Lovestruck

by Kate Watson

Overview

Sixteen-year-old cupid-in-training Kali is in an Olympus-sized mountain of trouble. Rule number one in arrow-toting matchmaking: don't stick yourself. But accidents happen, and Kali instantly falls hard for her indie rock, bass-playing target, Benicio.

The God of Love is going to kill her. Even if he is her dad.

Being the daughter of Eros isn't all it's cracked up to be. For one thing, a girl can get jaded when her parents have the most beautiful and fatalistic love story in history. For another, immortality royally sucks when the Oracle condemns you to eternity in the wrong profession. Do the Gods care that Kali wants to ditch the love stuff and be a muse?

Nope.

To reclaim her heart and her destiny, Kali is left with no choice but to defy the Gods, tempt the Fates, date the mortal love of her life, and hope she doesn't lose her best friend, Hector, in the process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635830316
Publisher:	North Star Editions
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	300
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Kate Watson is a young adult writer, wife, mother of three, and the tenth of thirteen children. Originally from Canada, she attended college in the States and holds a BA in Philosophy from Brigham Young University. A lover of travel, speaking in accents, and experiencing new cultures, she has also lived in Israel, Brazil, and the American South, and she now calls Arizona home.

Editorial Reviews

"A humorous and endearing look at the throes of predestinated teenage love." —Kirkus Reviews

"[P]lenty of cheeky fun to be had here." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"This fresh take on the Greek myths is fun, funny, and thought-provoking." —Booklist



“Watson does a wonderful job exploring themes of fate, choice, and what it means to love someone.” —Breeana Shields, author of Poison’s Kiss


“Quirky, witty, and charming, this novel is brimming with heart—and it’s sure to capture yours.” —Joanna Ruth Meyer, author of Beneath the Haunting Sea and Echo North


“Equal parts adventure, fate-tastic love story, and mythological quest all rolled into one completely bingeable book.” —Tiana Smith, author of Match Me if You Can


“With a pitch perfect voice and characters that feel real, Lovestruck explores the nuances of love, especially first love, and what it means to really care about someone.” —Katie A. Nelson, author of The Duke of Bannerman Prep

From the Publisher

04/01/2019

Gr 8 Up—Set in the present with characters as old as time, this novel stars Kali, who lives on Mt. Olympus with her parents, Eros and Psyche. Along with her cousin Deya, a daughter of Aphrodite, she is in school to learn how to use their arrows to make the perfect love match between morties, but Kali has lost her edge and is making mistakes. When she shoots herself with an arrow and falls for a boy in an up-and-coming band in Arizona, she is sent to Earth by her father to figure out how to break the match. With Artemis as her chaperone and Deya as her babysitter, Kali is given time to figure out how to find her place in the world of the Greek gods. The story begins with a very dark tone, and, unlike in other myth retellings, there is little humor. Kali is not a very likable character as she is so consumed with her own issues and is not a very good friend even though she is surrounded by those who support her. Hopelessness is a theme throughout as Kali believes that the Fates make all decisions for gods and those living on Earth. The ending is tidy, and all the main characters' love matches are resolved. VERDICT Suggest this title to older fans of Rick Riordan's series who are ready for a grittier take on the Greek myths.—Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Avondale, LA

School Library Journal

2019-01-23

An immortal cupid-in-training falls in love with a human after she accidentally sticks herself with an arrow.

Sixteen-year-old Kalixta has been skeptical of her cupid calling since she experienced the Thunderclap, realizing, "in the end, the Fates will decide what happens, no matter what I do." She questions the marriage of her parents, Eros and Psyche, and the millennia-old patterns the gods are stuck in. However, when she becomes spellbound to Benicio, a bass-playing Mexican-American who was her original target, Kali enrolls in a mortal high school in Arizona while trying to decipher the riddle posed by the Oracle to regain her heart. With the help of her best friend, Deya (daughter of Aphrodite and an Amazonian river god), and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt herself, Kali must find a balance between the arrow's pull toward Ben and her friendship with her ex-boyfriend Hector (son of Apollo and Calliope). Watson (Shoot the Moon, 2018, etc.) creates a world where Greek mythological characters have Bond-worthy gadgets, can change their appearances at will, and are all-knowing when it comes to both Hellenic and contemporary pop culture. While acknowledging the existence of non-Greek gods, Watson gives the Greeks control of "most everything in the Western World" yet achieves diversity by incorporating people (and gods) of color into the story.

A humorous and endearing look at the throes of predestined teenage love. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews