Alpha Goddess by Amalie Howard ~ Review

Title: Alpha Goddess

Author: Amalie Howard

Publication Date: March 18, 2014

Pages: 384

Genre: Young Adult, Mythology, Fantasy

Rating: 4.5 stars

Summary: In Serjana Caelum’s world, gods exist. So do goddesses. Sera knows this because she is one of them. A secret long concealed by her parents, Sera is Lakshmi reborn, the human avatar of an immortal Indian goddess rumored to control all the planes of existence. Marked by the sigils of both heaven and hell, Sera’s avatar is meant to bring balance to the mortal world, but all she creates is chaos. A chaos that Azrath, the Asura Lord of Death, hopes to use to unleash hell on earth.

Torn between reconciling her past and present, Sera must figure out how to stop Azrath before the Mortal Realm is destroyed. But trust doesn’t come easy in a world fissured by lies and betrayal. Her best friend Kyle is hiding his own dark secrets, and her mysterious new neighbor, Devendra, seems to know a lot more than he’s telling. Struggling between her opposing halves and her attraction to the boys tied to each of them, Sera must become the goddess she was meant to be, or risk failing, which means sacrificing the world she was born to protect.

Avatar: The Last Airbender has ruined me for "bringing balance" to the world. All I can picture is Aang and his white, glowing eyes when I think of those words.

Anyway, I really fell in love with the mythology in Alpha Goddess. I've only just read the Ramayana last year, so I was excited when the epic was introduced and tied into the story. Hinduism is an amazing religion and their culture is so exotic from the American lifestyle I live in. If you've never read the Ramayana or experienced any Hindu culture, I highly recommend it!

As far as the story, I felt it started off very slow. The summary gives us an idea that our MC, Sera already knows she is an extraordinary individual, like she already has the idea that she's a goddess. But no. Sera is clueless. Still, I liked her. She is a strong individual with good morals and, more importantly, she stood by them.

Once Sera realizes what she is, the pace picks up and things start going by fast. If you're not paying attention, you will get lost. A lot of Hindu terms are thrown around and some look and sound very similar to one another. I'd strongly recommend a glossary for this book.

The summary also gives us a hint of a love triangle, something I've started to become sick of in all YA's. Seriously, not every girl is in love with two boys. Now having just said that, the love triangle in this book wasn't over the top. It didn't get in the way of the plot. It actually enhanced it a bit. Shocker, I know. More shocking I think, is that I actually enjoyed both boys trying to woo our MC.

There's Dev, who's sweet and perfect in nearly every way. He's the rock, solid and always there. Then there's Kyle, Sera's best friend. He's explosive, a bad boy with major issues. I liked Kyle's character at the start. Even with his bad rap, he shows a very caring side with Sera. Towards the end though, I couldn't stay abreast of his motives and mood swings. Kyle's incredibly complex and while I wanted to like him, I just couldn't. Maybe it was just the way he came off. Who knows.

All in all, I highly recommend. The characters were great (just because I don't like Kyle, doesn't mean he's bad), the plot felt real and even smart. I loved the mythology, easily my favorite part!

I also loved the cover. Did you see it? Scroll back up, I'll wait. Gorgeous, right? I think I would have liked it more if we saw Sera in her deifyre form. (No, that's not misspelled.) Oh well, it's still beautiful.

Have you read Alpha Goddess? Let me know what you think!


Provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you!