Customer Reviews

A Greek God at the Ladies' Club

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought A GREEK GOD AT THE LADIES' CLUB was cute. It's the story of Greek god Darius, ruler of gems, who in trying to break a 3,000 year old curse, inhabits a statue that is about to be sold at a charity auction and comes to life - to the chagrin of the statue's sculptor, Alexandra. What happens after that is silly fun, with Darius wanting to go back to his playboy ways, especially to woo Alexandra, while Alexandra tries to trick Darius into becoming a statue again for the sake of helping orphans. Throw in Darius' interesting family of Greek Gods, including a computer-obsessed Zeus, and it's all fun and witty humor. You never know what Darius is going to do or say next, in his charming, egotistical way. Fun reading, with a moral about family at the end.

For similar reads, try Gena Showalter's THE STONE PRINCE, about a handsome alien-turned-statue and the girl who must break his curse. Or, if you are interested in Greek God heroes, read Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series, beginning with FANTASY LOVER.

Alexandra de Marco is an strugling artist. After spending much time of a year sculpting the statue of Darius, the god of the gems, and favorite son of Zeus, she is finally ready to show her work and auction it in order to use that money to help keep a house with orphans open. Alex is very partial of orphans being one herself (with her sister).
Darius, god of gems, has been pretty much in a state of nothingness for the last 3,000 years after a little incident locked him inside a statue of himself. He has spent these 3,000 years looking for a statue that is perfect do he can enter it and retake his original form. Problem is daddy Zeus was mad as Hades at Darius for converting himself into a statue to get out of a mess Darius got himself into, so mad in fact Zaus decided to curse his own son. So everytime Darius finds a close match of a statue of himself, "Boom!" Zeus destroys it.
Darius has pretty much given up, until Hermes shows up to tell him about a certain statue of Darius that is being made in St. Louis. Then, he decides to risk it.
Alex has no idea that Darius is close to her all this time while she gives the final touches to her perfect work, and that the strange events occuring in her place are being caused by the god.
Shortly after the statue si finished and set for preview at the ladies club, Darius turns to life and that's when all begins.
Alexandra is beyond beleif, and naturally does not beelive him at the begining. Darius can not beleive that jewels are so accecible now days, since he was banned from his position, so he takes what he thinks belongs to him, putting Alex into even more trouble.
The kids from the house Alex is trying to save, are wonderful and funny. And they bring Darius's ego down a notch or two.
Alex's sister is a bit stiff but redemable.
The main problem I had with this book is not the story perse, but the dialogue, or the lack of it.
I found that descriptions is the order of the day here, and dialogue was few and far between. Situations that could have replaced some of the most monotonous descriptions were left pretty much in blank. For example Alex went through an accident before the novel begins, but when she is talking to Darius about it, the author describes the scene soemwhat like this: ""I had an accident." "Tell me about it" and she did. She told him about the accident and..."
This is not the only time I saw the same thing happening and it bother me a lot. Had it not been for this I would have given this book 4 1/2 stars.
Overall, the book was very funny and enjoyable. Slow at some points, and could have been better, but certainly a good read.
The characters are great but they are at times 2 dimensional. Most of the events are funny and charming, some, however, just drag the story. The characterization of Darius's family, at least in my opinion, was way out of character (they were too nice, and we all now that greek gods weren't that compassionate) but this is a work of fiction so I kind of liked the whole twist.
All in all, yes I would recomend this book.

This book was lying in my house for months before I decided to actually pick it up and read it.....wow! I am really glad that I was able to read it...it is such a delightful romance....the thing that I like about this novel is that it has a funny spin on romance...everything about it is really different in a good way. :-)

"A Greek God at the Ladies' Club" was a fun read. I zipped right through the book in under a day! Darius's adjustment to life amongst the mortals in the 21st Century is funny and sharp-sighted; Jenna McKnight points out human quirks that we may overlook in our everyday lives. Alex is a strong, spunky heroine who stands up to Darius in funny, sparkling, spirited exchanges that reveal her integrity, one of qualities with which Darius is most charmed. Their love story is entertaining, Darius is sweet at the most unexpected times, and the story unfolds quickly with a number of lively and unique supporting characters like Darius's siblings Aphrie (Aphrodite) and Hermes.

