Book Review of Tall Dark and Divine by Jenna Bennett

Title: Tall, Dark and Divine

Author: Jenna Bennett

Release Date: July 20th, 2012

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

Eros, the Greek god of love, swore off the useless emotion after his ex ran off with some Viking godling. He’s lost all interest in his matchmaking business, Made in Heaven, until he spots the sweet baker who works across the street. Before she stirs his sullen heart, he’ll match her and get back to his ambrosia-laced wine in no time.

Lonely baker Annie Landon has given up on finding Mr. Right. What she needs is Mr. Right Here, Right Now, and this so-called “Greek God” she’s heard is on the rebound sounds exactly like the perfect kind of distraction. But picking up the bitter, workaholic is easier said than done…especially when he seems unreasonably determined to match her with someone else.

Can a woman looking for love—and the matchmaking god who wants her to find it with someone else—have a shot at a happy ending? May the best god—or mortal—win.

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: When I saw the summary for Tall, Dark, and Divine I was very interested because I am a sucker for Greek mythology. I love the twisted lives of the gods and goddess especially when we see them thrown into modern times. Luckily the publishers sent a copy my way and I dove into it eager to see what the ancient Greeks were up to in the world Jenna created.

We enter into a world were Greek gods walk among us and sometimes like to meddle in the lives of humans. The focus of this book, Eros, is the god of love and he is currently nursing a major broken heart. He fell for the wrong girl and has sworn off love because of it. He is also neglecting his duties as the god of love and his friends are starting to worry. While he does wallow in self-pity for a while, he is still a very lovable guy.

There were also some great secondary characters in this book that I adored. The best one was Dion! He owns a bar and never spends the night with the same woman twice. He had me laughing out loud quite a few times and I gravitated towards his sarcastic nature. The goddess you can tell he is head over heels for is Ari. She puts on a façade of being all work and no play and pretends to hate Dion, but there is a thin line between love and hate and these two are walking it. Their banter was very cute and I am just keeping fingers crossed that we will get to see them in their own book one day.

As for the plot, Tall, Dark and Divine has paranormal elements in it with the gods and goddess, but it reads like a contemporary novel. There are obstacles for the characters to overcome, but they are more obstacles they created, not a villain who chasing them for the duration of the story. I am not usually one for contemporary books, but the Greek gods and goddesses were enough to keep my attention and interest in this story.

The only real issue I had with this book was the ending. The first two thirds were great! I loved Eros and Annie, how they met, how they connected and the obstacles that stood in there way were fun to watch as they worked through them. However, when we get to about the last fifty pages the story fell flat for me. The book comes in under three hundred pages and there was plenty of time for things to develop naturally but instead the plot felt rushed. It was as if Jenna was forced to wrap up the book too quickly and solve the problems in a hurried manor. It was such a disappointment because the whole lead up was wonderful and I really enjoyed it. Everything was just accepted way too easily and I was having a hard time believing things would come together that smoothly. I wished there were another thirty to forty pages taken to wrap up the plot better.

While I did have a couple of issues with the ending I still enjoyed this book. It was a fun, quick read and I did adore getting to know Eros and Annie. If Jenna does end up writing a book that involves Dion and Ari I know I will pick it up to watch those two hopefully get over themselves and just be together. I would check out a couple of other reviews of Tall, Dark, and Divine and maybe read the first couple of chapters to see what you think before you buy it yourself.

FTC: Thank you to the publisher for sending me this book for review.