Katie’s #CBR4 Review #35: Abandon by Meg Cabot
Title: Abandon
Author: Meg Cabot
Source: bought for book signing
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: In a lot of ways this is a fairly typical YA romance with a strong heroine, but it’s also well written, enjoyable, and made unique by its’ basis in mythology and the heroine’s unique voice.
Like Dead Beautiful, Meg Cabot’s Abandon trilogy is a re-telling of the Persephone myth, although in this case only the starting point of the story really comes from the myth. The Greek gods aren’t part of the story at all and while a lot of elements of the Greek underworld are used, even the basic explanation for the way the Underworld works is different. What is the same is that the lord of the underworld does fall in love with our heroine, Pierce. He does kidnap her, in a way, but in his defense she’s already dead in this version. She manages to escape and is resuscitated by her doctors; which of these events is the cause and which the effect is left for the reader to determine. Unfortunately for Pierce, escaping the underworld doesn’t resolve anything. She now has trouble fitting back into her old life and still has to deal with the lord of the underworld appearing to “help” her, usually causing her some trouble himself as well.
Title: Dead Beautiful
The Lightning Thief
is one of the few YA novels I’ve read lately that I felt was really worth the hype. The book was well-written, fast-paced and very enjoyable. The narration reminded me a little of the Septimus Heap series, although I had a hard time putting my finger on the reason. It isn’t quite as off-the-wall hilarious as the Septimus Heap books sometimes are, but there’s something about it… I think it may be that both books prevent some rather unbelievable events in a very matter-of-fact way. 
