[ o67 ]

[katara]

Title: Becoming (Undercover Gorgon 0)
Author: R.L. Naquin
Format: Epub
Rating: 4.5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: April 22, 2017
Book Summary: ********This story was included in Transmonstrified and Unfinished Muse. If you’ve already read “Undercover Gorgon” in either of those books, skip this and wait for “Episode #1—Witches War” coming in December 2015.********


Episode #0—Becoming


Patrice has never been comfortable in her own skin. At midnight on her twentieth birthday, her magical Stealth Insurance lapses, leaving her with a headful of live snakes and an aversion to bright light. Now she understands why being human never felt quite right.


Finally in the green skin the gods intended for her, Patrice moves into her new life as a receptionist at the Mt. Olympus Employment Agency. The day job sucks. But sometimes, a problem comes across Patrice’s desk she believes only she can solve. After hours, the magical items in the offices upstairs are left hanging on the walls unused. Who’s going to notice if she borrows a pair of winged sneakers, an arrow tipped with love dust, or a pair of enchanted scissors?


Everything will work out fine—as long as she doesn’t get caught.
Book Review: Real Rating: 4.5

Meet Patrice, who upon turning twenty, found out she was not human at all. In fact, her parents had been keeping a secret from her. The moment her insurance failed she found out that she was a descendant of Medusa, the cursed gorgon. Patrice is not cursed like Medusa was. She won't turn people to stone but her eyes will be sensitive to light.

Patrice is whisked away and finds herself as the receptionist for the Mt. Olympus Employment Agency. Here everything goes through her. One day, a woman comes in with a problem - she has a basilisk living under her porch and she is afraid to let her cat out. Patrice learns that there had been another basilisk but the exterminator that had been sent killed it. So instead of sending another exterminator out, Patrice goes out to take care of it herself. In fact, she even friends it, taking it someplace where it will live peacefully.

And for now, no one seems to know what she has done.

This was a really nice short novella to introduce you to the series. I found myself liking Patrice and I love that she still cares for snake-like creatures that she went out of her way to save the basilisk on her own. It might have been against her job and the agency rules but she still did it. Perhaps not all of her humanity has vanished.

I have a great love for mythology and I have to say that it was Rick Riordan that renewed that love with his Percy Jackson series. I think this small series (can I call it a small series?) will continue that love. It has been fun and enjoyable and I quite looking forward to reading the other two to this one.