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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780425197493
ISBN number: 0425197492
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: August 03, 2004
Publishing house: Berkley
Release Date: August 03, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 48777
Studio: Berkley
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Product Description:
To save her failing bakery, Lina trades souls with Persephone, the Goddess of Spring--and starts falling for hunky Hades.
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Rated by buyers 
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I thought this was a very charming story. My best friend recommended it to me and I am glad she did. I love Greek mythology and the modern twist is fabulous.
Rated by buyers -
I fell in LOVE with PC Cast very first book, Goddess by Mistake, and have stuck with her ever since. Persephanie and Hades is one of my favorite myths. I have been wanting to do a retelling of it myself, but it looks like she beat me to it...though my version was a little darker, so I still may give it a go.
This was a wonderful love story I think. It told the REAL meaning of love to me. I will admit I was a little thrown with the end, but it works and was still a wonderful take/tale. Playing with the Gods and Goddess's will always be an adventure.
Rated by buyers -
P.C. Cast's "Goddess of Spring" is a "comfort" book, by which I mean it's one I return to again and again on dark, rainy, lonely days -- days where I need some inspiration, and some reminders, of how good love can be. Even when it hits out of the blue, in some way never expected.
"Goddess of Spring" is a fantasy romance about a baker, Carolina "Lina" Santoro, and Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Lina's Tulsa, Oklahoma bakery is in trouble due to unforeseen tax problems with the IRS, while Hades is just in trouble, period; he's lonely, bored, and wonders if anyone will ever show up in his life that's worth his time. As he deals with the dead daily, this seems quite remote; the other Gods and Goddesses seemingly want nothing to do with him, and he's a reclusive loner by nature. Whereas Lina has sworn off men after a disastrous divorce, where her ex-husband ended up leaving because Lina was unable to bear children.
They meet because Lina asks the assistance of the Goddess Demeter through an old cookbook she finds at a secondhand bookstore; Demeter's daughter, Persephone, is rather aimless and needs to grow up. (A good soul, but immature, is how I'd describe Persephone at the start of this book.) Demeter offers to exchange Lina with Persephone for six months, so Persephone can fix the problems at Lina's bakery (as Persephone is the Goddess of Spring, miracles can happen -- even financial miracles of the type Lina requires). Lina is required to go to Hades and learn about him and the Underworld, as Demeter has been receiving multiple petitions and is tired of hearing all the supplication (especially as she can't seem to go herself).
Ms. Cast has an excellent sense of humor, and writes witty, romantic dialogue. She also has a wonderful sense of who Hades is, and who Lina is, and gets their relationship from conception to interruption, and finally to a blissful conclusion that should warm the hearts of any romance reader with a pulse.
Furthermore, Cast sprinkles her narrative with mythic lore, knowledge about gemstones (in her book, Hades is also the lord of gems, because don't they, too, come from the "underworld?"), and interesting stuff about baking and bakers that really felt authentic. All of that added greatly to the appreciation of this book.
The only minus I can think of is that despite Ms. Cast being a former English teacher, there are a few words here and there that don't fit. (I do a lot of editing these days. So those missed words stand out.) Some are typos -- that can happen to anyone, and are assuredly not Ms. Cast's fault -- but some are just plain, blown words that don't make any sense in the paragraph or in the contextual narrative at hand. This is a persistent problem for Ms. Cast's writing -- I've noticed it in several books, including "Elphame's Choice" and "Divine by Choice" as well as this one -- and although it is minor here, it can cause some big problems in other books where the writing isn't so stirring and the story isn't quite as strong.
Therefore, while this book is an excellent and solid read, I don't feel I can give it the five star "excellent" rating it would deserve without these few (albeit big) blown word choices here and there. Those blown words threw me out of the reader's trance the very first time I read this book, and even though I know to skip over them now and am basically inserting any word I think fits better (in a few cases, there are quite a few words that work much better), it is an annoyance. Ms. Cast is too good of a writer to have this continually show up in her work; either she has a rotten editor (which I find hard to believe) or someone isn't doing their job when it gets to the copyeditor (the last chance any working writer has to root out really odd words that make no sense -- it happens to us all, but they should be corrected by someone -- a very first reader, the main editor, the copy editor, the layout person -- _someone_ -- along the way).
So, my final tally is a very good effort instead.
Four stars, recommended.
Barb Caffrey
Rated by buyers -
Carolina is the middle-aged owner of a bakery. After discovering her bakery is heavily in debt to the IRS, she gets drunk one night and makes a prayer to the Goddess Demeter. Demeter answers by offering her daughter Persephone to help out in the bakery in exchange for Carolina helpin her out with the god of the dead: Hades. Demeter believes the underworld could use a 'goddesses' touch and so exchangeds Carlonia and Persephone's bodies.
I found the beginning of this novel a tad slow and less interesting than the rest. But once Carolina switches places with Persephone the story really picks up. I found Hades very endearing as a male romance character. Particularly because he is the opposite of the womanizing alpha men we usually read about. Hades is thoughtful and interesting and compassionate. I liked Carolina most of the time, although her compassion for animals was almost a touched overplayed. (Particularly the god of the underworld's steeds). I also felt she was a wee bit older than I would like. I prefer to read about younger heroines.
Overall, an excellent entertaining novel.
Rated by buyers 
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Hades, ruler of the underworld in mythology, is handsome. He has a palace. See Hades. See Hades' palace. See the "mature" heroine win Hades' heart with her kindness and good spirit. See Hades and Heroine have silly and predictable misunderstandings. See all work out well in the end. Ta da! Romance writing is easy! We can all do it!
The previous reviewer hit the nail on the head here when she wrote that this is a fill in the blanks romance novel. The premise seemed so promising but I'm so disappointed with this dull endeavor at a novel.
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