What happens when the ancient gods are no longer worshipped the way they once were? They begin to lose their godly powers and take on some mortal characteristics. For instance, Artemis, the Virgin Goddess of the Hunt, now Selena DiSilva investigates the murder of a woman she discovers on the shore of the Hudson River.

The discovery reminds Selena/Artemis of a promise she made a very long time ago to protect the innocent, and the method and brutality of the murder remind her of an ancient cult who must be stopped. Selena finds herself teaming up with a Classics professor, Theo, who knows the ancient Greek and Roman gods and goddesses ... perhaps better than she who is a goddess. Selena will need to call on some friends who may have to dig deep to pull up their godly powers to help Selena and Theo.

Who doesn't like a good novel featuring some of our favorite Greek and Roman gods? Rick Riordan made it cool to put the gods in contemporary stories again, and we've seen plenty of the gods making appearances since then. here, author Jordanna Max Brodsky makes it a mystery with a very interesting choice for a protagonist. Artemis is a name that is familiar to many, but other than the fact that she's often depicted with a bow and arrows, few know too much about her.

Sadly, I found the character of Selena to be dull and uninteresting. Given that she is 90% of the book and the driving force behind the story, this was not a good sign. And rather oddly enough, I liked her most at the beginning of the book when she was simply Selena. It was when the element of the ancient gods was brought in that the book became less interesting.

Overall, the book was just rather ... "eh." As a mystery novel this was just fine, but trying to make it more than that just wasn't successful for this reader.

Looking for a good book? The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky is a modern day mystery with its roots in ancient Greece and featuring some ancient gods in mortal coil.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I love Greek mythology, its one of my favorites so I tend to devour any and all fantasy book featuring them. Percy Jackson is till one of my favorites in that category. I dunno why but I just love Grover. Anyways I was intrigued by the premiss of this book because its not too many books that feature Artemis as the main character, even in a diminish capacity.

Her powers have dimmed and no one longer worships her but she still is protector of women and trying to right the wrongs against us. I like that she had let go of the 'virgin circle' because all women and girls deserve protection. And you gotta love a house named after the Amazonian queen.

However one could go crosseyed with the amount of exposition on ancient and classic history and mythology. It reads like a professor explaining the entitreity of Greek culture to a board poodle. I'm afraid I skipped over a lot of that because it was just too much and too often.

Fantasy writers who want to include mysteries in their tales need to spend time actually reading mysteries to see how the masters do it because fantasy writers are failing miserably. This was just a buckshot approach to solving the murder. Just accuse and accost every named character in the book till something sticks. Oh lets throw in a scene of Artemis looking for clues at the crime scene, but not really looking for clues at the crime scene because she had no idea what she's doing and it shows and its painful. Sometimes and author can make this work, but Artemis is immortal, she's been around long enough to have picked up a thing or two so I'm not buying this.

I think Brodsky missed a big opportunity here. The Greek gods were the original messy gods.

MESSY.

If reality TV had existed back then 'Greeks Gone Wild' would still be the longest running show in TV history. they may have created drama just to have a word for what they were doing. Where were the red shirt humans that the gods toyed with? What about the demigods and other offspring? Zeus philandering? Hera's raging? There was just to much potential just to add that little something extra and that was missed. Especially since Artemis is one of the less drama induced of the Greeks. She has a fair shake at it, but still doesn't rise to the level of her twin.

There are a few things that bug me about this tale. Why pick the virgin goddess as your main character if you want to throw her into a romance? There are literally a million other goddess that could have been chosen and given the 'protect justice' mandate and waltz into a fantasy romance like a pro. With Artemis this just seems...wrong, and it feels off.

I can see the potential I just don't know if I care enough to keep going to see where it goes.

The premise for this story is nothing new, and I have read several stories of the Greek Gods living in modern times with youth and money, but no longer powerful beings. Unfortunately this tale falls flat. Selene was an interesting take on Artemis, however for the Goddess of the Hunt who has spent millennia protecting the innocent and all most a century as a cop/ P.I. she missed a seriously obvious clue. I figured out who the instigator of the murders was quickly and found Selene and Theo struggling to find clues tedious. Granted if Selene had done her job well the book would’ve been about 20 pages, but if the writer intended that to be the big twist that led up to the climax of the story then there should’ve been a better reason why such a obvious lead was ignored. I liked Theo, but I found the other love interest more intriguing. I may read the next book in the series, but if Selene is going to be the lead again and there is going to be another mystery than her detective skills are going to need a major upgrade.

As the world turned toward Christianity, the Greek gods left Olympus and started to live among humans.  Over time they lost some of their powers, abilities and slowly started aging, the rate at which this occurred depended on the individual gods.  Some gods like Hermes, Dionysus and Appolo fared better than others because humans unwittingly did things that could be considered as worship. 

Selene was once the goddess Airtimes, known as the Huntress and protector of women.  In this century she is still protecting women who have been abused, sometimes threats with some form of physical punishment is enough but if that fails she does not hesitate to use kill them.  She has her faithful hound, Hippolyta for companionship and that is all she needs as she has been estranged from her twin since before they descended from Olympus.  When her dog discovers a young woman dressed as one of her priestesses murdered, Selene knows that this is one job that she must handle instead of the police. 

The author has done a good job with this novels; combining mystery, history and fantasy to give the reader an entertaining story.  I loved the different aspects of all the Greek gods and I enjoyed the character building.  I feel those that love novels with a mythical background will enjoy this series. 

4.25/5 STARS:  **This is an honest, unbiased review.  I would like to thank the author and/or/publisher for providing an ARC through Netgalley, all opinions are mine.**