Review: Warrior Rising by P.C. Cast

Warrior Rising by P.C. Cast

Buy It Now: Powell’s//Amazon.com

Description: The Goddesses have had it with the Trojan War. So much devastationall because of some silly male egos. The worst of the bunch is that cocky, handsome brute Achilles. But the only way to stop a man like Achilles is to distract him with something far more pleasurable than combat

Enter Kat, a modern girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Goddesses transform her into a Trojan princess, having no doubt that she’ll capture Achilles’s attention. But can her independent spirit match the unquenchable fire of his epic rage? Goddess only knows.

This review is based on a copy I bought myself.

Wenchie’s Review:

Sorry about the craptastic book description up there, but it was the only one I could find. Now that that’s out of the way, on to the review!

I really enjoy P.C. Cast’s Goddess Summoning series. I think they’re quirky and fun, and the fact that they mostly deal with Greek gods and goddesses is what turned me onto the series in the first place. Warrior Rising is the sixth book in the series and, I have to say, I snickered like a 12 year old when I read the title…Moving on. The beginning of the story starts off with Hera, Athena, and Venus (she prefers her Roman name, as opposed to the Greek) talking about how they are sick of the Trojan War and the fact that it’s basically been blamed on women. Helen being the fall girl that became the beard for why the Greeks went to war and the three goddesses being the ones who allegedly started the entire thing because of a beauty contest. I loved the feminist attitude right off the bat. Anyway, they decide the only thing to be done is to get Achilles not to fight, b/c he’s the strongest warrior the Greeks have and surely if he doesn’t fight the war will end sooner. Enter our heroines, Katrina and Jacqueline. By terrible luck they are killed in a car accident and Venus decides that these two modern ladies are just the ones to help stop the Trojan War. So, their souls are hauled off to the ancient world and placed inside the dead bodies of a Trojan princess and her maidservant, and thus the story really begins.

Now, I have to say the scenes with the goddesses in the beginning are a lot more interesting to me than the scene establishing the heroines of the story. I mostly just skimmed through that part and got the gist of what was going on, because, honestly, the modern lives of two women in Tulsa, Oklahoma don’t really interest me. I always hate reading the Tulsa scenes in the other Goddess Summoning books. I’m more interested in the Greek gods part of the stories, it’s why I read the books in the first place. That being said, there’s only one Tulsa scene in this book and it’s a pretty quick one, because the heroines are soon dead and carted off to Troy.

One aspect of the series that I’ve always liked is that it’s always a modern woman who takes the place of a goddess, or in this case a Trojan princess, and wins the heart of hero. The heroes are always the type that only a modern woman can handle. (No simpering ancient damsels for these men. Nope, those girls just don’t have the balls.) This definitely applies to Achilles situation. His choice for fame and glory, in exchange for a short life has cursed him with a berserker rage that nothing can stop until he’s had his fill of blood. This is where Kat comes in. Conveniently, she is a therapist (who mostly deals with couples counselling, I might add) and she uses her power of hypnosis to try and help Achilles to control the beast within. I kinda had to eyeroll when the hypnosis and power of suggestion came into play, but it actually works for the story, so I didn’t care in the end.

Now this hypnosis thing brings up an interesting point, which Jacky mentions when Kat tells her about it. During the hypnosis session, Kat has basically created a happy place for Achilles and while he’s in that happy place, she starts to touch him. Now, he hasn’t been with a woman in 10 years, so he gets turned on and she, even though she knows it’s unethical on a professional level, proceeds to bring him and herself to orgasm. So, back to the point brought up by the BFF: Is it technically rape even if the dude consented under hypnosis? I don’t know the answer and the characters seemed to come to the conclusion that no, it wasn’t, and thus the story went on. The sex scenes are smokin’ hot, by the way (even if the first one is slightly controversial). These books always tend to have awesome sex scenes, which I appreciate very much. There’s nothing worse than a lukewarm sex scene that falls flat and doesn’t show the passion the characters feel for one another.

I noticed this book reminded me a lot of the movie Troy, whether is was intentional or not. I basically saw all the Greek/Trojan characters as the ones in the movie. But that works for me, because I like the idea of Brad Pitt as the tortured Achilles, who is afraid his berserker side will come to the forefront for good and kill Kat. The twist about the myth surrounding the Trojan War was a good one too. The whole beauty contest was a rumor started by Discord, Achilles wasn’t immortal and the heel thing was total crap, and the Trojan horse was considered to be downright ridiculous. I thought this was fantastic. And when the goddesses used those rumors to fill in the gaps of everyone’s memories in the end was brilliant. Very clever indeed.

So, this review turned out longer than intended and I’m not sure I didn’t ramble more often than not, but I liked this book a lot. It’s not my favorite in the series, but it falls into the very comfortable middle. I’ll definitely read it again, because it is totally worth more than one read. And if any of you enjoy mythology and romance, I’m pretty sure you’ll dig this book too.