McKnight's writing is crisp and engaging. For those interested in such things, there aren't graphic "bodice-ripping" scenes, and what she has included is flirty and sexy, not trashy.

I highly recommend this book. It was great!

I thought this was an interesting idea (a new take on "One Touch of Venus," sort of) but the author showed a real lack of understanding of Greek mythology and even Greek NAMES. Her hero is named Darius? That's obviously Latin, plus she had a Greek king named Edward. Edward! You know, like Edmund, Edgar, Edwin, and all those Old English names. Why not Gawain and Uther Pendragon on Mount Olympus! It just isn't that hard to find a baby name book and look for Greek names or pick up a children's book about Greek mythology. I know the names are a minor point, but it really took me out of the story right off the start. In general, the author was good with the humor but not so good with dialogue (not enough dialogue for one thing) and not very good at characterization. The plot got kind of hokey and the epilogue specifically was a silly idea.

Three thousand years ago, immortal Greek god & playboy Darius finally
pushed too far. Despite being a son of Zeus & Hera, Darius was cursed to
float in the ether without a solid body until someone creates a perfect
statue of his likeness. Over the centuries a couple of sculptors came
close, but to no avail.

However today, Darius' brother Hermes has brought news about a sculptor in
St. Louis named Alexandra de Marco. According to Hermes, Alex is creating a
marble statue for a ladies club and it is the perfect likeness of Darius.
Heartened, Darius floats over to St. Louis to observe. As he watches Alex
work on her creation, Darius finds himself quite taken with this woman.
When Darius finally gets his body back, he would like to thank her
properly.... by of course having an affair with her.

For Alex the big unveiling of her masterpiece will be the boost her career
desperately needs. What she doesn't expect is to discover that instead of
cold marble, her statue is suddenly warm and all too alive. Unfortunately
Alex is supposed to deliver a statue and with Darius being flesh, Alex is
in deep trouble with the ladies club. Suddenly Alex is dealing with angry
gods, club ladies and the police. What's a girl to do?

Offbeat, funny and romantic, author Jenna McKnight delivers with a
flourish! A GREEK GOD AT THE LADIES CLUB will cause grins & sighs and
makes for loads of reading fun. Jill M. Smith, Romantic Times

I always look for books that involve Greek and Roman gods/goddesses and was anticipating this book as a light read. Well, it was a heavy book in that it kept falling to the bottom of my reading pile, buried under other, more worthwhile books. I would start and read a few pages, put it away and forget about it, then looking for something to read, find it and start again. The female heroine never came alive to me at all. We never learned enough of her psychological or emotional backstory to make her current behavior interesting. It was patently obvious early on who the missing father was going to be and that subplot added nothing the story esp when the sisters accept their father's failure to identify himself with no more than a shrug. The sections on Mt. Olympus were almost painfully trite, e.g. Zeus controls the weather with a computer. In the end, it was just not a very interesting book and I finished it only because I had grabbed it to read while on a plane trip.

Some days it just does not pay to be a God!

At least, so it seems to Darius, son of Zeus, God of the Gemstones. Darius, a bit of a lover, was known for all his dalliances with married ladies and it is that, which trips the old boy up. Darius' "gift" was his ability to turn himself into a statue... which comes in handy when he is playing footsie with Queen Aara in her bedroom. When King baby pops in startling them, Darius goes into his statue routine to protect the Queen from her jealous husband. Only, the King thinks there is something rotten in Denmark...oops wrong local... something wrong with his wife's statue...so he chops off a part of Darius of which he is rather "fond" and then pushes Darius the stoneman out the window, smashing him to pieces. Patsy Cline's song kept popping into my mind as I read this! Daddy Dearest, Zeus, is not happy with the fate of his son, so curses him to remain bodiless, until he can find the perfect statue to possess and once more grant him the ability to return to mortal form. Well, artistic talent must have been sadly lacking, for it was three millenniums before Darius gets a second chance at breathing. Fortunately, for Darius, fate brings Alexandra de Marco his way.

