Deer in Headlights by Staci Hart

Deer in Headlights by Staci Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher: Promise Socks Publishing
Date Published: February 14th 2013
Genre: New Adult Fantasy Romance
Source: Author

In this book their are two worlds that live side-by-side; Olympus and the mortal realm. The story starts in Olympus, where Aphrodite is up to bat for the games the Olympians play. The games, where the god for that turn has to go up against all of the other gods in the selected gods' craft. This time it's Dita's turn, and of course her specialty is love. Her first opponent? Apollo, who has a long-standing rivalry with Dita for killing Adonis and Dita turning Daphne into a tree.

Dita chose Lex, an artist and poet with abandonment issues as her player in the love game, and Apollo chose Dean, a screwed up guitarist and singer/songwriter. Dean sleeps with everything that moves, not knowing how to say no, and Lex already has a boyfriend. An impossible match, right?

Each god has a month to make or break the mortal couple. And the winner gets a favor from the other. Apollo is desperate to get a favor from Dita so he can get Daphne back, but Aphrodite never loses. Will Lex and Dean beat the odds and make it? Or will Apollo do the impossible and get his love back?
This book was not what I was expecting.

Just wanted that out there. When I first heard about it, I was like eh, another Greek God book? I have read a lot of them, and I did believe I had seen it all.

I was so wrong.

This book is so many things. Light, fun, fluffy, and at times, heart wrenching. Yes, it is another Greek God/mythology book, but it's different than any others I have read. It was the best kind of surprise.

During a good portion of the book I was torn between rooting for Lex and Dean and between rooting for Apollo. It's a hard choice, and I kept crossing my fingers that Aphrodite would be kind and lose on purpose so Apollo could get Daphne back and hoping that Lex and Dean made it. It was such a struggle.

Despite making me chose sides and bite my nails in uncertainty, it was still a fun, light read. Yes, you got attached to the characters, but you weren't about to tear around the room wrecking things because one of your favorite characters died (I hate that about Mockingjay. That book did a number on me, seriously). It's the perfect book for summer.

Things I loved:
1) The gods - they were fun and silly and serious all at the same time
2) Lex and Dean - they were perfect for each other
3) Aphrodite's forgiveness - in a lot of Greek myths the gods don't forgive easily, so it was nice knowing she had a heart
4) Perry - she is like THE best friend. I'll never look at her the same in mythology. And I love ice cream too ;)
5) The feels - oh my goddess, the feels. Whoa, just wow
6) The cover - it screams Dita to me
7) Heff - he wasn't in the big picture of the book, but I liked what little of him I did see and I hope he becomes a bigger character in books to come

Characters I didn't like:
1) Adonis - he reminds me of those guys who think of their girlfriends as accessories rather than living beings
2) Ares - I guess what he did is expected from him, but still

I honestly can't think of anything I didn't like about this book. It was great. I'm going to have to get started on the next one real soon :)

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Synopsis:

Aphrodite never loses, not when it comes to love.

Immortality has its perks and its downsides. Boredom, for one, is unavoidable, but instead of playing Backgammon, the Greek gods devised a game using humans as pawns. Remember Shakespeare? That was Apollo. Bonnie and Clyde? Aphrodite versus Ares.

Aphrodite is on deck, and she’ll defend her domain of love by using her magic to get the two human players together. Time is not on her side, and she’ll have her work cut out for her as her opponent does everything in his power to keep the players apart.

Game one is against Apollo, who chooses the loner Dean, a rock star who takes dark and brooding to the next level. His band has finally gotten a break, and he can’t screw it up, not for another one night stand, and especially not with his new drummer’s girlfriend. He swore to the band that he’d keep it together, but from the minute he first sees Lex, it takes every bit of willpower he has to stay away. But Dean’s will is nothing for the Goddess of Love, who’s certain she has a fighting chance to win with Lex as her player. The artist and poet is perfect for Dean, if only she can open her heart and find a way to love for the first time.

There’s always more at stake than winning the game when you’ve lived for thousands of years. The Olympians are the original dysfunctional family, surviving eons of love and lust, betrayal and lies, as friends and enemies, through feuds and wars. From the douchebag Ares, who’s forever trying get Aphrodite into bed, to her best friend Persephone, who she can always count on for a hearty helping of bacon on a bad day, the gods will take you on a lighthearted trip as they toy with humans, laugh and fight, lose love and gain power.