Title: My Date From Hell by Tellulah DarlingGenre: Young Adult
Series: The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #2
Sophie Bloom’s junior year has been a bit of a train wreck. After the world’s greatest kiss re-awakened Sophie’s true identity as Persephone (Goddess of Spring and Savior of Humanity), she fought her dragon-lady guidance counselor to the death, navigated mean girl Bethany’s bitchy troublemaking, and dealt with the betrayal of her backstabbing ex, Kai (sexy Prince of Darkness). You’d think a girl could catch a break.
Yeah, right.
With Zeus stepping things up, it’s vital that Sophie retrieve Persephone’s memories and discover the location of the ritual to stop Zeus and Hades. So when Aphrodite strikes a deal that can unlock Sophie’s pre-mortal past, what choice does the teen goddess have but to accept?
The mission: stop media mogul Hermes from turning Bethany into a global mega-celebrity. The catch? Aphrodite partners Sophie and Kai to work together … and treat this suicide mission as a date. Which could work out for Sophie’s plan to force Kai to admit his feelings for her–if she doesn’t kill him first.
Add to that the fact that BFF Theo’s love life and other BFF Hannah’s actual life are in Sophie’s hands, and suddenly being a teenager—even a godlike one—seems a bit like … well, hell. Whatever happened to dinner and a movie?
The YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology fireworks continue to fly in My Date From Hell. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book two of this teen fantasy romance series. Breaking up is easy; dating is deadly.
Aphrodite
pointed her gun at me again, kind of casually. “Your problem is you’re too hung
up on the past. You gotta move forward with yer life.”
I heard
Hannah give a smothered laugh.
“You got
this cutie pie in love with ya, and instead of enjoying his company, all you do
is whine.” With a quick flick, Aphrodite opened the cylinder to reload.
“He’s not
in love,” I said.
She peered
at Kai. “Whattya talkin’ about? Sure he is. Everyone knows Kyrillos
loves Persephone.”
“I’m Sophie,” I ground out.
“I’m Sophie,” I ground out.
She waved
the gun around. “Ya ya. That too.”
That too?
I took a deep breath, folded my fingers over my palms and looked slightly to the
left of her in case I accidentally started blasting. Didn’t want to go down in history
as the girl who killed the Goddess of Love.
“Nope. It’s
just desire,” I said with faked calm. “Kai is so resistant to the idea of being
in love with me that your arrows don’t work. Besides which, when he actually does
fall so hard for me that he doesn’t know which way is up, I want him to know he
chose that of his own free will. That he chose me.” I threw him a sweet smile.
“Chose you?”
Kai got this look of “have we had this conversation before?” on his face. My smile
got tight.
Aphrodite
scooped up a saclike pink purse laying on the ground. She rooted around in
it. “Desire is part of romantic love, silly,” she said to me.
She pulled
out a handful of bullets and dumped them in Festos’ hurriedly outstretched hands
before turning back to Kai. She gestured with the still-open chambered revolver
toward him. “Your body knows what’s what. Stop fighting it.”
Kai glowered
at her.
She laughed
it off, reloading. “And you,” Aphrodite said to me, as she plucked more bullets
from Festos’ hand to load into the chamber. “Yer just as bad with your own issues.”
She couldn’t
know about my insecurities around Persephone could she? Aphrodite narrowed her eyes
at me.
I gulped.
Aphrodite
shot me a look of disgust and popped the final bullets into the chambers. She gestured
at each of us in turn with one pink, sparkly manicured finger. “I’m gonna start
gettin’ real mad about how youse is all dealin’ with love.”
“There’s
a whole bunch of drags around here where love is concerned,” Festos agreed.
“Thanks
so much for inviting him along,” Theo said to me.
I grimaced
an apology at Theo, then shot back at Festos, “Seems there’s a whole bunch of dogs
here, too.” I looked between him and Kai.
“Oh don’t
forget Pierce,” Festos replied cheerfully. “He’s a total mimbo.” “He is not,” Hannah
defended. “He’s pure love.”
Aphrodite
threw her a fond smile. “I like you, girlie.” “Love in name, hormones in game,”
Theo countered. “Look at us all in agreement,” Festos replied.
“No, because
you’re talking about lust,” I protested.
“Lust is
pretty good too,” Aphrodite said, “but it ain’t nothin’ like the real thing.” She
clicked the cylinder into place and looked at me. “We got a deal? You’ll get Jack
to kill the campaign?”
“You’ll
undo the love thing?” I asked.
“Nope. You
could do with a little love in your life. Kyrillos is obviously brimming with love
for ya now,” she ignored Kai’s snort, “so you’re gonna enjoy it.”
“Meaning
what?” I asked.
“A date,”
Kai piped up. “I’d say I’m ready now.” He arched an eyebrow as if to say “ball’s
in your court.”
“I think
it’s a great idea,” I slid my arm around his waist and pressed myself up against
his side.
A look of
surprise flashed across his face. “Perfect.”
I could
outdate him any place, any time. I brightened. This was going to be fun. The touching
part wasn’t a downside either.
“The fate
of the world does dee-pend on you loving each other,” Aphrodite said. “So, good.
We’ll start with a date.”
“Still say
it’s a euphemism,” Festos burst out. “And Kai doesn’t date.”
Kai snaked
his arm around my waist before pressing his fingertips into my hip. “Never wanted
to before. Sophie’s the exception.”
“The euphemistic
exception?” Festos asked. “Shut up,” Kai and I fired at him in tandem.
Festos took
it in stride, waggling his eyebrows cheerfully at Theo who pretended to look disapproving
but totally wasn’t. Even Hannah didn’t bother to hide her smile.
“Only thing
is,” I told Aphrodite, “I have to be back at school by Sunday morning. I have a
meeting I can’t miss. So I’ll have to get this thing with Jack done quickly to have
time for the date.”
“Going together
to find Hermes is the date.” Aphrodite looked at me like I was an idiot.
“You two need as much together time as possible.”
No way.
I needed all my wits about me to handle Kai. Something that couldn’t happen if I
had to track down Hermes at the same time. I tried a new tactic. “A date involves
dinner and a movie. Something romantic. Finding Hermes hardly counts.”
She pinned
me in her gaze. “Had so miny of them, Miz Expert? All a date is, is two people spendin’
time to deepen their attraction.”
“Or kill
it,” Hannah piped up.
Aphrodite
scrunched up her nose. “Huh?”
“There are
far more first dates than second,” Hannah explained. “Which means that after spending
time, those people realized they were not a match.”
“What she
said,” I seconded.
Aphrodite
narrowed her eyes at Hannah. “I don’t get ya. You talk like that but you’re so brim
up with love.”
“I’m a confounding
enigma,” Hannah replied cheerfully.
Aphrodite
threw her hands up. “Enough’a this nonsense. You’ll go together to find Hermes.
And you’ll be date-like doin’ it.”
That sounded
like a threat.
“Almost
like you planned it that way,” I said to Kai.
His smile
grew wider as he gave my waist a squeeze. “Told you I get what I want. Feel
free to let that sink in.”
Tellulah Darling
noun
1. YA romantic comedy author because her first kiss sucked and she's compensating.
2. Alter ego of former screenwriter.
3. Sassy minx.
Geeks out over: cool tech.
Squees for: great storytelling.
Delights in: fabulous conversation.
Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.
Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What could go wrong?
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