Curse of the Sphinx

Curse of the Sphinx - Raye Wagner This was an intriguing story. Hope has just lost her mom, and is feeling a little lost. Bearing the curse of the Sphinx has kept them on the run for most of her life, isolating themselves for fear of being hunted by demigods or forced into a relationship with Apollo or his sons in order to avoid the cost of being the sphinx. When her aunt, last known connection, goes searching for answers to her mother's death, she must set off on her own. Except she's still a teen and must attend high school. Her new life in Goldendale is supposed to follow the same prescribed path as the rest of her life, but without the watchful eyes of her mother, Hope may be tempted to break her isolation, especially if Athan, the cute guy who keeps bumping into her, has anything to say about it.

I enjoyed many aspects of this. I loved that the Greek gods were an acknowledged part of humanity, so much so that they even had a class on the subject, much like a history class. The writing and emotional draw were also well done.

Where the story fell flat for me was Hope and Athan's actions. We get a glimpse from Athan's point of view at the beginning of the story before switching over to Hope's. What Athan learned in that first scene should have left him much better informed. It took him longer to realize what was going on than it should have, and in fact, I kept wondering how he didn't know. I mean, seriously.

And the struggle of the book was more in Hope finding her way out of isolation to start really living than in anything else, which didn't make for the most compelling plot, in my opinion. Hope was also dense, denying her intuition about Athan and totally ignoring a "coincidence" at the end. For both Hope and Athan being "smart" characters, they really didn't act so bright most of the time.

But the writing is solid and the other books may be more enjoyable, I just couldn't quite get into this one.