Title: Bad Blood
Author: Lucienne Diver
Series: The Latter-Day Olympians #1
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Mythology, Paranormal fantasy, Strong women
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: It seemed the hardest thing I’d ever done to make myself move.

The gods play…and mortals pay.

Tori Karacis’s family line may trace back to a drunken liaison between the god Pan and one of the immortal gorgons. Or…maybe it’s just coincidence that her glance can, literally, stop men in their tracks. While her fear of heights kept her out of the family aerobatic troupe, her extreme nosiness fits right in with her uncle’s P.I. business.

Except he’s disappeared on an Odyssean journey to find himself. Muddling through on her own, she’s reduced to hunting (not stalking, because that would just be weird) brass-bra’d Hollywood agent Circe Holland to deliver a message…only to witness her murder by what looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Suddenly, all of her family’s tall tales seem believable, especially when Apollo—the Apollo, who’s now hiding out among humans as an adult film star—appears in her office, looking to hire her. She knows the drill: canoodling with gods never works out well for humans, but she’s irresistibly drawn to him. Maybe it’s her genes. Maybe not.

Given her conflicted feelings for one hot and hardened cop, it’s a toss-up which will kill her quickest. The danger at her door…or her love life.

Warning: Contains pot-boiling passion between a heroine who may—or may not—be a descendant of Medusa, and a hot god and a hunky cop with the…equipment…to handle her, even on her worst bad-hair day. Beware of killer kisses, trickster gods and bearded grandmothers Who Know Everything.

This was a great, easy read and I can’t wait to crack the spine of Crazy in the Blood. Diver takes the Greek myths and twists them to fit the life of a modern-day woman. Although Riordan has done this beautifully in his writing, Diver’s adaptation was much more subtle. I also loved how, where Riordan’s heroes are the descendants of Gods, Tori, Diver’s heroine, is the descendant of a Gorgon.

The combination of a steamy love triangle and a fast-paced mystery drew me in from the first page. The battle between what is good and bad extended not only from the murder and consequent occurrences within the story, but also in Tori’s battle to choose a partner. On one hand, there is the button-down, safe cop who makes her feel safe, on the other – a God. Undeniable attraction is one thing, undeniable attraction that has the potential to lead to a very uncomfortable end if the myths are anything to go by.

I loved Diver’s ability to take modern day issues and give them a mythically Greek spin. This is a fantastic start to a new series, and I can’t wait until I have the chance to read the next story in this saga.

Image source: Goodreads