The Hidden Goddess

This book had a pretty rocky start for me, mostly because I couldn't remember the first one very clearly but knew if I kept putting it off, I'd never get this one read. Fortunately, though, this book is fairly self-contained, so even though it references earlier events, I was able to follow it pretty easily without having to reread its predecessor, The Native Star.

Strangely enough, although the book repeatedly comes back to the concept of "true love" and whether or not it exists at all, our protagonist's fiance, Dreadnought Stanton, is absent for a good chunk of the first half of the novel. When we DO see him, well, you pretty much want to reach into the book and slap him, hard. Dreadnought is in the process of becoming Sophos, a powerful credomantic (that is, magic powered by belief) position that generally requires him to swan around in a large hat and be as patronizing as possible.

For example: Dreadnought attends what is basically the steampunk-equivalent of a business meeting at a strip club. Emily is not thrilled, and Dreadnought replies: "Why, Emily Edwards. You’re jealous! That’s adorable. Don’t worry, dearest, I didn’t have time to notice any pretty girls or their legs."

Not only that, but when Emily and Dreadnought have a fairly heated discussion later on, he actually USES HIS MAGIC to placate her. It was right about this point I started screaming at the book, "Leave him! Leave him NOW!"

There's an overall theme to the novel that I found myself really intrigued by, though. Credomancy, which plays a large part in the novel, can basically be summarized as magic powered by faith, not necessarily the religious kind. If the Sophos makes his followers believe everything is going well and the Institute is prosperous, then in turn, everything really is doing well and the Institute is prosperous.

This bothers Emily, our protagonist and narrator, because a.) she's a realist, a b.) this habit of lying-to-make-something true is overlapping with her relationship with Dreadnought. While Dreadnought wants to pretend everything is going fine (and gloss over inconvenient things like arguments with one's fiancee), Emily eventually realizes that she'd rather have an imperfect but REAL life than continue to believe in lies in an effort to make them true. (I know, that seems like a circular sentence.)

This brings us to a fairly ambitious attempt by the author to give us a complex look at relationships. Surrounded by books full of bad-boys-with-good-hearts and diamond-in-the-rough sort of love stories, Hobson creates a love interest that's genuinely flawed. At one point, when the couple is approached by a married woman who once had an affair with Dreadnought, Dreadnought evades Emily's questions about the woman and intentionally leads Emily to believe the woman was lying. As we learn later, she wasn't. It's also revealed that Dreadnought used to be a sangrimancer, a magician who works with blood, and actually MURDERED complete strangers to use their blood. Generally, murder is a deal-breaker for me in relationships, but that's just me.

As the book goes on, we do see that Dreadnought loves Emily a great deal, but it's left up to the reader to decide whether or not his love for Emily makes up for his imperfections. To be honest, even at the end of the novel I wasn't totally convinced that Emily shouldn't have dumped him, but I liked that the book (and Emily) never tried to justify his mistakes. He does good things and bad things, and one doesn't necessarily negate the other.

The male/female dynamic in this book is just really interesting, and I think feminist readers would really enjoy this novel. At the beginning, Emily is informed,"You need only be a pretty face in a pretty dress," and Emily struggles to fulfill this role. But by the end, both Emily and Dreadnought have made leaps and bounds in terms of personal growth. Hobson portrays a healthy relationship as being between two equals, and sums it up nicely at one point when Emily says, "Love is not enough. But it’s a start."

Hobson is easily becoming a favorite writer of mine. I was a little surprised to find out that the series will be continuing after this book (as I thought it had a pretty distinct ending), but I'll definitely be continuing the series.




( )

I'm really enjoying this series, a sort of steampunk alternate history with witchcraft. In the first book, small-town witch Emily has adventures and falls in love with a warlock. In this book, she's figuring out the adult world, and goes to some much darker places. Emily is a true heroine, smart, down-to-earth, resilient, and brave as hell.

This is a sequel to The Native Star, which I read earlier this year. The first book had a lot to enjoy with its alternative post-Civil War history and mash-up of magic and light steampunk elements, but in a way it felt like too much crammed together. The sequel proved to be a fast read but didn't feel even to me for several reasons.