Alexandra is a brilliant sculptor. She and her sister were orphaned when they were very young, and now she is facing the task of saving the orphanage where they grew up from being closed because of a lack of money. She comes across the history of our boy Darius, God of the Gemstone, and the tale of his marble statue, which had been shattered to pieces. She is so taken with the myth that she turns her talents into creating a statue of the most beautiful man she can, lovingly bringing the marble into the perfect form under her talent. She plans to auction off the brilliant work at the Ladies' Annual Charity Auction and donate the money to the orphanage. It would save the place that sheltered her as a child, while at the same time, be a great PR showcase for her talent.

Only, Darius finally has the means to return to mortal form, little knowing about charities or Ladies Clubs, and he does so right before the stunned audience. While Alexandra is impressed with her creation, she can hardly auction HIM off - though a few might have other ideas...lol. She is furious because she needs that statue to save the orphanage. Darius doesn't give a fig...mainly, because the statue was in the old Greek style - au natural. But the fun begins as Darius finds life in the modern world is a long way from Mt. Olympus.

The writing is witty, quirky and the author shows a deft pen in crafting this wickedly funny tale. So original!! Will definitely be watching for more from this wonderful writer!

Jenna McKnight. A Greek God at the Ladies' Club. NY: Avon Books, 2003 (copyright by Ginny Schweiss.)

This is an entertaining novel featuring Alex, a 30-year-old perfectionist sculptor who was raised in an orphanage. She has just spent a year sculpting a life-size marble Greek god to be auctioned by a club full of wealthy ladies to raise money to keep the orphanage out of bankruptcy. The image is of Darius (a god of whom no mythology professor has ever heard) who has just spent a thousand years as a disembodied spirit. He discovers the new statue, inhabits it, and brings it to life. Thus there is no statue to be auctioned, and the newly embodied god has a hard time getting used to the differences between ancient and modern culture. The only way Alex can get her sculpture back is by doing bodily harm to the fleshly Darius, but she likes the guy.

Other characters include the kids from the orphanage, the sculptor's social-climber sister, a fatherly gardener, a helpful chef, a friendly cop, another newly-invented god who doesn't like Darius, wants to destroy him and wouldn't mind destroying Alex as well, and the entire Olympic Pantheon. Of the latter, Hermes, messenger of the gods, plays a significant role.

The Greek gods of the 21st century have become quite modern. Hermes is no longer a trickster, but is a true friend to befuddled Darius. Aphrodite has become a mixture of Miss Manners and Dear Abbey. Zeus is a software developer (software to control the weather), and with his wife Hera is a doting grandparent who wishes Darius would settle down, get married, and give them some more grandchildren.

For some reason, the gods cannot subtract very well. Throughout the book Darius claims that he was disembodied for 3,000 years, which would take his "accident" back to the time of the Trojan war. In the narrative it really happened in the middle ages, about a thousand years ago. Other than that, it's a nice story. If it hasn't been optioned by Hollywood it should be. It would make a good "chick-flic."

The whole premise of this book intrigued me from the beginning and I do think this author shows a lot of promise in her work but this book definitely still needs a little work. Her characters are interesting and she does have the ability to blend mythology and modern society in a funny and entertaining way. My main problem would be in the developing relationship between the hero and heroine, while entertaining his constant turning to stone and back to human again definitely made the relationship feel stalled at times which obviously when your man's a statue it would feel that way. that might just be my particular taste in romance, but I still enjoyed this story, it's a light and enjoyable fluff read and I would definitely check out more by this author.