Alicia Fields begins Fatal Attraction with a unique premise. Given that many myths have some kernel of truth to them, she sets her story of the Greek gods as if these gods were in fact people who lived during the Greek Dark Age, and that their half-remembered lives eventually became twisted into the mythology of later generations. The first book in her Goddesses series featured Persephone in Love Underground and in this second book, Aphrodite is a foundling, discovered by Zeus near the sea and brought home to be raised by Zeus and Hera on their farm.

The young Aphrodite is beautiful and quite a temptation to the men in the area – especially Hera and Zeus’ own sons Ares and Hephaestus. The wise, crippled Hephaestus loves Aphrodite and is a steadying influence upon her, but Aphrodite is drawn to the wild, war-loving Ares. The intial chapters of the book detail Aphrodite’s various love affairs and entanglements. It is obvious that while possessed of a very loving heart, Aphrodite has great trouble settling that love on just one person.

While there are positive sides to Aphrodite’s nature, Fields doesn’t pull any punches in showing the upheaval that her inconstant affections cause. Her feelings result in dissent in the family, scandalous gossip, and possibly even war. Watching Fields set up mythological events as if they happened to real people rather than Greek gods makes for a fascinating story.

The main weakness with this book lies in the development of plot and character. While Aphrodite’s relationships are described, they do not fully come to life for the reader. A vast span of time is covered in the book (approximately 30-35 years), but because the book’s page count is low, the reader only gets to skim the surface of the story. Without more vivid description, this book reads more like a summation rather than a fully developed novel.

While the idea behind Fatal Attraction is a good one and the story (as much of it as we have) is intriguing indeed, this novel would need more development of plot and characters in order to be recommended. As it is, the book is still slightly above average, but definitely in need of something more. Further books are planned for the series, so, hopefullly, this problem can be rectified.