Pages: 224
Series or stand-alone: Series, Oh. My. Gods. #1
Source: library
Buy It: Amazon / Borders / Barnes & Noble

A modern girl's comedic odyssey in a school filled with the descendants of Greek gods.

When Phoebe's mom returns from Greece with a new husband and moves them to an island in the Aegean, Phoebe's plans for her senior year and track season are ancient history. Now she must attend the uberexclusive academy, where admission depends on pedigree, namely, ancestry from Zeus, Hera, and other Greek gods. That's right, they're real, not myth, and their teen descendants are like the classical heroes—supersmart and superbeautiful with a few superpowers. And now they're on her track team! Armed only with her Nikes and the will to win, Phoebe races to find her place among the gods. --Goodreads

Phoebe is a track star. In her old school.
When her Mom drags her off to Greece, her mother claims she’s in love. With a stranger.
Phoebe wants absolutely nothing to do with it, but she is shipped off anyway. Away from her friends. Away from her old school. Away from her future. And there’s one thing her mom forgot to tell her before she moved to this island in Greece: All the Greek Gods that you’ve heard about in myths, well, they’re real. And all the students at Phoebe’s new school—well, they’re descendants of these Gods, just thought you’d like to know. Phoebe doesn’t know what to do, in this new world. She’s a complete outsider and is hyper-aware that she doesn’t belong and that is what bothers her most of all.

I’ve heard of Tera Lynn Childs, but have never read any of her books. After reading The Penelopiad in English lit, I was in the mood for some Greek mythology and came across this book when I was scouring the library’s shelves. The cover looked adorable and so childish; I had to check this book out!

I enjoyed it. But the age group of this book would probably be around the years of 10-15. It was cute and fun, but it was way too young for me (If you can understand my meaning.).

Phoebe is a very amazing character. Those were one of the factors of this book being so great for me, was that I could relate to Phoebe. I loved her devotion to cross country (or track, I don’t know the right term). My cousin is a wonderful runner (state champion at the moment, congrats!) and if she’s not running, then she’s doing homework. Running is her life and Phoebe reminded me so much of my little cousin that Phoebe was a favorite straight from the beginning. Also, I completely understood her obsession with Nike. (I had this teacher once who would change her shoes—she kept a collection under her desk—every time the bell rang.)

Griffin was cute. When readers first meet him, he was like a Zac Efron cute: quite, reserved, and I-might-break-out-in-song-if-I-like-you cute. The only sad part: he doesn’t break out in song. Actually he is a track runner, just like Phoebe. But before you get all Efron-googly-eyed, a few chapters later, I wanted to strangle him (he’s just one of those characters). So in the end, he kind of had a bad-boy vibe going on. He changed from Efron to adorable Steven Strait. I could live with the switch. Griffin’s character seemed very strange, changing his personality to I-love-you to I-love-you-not in about four seconds. He was predictable, but fans of cute boys will totally fall for his adorable looks and nice-and-then-mean persona that he’s got going.

The plot was fast paced and being a very short book, I barely had time to buckle up for the ride (wow that was cheesy). I’m reading the sequel now and so far, I’m not really sure where Childs is heading with this series. It’s going to be fun trying to figure it out.

First Sentence:

"When I'm running I can almost feel my dad at my side."

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs, p. 3

Rating:

Cover: 5
Characters: 5
Plot: 4
Writing Style: 3
Ending: 4
Overall: 4