Warrior Rising by P.C. Cast

In the past world that the Greek Gods inhabit, three Goddesses are meeting because they are annoyed. Hera, Athena and Venus have been watching the Trojan war drag on for over ten years now, and because Zeus has forbade any of the Gods to interfere in the war, it has had no end.

Achilles, chief warrior of the Greeks, knows that his 30th birthday is approaching, and that it has been prophesied that he will not long survive that day. When he was young, he was given the choice between a long life, happiness and contentment, but being forgotten, and a short life filled with battles and valor, but being remembered forever. He chose the short life and eternal fame. This saddened his mother, the goddess Thetis, greatly, and she seeks to save him from his fate.

As the goddesses talk, Venus comes up with an idea. They need someone to distract Achilles and keep him from fighting. A woman would have the best chance of doing so, and even though he has a woman named Briseis as his war bride, he needs someone who can stand up to him, and not be frightened of him, as Briseis is. Venus has the perfect answer- a modern woman! Someone who can talk to Achilles and help him solve his own problems- a psychiatrist.

And she knows just the right woman, too, for a woman named Kat Campbell and her friend Jacquelline, who can replace the Princess of Troy, Polyxena and her handmaiden, Melia. But before she can whisk them away, they are hit from behind in their car and it bursts into flame. Venus saves their souls, but their bodies are gone. This makes it easier to put their souls into new bodies, but neither woman is very happy about it- especially not Jackie, who used to be black and whose body is now very, very blonde and very, very white.

But the goddesses promise to put them back into bodies better than their own if they manage to make Achilles stop fighting, and so the women reluctantly agree to the transfer. But it's not going to be easy. Kat isn't afraid of Achilles, but she's surprised to learn that when his emotions get high, he actually physically changes into a berserker, undergoing something like a Lycanthropic change. And his commander, Agamemmnon, is all too ready to slash at Achilles viciously with his tongue.

But as Kat tries with all her might to help Achilles, she thinks she might be falling in love with him, even as she and Jackie win the affection of Achilles and his cousin and shieldbearer Patrokolos respectively, and invite the hatred of Briseis and a priest named Kalchas, who has very primitive ideas about medicine and runs straight up against Jackie, a very modern nurse with very modern views about sanitation and medicine.

But even as Kat helps Achilles, she finds herself slowly falling in love with him. Despite his prowess in battle, he is still innocent in matters of the heart, and despite his scars, Kat finds him beautiful in a very manly way. Soon, she and Achilles are lovers, though he still must be in a partial trance to make love to her, keeping the berserker part of him at bay. But when the goddesses meddle still more to end the fighting, the outcome may be anything but what they wished. Can they save Achilles from his fate and ensure a happy outcome for all four of them, or will history, and the tales of the Trojan war, remain unchanged from the way history remembers them? Can there ever be a happy ending for all four of them?

I loved P.C. Cast's Goddess stories, and this promised to be more of the same, only now focussing on a male character and not an actual Goddess. And so enters Achilles, a man who is the ultimate warrior, who chose glory and fame over a happy life. But of course, the question is: did he ever think he made the wrong choice? Did he ever wish he could change his answer? And is it possible that he could have chosen both?

In a way, he does end up with both, including a glorious death on the battlefield before his 30th birthday, and a long and happy life as well. How does P.C. Cast do it? Well, you are going to have to read the book to find out, but as for me, I loved it and I hope the ending is pointing towards another book in the series. Are there going to be other Gods besides the Greek/Roman ones? I sure hope so! It would be interesting to see Celtic Gods, especially because of the Partholon series that Ms. Cast writes. And it would certainly be an interesting way to round out the series- not that there aren't plenty of Greek/Roman Gods and Goddesses to use in this series. Although I doubt Cloacina, Goddess of the Sewers, would be quite appropriate for a volume of this type. Hestia, maybe?

I loved this book, which makes a wonderful addition to the Goddess books amd adds to the series in a new and entirely welcome way. Add some genuinely funny lines that made me laugh aloud (Jackie's reaction to becoming a white woman was extremely funny, as was their discussion of why they deserved the Hell they thought they were in), and it will at least evoke a smile. As a romance novel, I found this one funny, hot and very well-written, with that little extra something that turns a good novel into a truly great one. Highly recommended.