Summary from Amazon:
Like it or not, Emily has fallen in love with Dreadnought Stanton, a New York Warlock as irresistible as he is insufferable. Newly engaged, she now must brave Dreadnought’s family and the magical elite of the nation’s wealthiest city. Not everyone is pleased with the impending nuptials, especially Emily’s future mother-in-law, a sociopathic socialite. But there are greater challenges still: confining couture, sinister Russian scientists, and a deathless Aztec goddess who dreams of plunging the world into apocalypse. With all they must confront, do Emily and Dreadnought have any hope of a happily-ever-after?

The summary makes it seem like Dreadnought's family is the major obstacle in this book, but they really have a minor role. A lot of it comes down to the importance of credomancy, which is magic based on the belief of the people. It's an interesting element of these books, as the Institute utilizes fiction to develop a cult of belief in Dreadnought, and that belief manifests itself as real power. I really like how Emily explored her past and discovered information about the parents she never knew, though I wished that her grandparents could have had a greater role. However, my two biggest gripes in this came down to the romance and the bad guys. The romance felt... cliched. Emily and Dreadnought are driven apart. She doubts him. There are the possibilities of other liaisons for both of them. It made me gnash my teeth at a few points because it was so formulaic. Then at the end, all the drama is set aside as if it never happened.

Then there are the bad guys. I can understand the evil Aztec goddess and her motivations, but despite a prologue on the subject, I could never believe why the United States Army would think allying itself with such an entity is a good thing. It's stated that they believe the goddess will "remake" the world, not destroy it, but the reasoning still baffles me. It felt like a tenuous connection at best.

Despite a lot of fun elements, this set of books just didn't win me over. They aren't keepers for me. ( )

Warning: SPOILERS for The Native Star.

Emily Edwards has gone from being the local witch of Lost Pine, California to becoming engaged to one of the most powerful warlocks in America. She has just moved to New York to be closer to her fiancé, Dreadnought Stanton, who is now the leader of the Institute of Credomancy. However, despite her seeming good fortune, Emily finds it hard to adjust to her new life as a belle of society. She continually fails to act like a proper lady; she hardly ever sees her fiancé; the Institute’s balance of power is extremely unstable; and a sinister group of Russian scientists seems to be chasing Emily. In addition to all of this, Emily must save the world from an evil Aztec goddess who plans to destroy it in a blaze of wicked magic.

I read the first book in this series, The Native Star, earlier this year, and I recall enjoying it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as pleased with this sequel. The love-hate relationship between Emily and Stanton, which was such a delightful aspect of the first book, is completely absent here; in fact, Stanton is barely “on page” until the novel’s climax. Additionally, the writing style is extremely melodramatic, especially when secrets from Emily’s past are revealed. Instead of being shocked and moved by these revelations, I found myself apathetic. I suppose my ambivalence toward this book might be my own fault; I just didn’t feel emotionally invested in the story or characters, but since I liked the first book, maybe I simply wasn’t in the right mood to read this one. At any rate, this book is a decent-enough follow-up to The Native Star, but I’m glad there’s no cliffhanger ending, because I don’t plan to read more in this series.

This review has spoilers from the first book.
The Native Star was on my favorites list for 2010. I absolutely adored everything about that book. So could The Hidden Goddess live up to it? Well, no. I still like The Native Star better. BUT I still loved The Hidden Goddess. It was different, it was certainly a different story and it was much darker. But I still loved the characters the same and watched them both grow a bit.

Emily and Stanton's relationship is so sweet. In the first book they fought and fought but the sexual tension between them was so high. Now that they are actually together together things obviously aren't going to be the same. However, I still loved them! I just wish we'd seen them together in the book just a bit more.

Things played out in a manner completely unexpected. The twists and turns were never predictable and the ending was a shocker! I never expected things to end up that way. In the beginning I wasn't sure what I thought of the end. But now that a day has passed I think I'm okay with it. I think I'm actually happy with it. It was just so different then what I expected that I had to digest it a bit.

So overall I loved this book and the world that the author has created is one of the best I've ever read. I love the magic, the Steampunk, the history, the wild west... it's all amazing. I can't wait for more from her! ( )