Title: My Date From Hell
Series: The Blooming Goddess Trilogy #2
Publication date: October 31st 2013
Publisher: Te Da Media
Genres: Comedy, Greek Mythology, Young Adult
Synopsis
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.
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Guest Post ~ The Greek
Mythology in The Blooming Goddess Trilogy
Like many readers out there, I
grew up loving fairy tales and mythologies. And I was always interested in ways
that these classic stories could be reshaped and retold. Persephone had always been
intriguing to me, but only because of her abduction by Hades. I'd never had any
kind of sense of her own personality, versus many of the other "larger
than life" figures in the Greek pantheon. In my readings, she always
seemed to be defined more by how others saw her or reacted to her absence or
presence. And I think it was precisely her blank slate that made her attractive
to me.
The more I thought about it, the
more I knew I didn't want to just retell her story or move it to modern day. I
still wanted many of the details to be rooted in the canonical understanding of
her story (more or less - I took great liberties inventing Kai), but then pick
up her tale all these years later and put her goddess self into a human teen.
It's such a struggle for so many of us to figure out who we are as teens, so
giving her this goddess awakening as Humanity's Savior, amped up the pressure
cooker of her life. On the flip side, I find gods and teens are both so
passionate (and often rash) about everything, so how fun to combine those two
sides in Sophie.
What
posed a challenge was the fact that Greek mythology is such a richly mined
territory. I didn't want my stories to come across as a pale imitation of
anyone else's. So I was really conscious of "how do I make my story
balance being true to the original while feeling fresh?" Or maybe more
specifically, how do I take this epic backdrop, that is used in so many stories
and give it a very unique, personal human face? While the mythological aspect
allowed for a lot of fun action and gods behaving badly, ultimately, this is a
story about a teen girl figuring out what made her special. It had to resonate
on a very human level.
The danger with
stories that are classics is that there are reasons they have survived to this
point. So if we are going to tackle them, it better be with a lot of humility
and definite personal vision for them. Maybe that’s why I like playing with
myths rather than doing more direct retellings of them. I’m not going to make
the original better. But hopefully, I can allow readers to have some fun with a
version of it.
Tellulah Darling
noun
1. YA Novelist
2. Alter ego of former screenwriter and instructor
3. Sassy minx
Geeks out over: cool tech.
Squees for: great storytelling.
Delights in: fabulous conversation.
Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.
Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What
could go wrong?
The author is hosting a contest on her site to give Sophie’s power
(her vines of light) a cool name because everything she’s come up with sucks.
The winner will get a signed copy of My Date From Hell, a t-shirt featuring a
design of one of Kai’s tattoos and will have their power name featured in the
final book of the trilogy. Contest runs Oct 21-Nov 7. Details and entry here: http://bit.ly/1evuIp0
Anastasia, as always, I am so happy to spend time on your lovely blog! :) Thanks for hosting me and My Date From Hell today.
ReplyDeleteAlways a pleasure! :)
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