I read about 10% of this before giving up. The internal thoughts of the protagonist seemed horribly unrealistic.

What the what!?! This book disappointed on every level. I had been looking forward to it for days and when I finally settled down with it - ugh! I had to DNF it.

The Goddesses was touted as Single White Female and I was really anticipating a good thriller. Instead I got a snooze fest about a family who moves to Hawaii to fix all their problems instead of doing anything about them. I kept reading waiting for it to finally get good and really shock my with this “dangerous friendship” but it never happened.

None of the characters in the book are extremely likeable, and the main character Nancy is awful. I actually hated Nancy more than I hated the “villain” of the book Ana. At least Ana knows who she is and what she’s doing, Nancy is such a follower and has zero personality that I literally wanted to scream at her the entire time I read the book.

If you like thrillers, this is not the book for you. If you want to read a book about your neighbors boring life falling apart then this is the book for you.

If there was one thing that I got from this book it was to stay true to yourself. The Goddesses is a book about a lady named Nancy who moves to Hawaii with her husband and twin teenage boys. Moving from San Diego after finding out her husband was cheating on her, Nancy feels like this is a fresh start and wants to do things differently this time around. She starts taking care of herself, exploring the island, and making friends with her yoga instructor, Ana. She and Ana become very close and pretty soon Nancy’s family feels shut out. She is no longer at home cooking dinner every night, she and Ana drive around the island passing out sandwiches to the homeless, and Ana convinces her that to have good karma you must do good to other people.

***Slight spoiler below***
Ana tells Nancy she has pancreatic cancer and that she is terminal. Thus, Nancy starts spending even more time with Ana to help her through this difficult time.

I really loved this book because it showed Nancy’s vulnerability and Ana’s manipulative behavior in a way that I could really see this happening. The book kept my attention and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen at the end of the book. The end fell a little flat, however, I was satisfied with it and it wasn’t so off the deep end that it was unbelievable. Definitely a good read and fun to imagine island life.

Impeccably writen. I love this author's ability to get down to the nitty gritty of human wants and needs and the consequences of fulfilling them. We Could Be Beautiful was just a glimpse of Huntley's awesome talent, The Goddesses knocks it out of the park.

I really tried, but I could not finish this book. I did not care what happened to the characters and the "friend with cancer" trend passed in the eighties. I just did not feel a connection between the two women.

This seemed really long to me - maybe because I realized very quickly what it took the main character an eternity to get. At one point, I was like why am I still reading this?

I liked the writing, but the storyline was tough in spots. It was hard to connect with or have sympathy or empathy for anyone in this book.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had previously read We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley and was anxious to read her follow up novel, The Goddesses. In this one, we follow Nancy and her husband Chuck, and their two twin sons on their move to Hawaii from San Diego. It is supposed to be a fresh start for them, Chuck has a new job with Costco, and Nancy is a relatively happy homemaker, although Chuck admitted to cheating on her, hence the fresh start. Nancy enrolls in a yoga class, because well, that's what one does in Kona. There she meets Ana, and the manipulative roller coaster ride begins. Ana starts to take over Nancy's life, inserting herself, and generally becoming an overwhelming force. Ultimately, she even moves into Nancy's home, which I found absolutely amazing, but Nancy would do anything for Ana. Mistake,mistake, mistake. This was an okay book for me. Right at the start, it was fairly obvious that Ana was a highly unstable, manipulative character, much more nuanced and complicated than Nancy. I felt Nancy was under-written, she didn't have much personality at all. But maybe that was the point. She was completely moldable. It sort of felt improbable that a grown woman could be so easily manipulated and played by another grown woman, but alas, it happened in this story. Just so-so for me.

If you’re going to start over, you might as well do it in paradise. After Nancy’s husband cheated on her, she’s had a hard time feeling anything but anger and distrust. The move to Kona, Hawaii has been good in some ways. but Nancy and her husband sleep in separate rooms and their twins are acting up to get attention. Desperate for a connection, Nancy befriends her charismatic yoga teacher Ana. The two begin spending all their time together, Nancy senses something, a strength in Ana that she is drawn to. Soon, they are spending all their time together, and Nancy’s husband and children take a distant back seat. The two woman are inseparable and as Nancy falls ever deeper into Ana’s thrall, the only question that remains is – what does Ana expect in return? This is a slow burning novel of suspense and betrayal that readers won’t be able to put down