#18 Go The Distance by Jen Calonita
Another Disney Twisted Tale, this one takes us to ancient Greece, at the very end of Hercules. Herc has proven himself worthy to rejoin the gods on Olympus, but refuses to lose Megara in the process, and instead opts to stay on Earth. This time, Zeus refuses, nor will he allow Meg to remain on Olympus with Herc. But Hera has a plan and sends Meg on her very own quest to prove herself worthy of becoming a goddess. Yet in accepting Hera's offer, Meg has to face her painful past, including a mother who died too young and the young man Meg once sold her soul to Hades to save.
I liked this one. As I've said before, I'm a sucker for anything mythological, so this was right up my alley. I do like the Hercules movie, though the straying from mythology bothers me (he's NOT Hera's son, she hates him, etc). The book follows the movieverse closely, right down to the descriptions of the gods being the weird color scheme the movie gave them. And it continues the vain of "tweak the mythology to be kid friendly" - ie, Persephone is depicted as desperately in love with Hades. It was still a fun read and it was nice to see Herc take a bit of a peripheral role. While Meg is certainly the star (that whole "girl power" vibe), we do get to see quite a bit of Pegasus and even the satyr, Phil. And for once, we get to see the tough-as-nails, ties-her-own-sandals-and-everything Meg be vulnerable and even a bit indecisive, but in a much needed way - after all, she's only known Herc just a short while, does she really love him in an I'm-going-to-risk-my-life-and-become-a-goddess-to-be-with-him-forever kind of way?
