Review: Deer in Headlights by Staci Hart

Title: Deer in Headlights (Good Gods #1)
Author: Staci Hart
Publication date: February 13th 2013
Source: Purchased from Amazon
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble



How do the Greek gods kill time? Because they’re always bored. It’s an unavoidable downside of being alive for thousands of years. So, they play games. Games with human players. Remember Shakespeare? Yeah, that was Apollo. Bonnie and Clyde? Aphrodite vs Ares.

It’s Aphrodite’s turn once again in the rounds of competitions, and she’ll defend her domain: Love. She hasn’t lost a competition on her turf in over three millennia, and she’s not about to start now. Apollo is her first competitor, and he’s on a mission to win. If he wins, he’ll get a token; a favor that Aphrodite must fulfill. And with that favor, he’ll finally get the one woman he’s never been able to have. 

Aphrodite and Apollo will choose their human players, and if Aphrodite can’t get them together before the clock runs out, Apollo will get his way. And she couldn’t have that.

Lex and Dean are perfect for each other. They just don’t know it yet.

Dean is a perpetual bachelor, and a man-whore. A brooding, gorgeous, rock star man-whore. Lex always has a boyfriend, but she’s never let anyone in enough to let herself go. Not really. Not ever. Aphrodite has her work cut out for her, but if she can’t make it work, no one can.

But she has more at stake than just Lex and Dean. Apollo killed her mortal love, and that beef has been dragging on for thousands of years. Ares, the douchebag, is forever trying to start a fight, and get Aphrodite into bed. And Persephone, her best friend, is the one person she can confide in, laugh with, and always count on for a healthy helping of bacon when she’s having a bad day.

Follow the gods as they fight, laugh, cry, lose love, and gain power. Making a mess with humans has never been so fun.

(Image and summary taken from Goodreads.)

Review:

Deer in Headlights is a new and refreshing take on the gods of the Greek mythology. I'm sure everyone is wondering as to what gods do in their spare time (which is pretty much their whole lives) because when they aren't tormenting people, seducing unsuspecting victims and hating on each other, they like to play games. No, I don't mean Jenga or Twister, their games are a lot more competitive and shaming than that. What do is that they go "against" the other gods in alphabetical order wherein they pick a human who will represent them (the rules are a lot more complicated than that but that's pretty much the gist of it) and their prize, if they win, is a favor from the losing god (I love the little tokens they get, so cute!). And this time, it's Aphrodite aka Dita's turn (her first opponent was Apollo. Oh, the drama.).

The story switches around a lot and it was good that Staci Hart was able to balance everything out so the plot and point-of-views did not get mixed up. Dita's, being the Goddess of Love, goal was to be able to unite Lex, her chosen, and Dean, Apollo's chosen and Apollo's goal was to prevent them from falling in love especially since Dean has a truckload of trust issues and well, Lex currently had a boyfriend. It was really interesting seeing how everything turned out and how other gods were able to contribute to the story. I love Dita's relationship with Persephone, they remind me a lot of normal human girls who just like to hang out, they're very natural and so cute together! Especially when Persephone helps Dita out (just proves how Hades is really Persephone's b---h. LOL). I absolutely adore Hephaestus, it was pretty obvious that Dita just "friend-zoned" him even though they were technically married and hey, girlie, if you don't want him, you can just give him to me because he is seriously such a sweet and attentive guy. Swoon. I felt bad for Apollo throughout the whole book, his story completely broke my heart and I actually found myself rooting for him to win. There's a lot of tension between Dita and Apollo and between the two, I didn't really know who I felt bad for the most (okay, maybe Apollo).

But let's deviate from the gods' very drama-filled lives and go to our chosen ones' lives. I really liked Lex as a character, she had a very strong sense of morale and she's a cool girl in general. And then there's Dean, a rocker-playboy who oozes sex-appeal and can melt your panties off with a look but is saddled with a lot of baggage. Their story was a nice break from the gods' competitiveness because it was both frustrating and entertaining at the same time. Lex and Dean had their moments and when they did, they were completely sweet but also saddening because of all the obstacles standing in their way.

Staci Hart has written a series that is sure to catch the attention of any person who is a fan of Greek mythology because of her fresh and wildly entertaining take on the gods of Olympus. It was a joy and a pleasure to read the book and I can't wait to read more of Staci Hart's works.

Rating: