Book 11: Quiver

Book 11: Quiver

Quiver, by Stephanie Spinner

Summary:

The story begins at the Calydonian boar hunt, where the female hunter Atalanta draws first blood. This leads the prince Meleager offers the skin to her, which causes a large fight and many die, including Meleager. Upset that men died as a result of her, Atalanta goes to the Oracle of Delphi on the way home, and she has three dreams. One warns her that if she marries, it will ruin her. However, she thinks nothing of it because she has already taken a vow of chastity in the name of Artemis. But shortly after she arrives at home her biological father arrives – the man she only knew as the one who abandoned her at birth when she wasn’t a boy. It turns out her father is a king, and he needs an heir, so he tracked her down and she must go and live with him. He wants her to marry, but she refuses, remembering her vow and her dreams. Eventually, she agreed to marry only if her suitor could beat her in a footrace. Many men try, and many die. Eventually, though, this changes. Eros shoots Atalanta so that she falls in love with Hippomenes, and Aphrodite apparently gives him three irresistible golden apples to slow her down. Distracted by the apples and distressed at the idea of his death, Atalanta lets him win, and so they marry. They are happy for a time, but then they have sex in one of Zeus’ temples, are turned into lions as punishment.

Book 9: Abandon

Book 9: Abandon

Abandon, by Meg Cabot

Summary:

17-year-old Pierce just wants to start the new school year at her mom’s alma mater in Florida as easily as possible. She doesn’t want to ruin her mom’s life any more difficult that it already is, but that’s hard when nothing has been the same since Pierce died. Two years prior, Pierce died in a freak swimming pool accident in February. It led to the end of her parents’ marriage – and to being claimed as the consort for a minor death deity, John. Pierce escaped from John’s castle in his underworld and returned to the land of the living. But from that moment on, bad things kept happening around her because the Furies are after her, and John shows up in the nick of time to rescue her from them.

Back in Florida, Pierce deals with trying to get off on the right foot. Unfortunately, the Furies and John are still right there with her. She navigates her new high school with Alex, her cousin who has lived with their grandmother since his father went to prison. But the popular kids try to befriend her so that they can use her gated community for an illegal school tradition, and when she goes along with it she alienates Alex. In the midst of this normal-high-school behavior, the cemetery sexton finally explains to her who John is. She makes the connection between their situation and that of Hades and Persephone, and learns that the Furies want to kill her to pain John because they hate him. Shortly after learning the truth, Pierce realizes that she loves John.

But knowing doesn’t help Pierce. The Furies kill a school official because she was in the cemetery when and where Pierce usually was, and Alex’s father is blamed. Then, Pierce’s grandmother shows up at the school to take Pierce home. She knows something is wrong, though, and discovers that her grandmother had been an embodiment of the Furies for a few years. Just in time to save her, John appears, and whisks them down into the Underworld. This time, though, Pierce can’t escape, but she desperately wants to.