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Wednesday, February 9, 2011
title: Gods Behaving Badly
author: Marie Phillips
first line: One morning, when Artemis was out walking the dogs, she saw a tree where no tree should be.
genre: fiction/humor/contemporary romance
published: 2007
pages: 295
source: personal copy won online
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Gods Behaving Badly is cheeky and funny with a dash of romance and I enjoyed it from cover to cover.
This book is about ancient Greek gods living in modern day London and trying to make a living. Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting, is a dog walker. Apollo, the sun god, is doing a pilot for a tv program called Apollos Oracle. He is a psychic with the aid of the oracles. Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, does phone sex for a living. Aphrodite's son Eros (Cupid), is a born-again Christian.
Aphrodite and Apollo are lovers and when he wrongs her, she wants her revenge. She decides to get Eros to shoot Apollo with a love arrow.
Mortals Alice and Neil are on their first date in the audience for Apollos Oracle. Aphrodite sends Eros to hit Apollo with a love arrow during the taping of his show. When he is hit, Apollo instantly sets eyes on Alice and falls madly and inexplicably in love with her. Eros was supposed to hit Alice with an arrow that would make her intensely hate Apollo, but being a good Christian, Eros just couldn't bring himself to do that.
When Alice, who cleans houses for a living, goes looking for work, fate lands her with a job as the gods housekeeper. Apollo is stunned and delighted to find his true love at his doorstep.
Alice knows there is something odd about the Greeks who inhabit the rundown house, but she can't put her finger on it. She also wonders why Apollo is so attracted to her, she figures he is probably on drugs like most celebs.
Good guy Neil and shy Alice are in love, but they still have yet to tell each other.
When Apollo makes his move on Alice, and she rejects him, he doesn't take it mildly. He involves Zeus in his revenge. As the story flows, Hades and Persephone and their underworld are involved and the plot takes some fun twists and turns.
Gods Behaving Badly was an enjoyable contemporary romance. Some of it was funny, some of it bizarre. The state of the gods house was just plain gross, there were rats all over the place, the house was really rundown and uninhabitable. Yet these Greek gods and goddesses inhabit this dirty house, with Zeus himself hiding out in the attic.
The gods all had their own personalities and I enjoyed that. Aphrodite's cell phone would ring and she would instantly go into phone sex mode. Eros is a Christian who goes to church and regrets not having ever met Jesus while he was still alive. Artemis enjoys going for runs. Apollo is full of himself, and cannot believe that anyone would refuse him.
Hermes takes the dead to the underworld on his motorbike. Here he is talking to someone about Apollo while giving them a ride on his bike:
"Did you shag him?" said Hermes. "I wouldn't worry about that. Everybody shags him. Even I've shagged him. That was during a very boring decade. Oops, nearly missed my turn."
p.152
There were plenty of laugh out loud moments and the story just kept going with fun plot twists and turns. I didn't know what to expect next. The end was wrapped up real nice and neat with a cherry on top, but I didn't mind the happily ever after ending. This was an entertaining read.
