I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Stephanie Starr has lived her whole life under the thumb of her controlling mother. She eats, sleeps, dresses and works the way her mother wants her too but now she’s in senior year and almost 18, she’s ready to break free. Then two new students Zack and Haley Smith arrive to school and from the get go, there is an intense chemistry between Haley and Stephanie. Something odd is going on with the world. Something almost godlike.

This is a Persephone and Hades retelling set in high school and I really enjoyed how the author played around with some of the well-known facts around the love story between Persephone and Hades from the six pomegranate seeds to the mom who is basically mother nature. I thought Stephanie as a character was pretty good to follow and she definitely had some nice character development. I really loved Stephanie and Helen’s friendship - some great female friendship there, as well as the male inclusion of super smart Morris.

I think the story dragged for me a little bit in the middle and it seemed to take too long for Stephanie to figure out what was going on. Some of the behavior from Jordan, Kara and the other people in the school was also a bit hard to believe and was hard to accept from the heavy desperation of the flirting from Jordan and the snide bullying from Kara - would this really happen? To be honest, the sad answer is probably yes.

The ending was good and now I want another story about Helen and Zack. Or Morris and Katie Jones, when Morris gets a bit older of course!