Title: Goddess
Author: Deborah Hemming
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Published: February 14, 2023
A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
On a flight to New York at the end of her first book tour, up-and-coming writer Agnes Oliver meets Jack Verity, the handsome filmmaker and ex-husband of Geia Stone, a famous actress turned wellness guru, whose popular lifestyle brand Goddess promotes controversial therapies and expensive beauty tools in the name of self-care and inner nourishment. Jack invites Agnes to a party in the Hamptons, where she meets Geia and finds herself welcomed into the guru’s inner circle.
That summer, Geia arranges for Agnes to attend the Goddess summit, an exclusive wellness retreat held on a remote Greek island. There, Agnes observes many strange happenings she can’t explain, as one by one the other guests seem to fall under the spell of their enchanting host. When Agnes begins to discover who Geia really is, she realizes it’s up to her to protect the other women at the summit from an unexpected and unwelcome fate. A propulsive and captivating story about beauty and influence, self-doubt and seduction, Goddess is the electrifying new novel from a talented writer to watch.
⤖ My Review ⬻
I was quite excited to read about Goddess by Deborah Hemming ever since hearing about it at the Indie Book Preview hosted by House of Anansi Press and a few other Canadian publishers last fall. Once I started reading, I started to get worried though because I was finding that I didn’t really like the main character. This, along with maybe some other factors, led to me struggling to remain focused on the story.
However, perseverance paid off as the story picked up around the halfway point for me. I really liked the story in Goddess once I made it to that point. While I liked the story, I can’t say that I ended up liking any of the characters in Goddess though. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but that was my experience. I’d be interested to see what this author might write next!
⤖ About the Author ⬻
Deborah Hemming is the author of two novels: Goddess and Throw Down Your Shadows, which was shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Novel Award. She studied English at McGill University and the University of King’s College, and Information Studies at Dalhousie University. Deborah lives in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, with her partner and son. She’s also an academic librarian.