Review: Hera Queen of Gods by TD Thomas

Posted January 29, 2013 by Gikany-Una in 2.5 stars, Paranormal YA, Rating C, YA Literature Tags: , , ,

Hera, Queen of Gods
Author: T.D. Thomas 
Release Date: Oct. 3, 2012
Goddess Unbound #1
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Format(s): E-book (536 printed pages)
Book Source: Author
About the book:
Hera couldn’t care less what the other gods think, even when it’s about her. And it often is. Frankly, Hera couldn’t care less about anything, except doing her duty as queen – protecting order and defending the mortal world against any threats. But when the Fates go missing, Hera and a handful of other gods must temporarily become mortal to search the human world for the missing goddesses.
Hera finds that mortality begins to change her. It’s not just the loss of her divine powers. She expected that. It’s deeper somehow. It’s affecting how she thinks, how she feels, what’s important to her. And it gets much worse after she meets Justin, who defies every prejudice she once had about mortals. At the worst possible time, and despite all her efforts, Hera’s black-and-white world starts to unravel.
Torn between who she’s becoming and who she needs to be in order to fulfill her duty, Hera must survive a horde of murderous creatures sent to exploit her new weakness. In the end, only Hera can stop a traitorous plot conceived by a secret alliance of ancient and new enemies, a plot that threatens to destroy not only the order Hera is sworn to protect, but all of existence itself.
What G & U are talking about:
Hera, Queen of Gods is the debut novel of T.D. Thomas.  This new young adult series, Goddess Unbound, has some fascinating elements.  However, Gikany and Una felt confused and a bit let down by the end.
The Fates are missing, and if you have some basic Greek Mythology knowledge, you’ll understand that it is a serious issue.  To resolve the problem several of the Gods, including Zeus and Hera, come to earth, taking possession of teenage mortals to find and rescue the Fates.
It is all very intriguing: blending the impulsive and selfish natures of gods with teenagers seems like an easy thing to do.  However, while the novel reads at what we feel is a younger-age and maturity level, some of the encounters in Hera, Queen of Gods are of a more mature nature.  Greek gods by nature are pleasure seeking, self-absorbed entities with little to no regard for the mortals.  The novel also explores the constant inner struggle Hera has with keeping her vows in her marriage with Zeus, who has no qualms about violating those vows.  Then we take into account the fact that Hera is almost gang raped in the beginning of the novel.  Combine this with the gods espousing the belief that alcohol will solve their temporary problems of feeling outnumber and outwitted, and then running off to a “kegger”.  This all occurs after they give a mortal teenager “liquid courage” so the gods possessing the teenagers can continue with their quest.  
Again, Hera, Queen of Gods fell pretty short overall in our opinion.  But we do seem some promise in the overall mythology and plot arc, which gives us the desire to read the next book in the Goddess Unbound series.
Their Rating:
Finished it – take it or leave it (C)


Purchase Info: