Book 13: Goddess Boot
Camp
Goddess Boot Camp, by Tera Lynn Childs
Summary:
This sequel to Tera Lynn Childs’ book Oh. My. Gods. follows Phoebe in her first summer on the Greek
island where the school for descendants of the Greek gods is. It turns out she
does not have as much control over her powers as she should, so the gods are
going to give her a test – and if she doesn’t pass, well, very bad things will
happen. In preparation, she needs to attend Goddess Boot Camp with all of the
ten-year-olds who need training. At the same time, though, she’s training for
the trials for Pythian Games with her boyfriend Griffin, who she thinks is
cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend, Adara. And Adara is a counselor at
Goddess Boot Camp, along with her best friend Stella, who is also Phoebe’s evil
stepsister.
While Phoebe struggles with all of these things, she begins
to get strange messages from an anonymous source claiming that there was more
to do with her dad’s death than she knows. Phoebe already knows that he used
his powers – they are descended from the goddess Nike – in football, as he was
a professor football player, and that caused the gods to smote him on the
field. But she learns that there was a hearing about him, and the records of it
are in the Academy’s library’s secret archives. When the library takes Phoebe
down to the archives, along with her best friend Nicole, they learn that the
file she’s looking for is missing. Phoebe spends her time training for the
test, training for the Games, searching for answers about her dad, and trying
to shake the feeling that Griffin is back together with Adara.
Her suspicions grow so large that she breaks up with him.
However, a few days later Phoebe learns that Griffin is not cheating on her. As
Adara explains, her mother has been chosen to be a handmaiden of Apollo, which
means she can’t leave Mount Olympus for twenty-five years and Adara will not
see her for that long. Griffin has been helping Adara prepare for this, as his
parents were banished when he was younger. Since this is supposed to be an
honor, Adara did not want other people knowing that she was upset, so she asked
Griffin to keep it quiet. This led to Phoebe questioning what he did with her
so much that was secret, and thinking he was cheating on her.
Then, Phoebe goes to meet up with the anonymous person who
sent her so many messages about her dad and who has the file. Her friends and
Griffin all worry that this person will hurt her, but it turns out to be
Damian, her stepfather. He explains that he wanted to distract her from
everything else that was going on so she could not over-think her powers and
would be able to master them better. He gives her the file, but she chooses not
to read it yet.