Review: Oppression by Jessica Therrien - Juhina

Title: Oppression ( Children of the gods #1)
Author: Jessica Therrien

Publication date: February 28th, 2012
Publisher: Zova Books

Challenges: A-Z Title, Debut
Genre(s): Young Adult (Greek Mythology)

Source: Author
Format: ebook

Pages: 346

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Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable--except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning--and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

While Oppression might seem like a book full of mysteries, secrets, revelations, and darkness, it is actually a very contemporary novel where romance actually kicks off from the first couple of pages. This is why I felt the synopsis was a bit misleading, I was ready for the action and more greek mythology infused in the book, but we don't get that in this first installment. The romance between Elyse, an 80 something year old in a 18 year old body which ages 5 times slower than normal, and William, was sweet, but a bit too instant-love for my taste. After I got past this hiccup and Elyse started getting answers to her and my thousand questions, I made myself comfortable and totally anticipated how this book was going to end.

Oppression was definitely a fast and fun read, it is the funner sister of the usual dramatic greek mythology books and Jessica Therrien set up the first book nicely. The beginning to a promising trilogy, hopefully with more mythology and adventure in the upcoming books! I would recommend this book to people who have not read greek mythology before, this would be a great transition from contemporary to hard core greek mythology! Also the ending of this book leaves you hanging wanting to know more; the fight between evil and good is brewing, and Elyse will be the catalyst that triggers this explosion which is why I can not wait to read the second book and find out more. 

3 musical stars!