The Goddess's Choice (review)

3/5 stars

The Goddess's Choice (Goodreads | Amazon) was very difficult to rate.  I really like the overall story. It has a lot going for it.  But there are very obvious flaws that are hard to ignore.  If I could take a red pen to certain sections I would wholeheartedly recommend this book, but I can't pick and choose which parts to review.  Yet I can't say reading this book is a bad choice either.  I know, I'm being terrible reviewer right now.

The Good

• Samantha is very believable.  As a child I was very much like Samantha.  She's a little feminist forced to wear Princess dresses but raised by her father to rule a Kingdom.  She's outspoken about gender roles and what's expect her in a way that felt very familiar.  For me, she carries this book and I would've liked even more of her. 
• The fairytale.  This story is a fairytale retelling, a fairytale I'm not actually familiar with.  For me, that's a bonus because I love fairytales and mythology. It's a very interesting retelling.  The story lying underneath everything in this book was quite good.
• I want there to be a 3rd point to make this look more even because I have very even feelings about this book. So tada 3rd point is, "I want to forgive this book it's flaws." Or Something. 

The Bad

• The inappropriate sexualization.  That sounds harsh doesn't it?  You may thing I'm just a prude who can't handle sex in my books.  But while sex may not be my favorite aspect of most books, I just read Game of Thrones and it didn't bother me.  But here's the difference, Game of Thrones reads very adult-like, where the Goddess's Choice feels like it should be a younger Young Adult book.  The voice and the quite graphic sex scenes don't match up.  I feel like maybe the trendiness of Game of Thrones influenced this book to try to be more edgy or adult when really it should've shot more for Tamora Pierce type fantasy (and there is sex in those books) than Game of Thrones.  The included sex scene makes me sad because the audience I think would enjoy this story is too young for everything that's included.
• It had some cliche moments.  The two main characters who see themselves as unattractive (and nobody else saw them as attractive) but were wildly attractive to each other.  Looking in the mirror description, etc. 
• Too many exclamation points.  This book could've used a tad more editing.

So I'm not sure if the good outweights the bad.  I'm frustrated because within this book there's something that could be so much better than what it is.  And it's not a matter of changing much, just removing some parts and accepting that the story is a young adult story, not an adult one.

Is this book worth giving a chance? Yes, I think it is. Especially when I see the Kindle ebook is only $2.99. But be prepared for a good story surrounded by imperfections.  (Ford the record, I'm planning to continue reading when the next book is published).