Sophie’s pre-mortal past, what choice does the teen goddess have but to accept?

The mission: stop media mogul Hermes from turning Bethany into a global mega-celebrity. The catch? Aphrodite partners Sophie and Kai to work together … and treat this suicide mission as a date. Which could work out for Sophie’s plan to force Kai to admit his feelings for her–if she doesn’t kill him first.

Add to that the fact that BFF Theo’s love life and other BFF Hannah’s actual life are in Sophie’s hands, and suddenly being a teenager—even a godlike one—seems a bit like … well, hell. Whatever happened to dinner and a movie?

The YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology fireworks continue to fly in My Date From Hell. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book two of this teen fantasy romance series. Breaking up is easy; dating is deadly.

**Thanks to my prancy PA, Christina, from The Book Hookup, for letting me steal borrow her review format!**

Rating & First Reaction:

5 stars. I also added it to my "I want to hang out with these characters" and "snark fest" shelves.  I reread My Ex From Hell before reading Date and absolutely loved being back in this world with these characters.  Sophie's inner monologue is one of the best out there and coupled with her awesome friends, Date was a lot of fun.

MCs:

Sophie: The snark is strong with this one and it's one of my favorite attributes of Sophie's. She does struggle with the memory of Persephone, or more that she struggles with everyone else remembering someone that she doesn't know.  To me, that just made her more relatable. What girl doesn't struggle with self-confidence at some point in their life? However, Sophie doesn't let it get her down.  She uses the skills she has to get through the challenges of the book [I'm being intentionally vague] while maintaining her epic awesomeness.  Did I mention that she's awesome?

Kai: There was a lot more of Kai in this book and the chemistry between him and Sophie was pretty much off the charts. There's a lot going on with Kai this time around and it's humorous to see the situations that he's put in. However, he's the same delightfully cocky Kai that he was in Ex. Well, maybe not exactly the same, but...spoilers.

And the swoons? They're plentiful, but I'll let you find those on your own.

Secondary Characters:

Hannah and Theo: Yep, they're still awesome. Did you like them in Ex? Then you'll love them in Date.

Festos: OMG, I want one.  Festos was my favorite character of this book and I wanted him in every single scene.  He's feisty and fierce and loyal to a fault and a perfect addition to the cast of characters. Festos breaks up a lot of the tension by injecting comments here and there. His dialogue was the main reason for all of my cackles and I found myself rereading a lot of his scenes. FYI: if you don't like him, I'm pretty sure we're not friends.

Persephone: For a character who isn't really on the page, Persephone certainly does have a presence in the book.  Tellulah does an excellent job of inserting her in the most interesting scenes and sitting back to watch the sparks fly.

Plot & Pacing:

Date picks up pretty much right after the end of Ex [which I loved] and the fun starts right away. We also don't have to wait forever for Kai and Sophie to interact, it's within the first couple of chapters.  As soon as the gang is all together, it's non-stop action and adventure.  The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger.  There's two huge reveals and then a WTF moment all in the last 10 or so pages.  I need book 3 like yesterday.

Rec It?

A million times yes. My Date From Hell continues the awesome journey that Sophie is on.  If you love snarky girls, swoony gods and delicious banter on almost every page, this is for you.

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Huge thanks to Tellulah, not only for inviting me to be part of the challenge, but for the e-arc.  You guys really should check out her blog and be following her on Twitter and Facebook.  And don't forget to add all of her books to your GoodReads TBR shelf.