This is book one of the the Queens of Olympus series and the main character is Alexa, the new Zeus, who is a hard working and duty bound person. Unfortunately, her ambition and drive have brought her the wrong sort of notice from the Titans, who rule over her. She has been changing a lot around her, getting rid of a lot of excess staff and making changes in her temple. Now her sister Cora, who works for her as her assistant, comes with the news that the new Hades wants to quit, after less than two years in the post. Alexa is supposed to be having her review in a couple of months, but she gets a surprise visit from one of the Titans, Rhea, about the lack of fun news about her in the local paper, the Daily Lyre. They expect it to be full of scandal, intrigue and drama about her and her role, not just how many staff she had sacked or about a new scholarship she was starting. She is the king of gods, or queen, and she is told the public want to see more of what the former Zeus’ have brought to the role. She is trying to reform a lot about the temple and her role, but some of the board of Titans in charge, are very old fashioned and set in their ways. They don’t appreciate the way she is doing things! They will kick her out of her job if she continues in the same manner. If she is a philanderer like previous people in her post and causing scandals 8n the paper, they won’t think she is clever enough to think of overthrowing the Titans!
So now, she has to dumb down her ideas and make them believe she is occupied with silly stuff and not interested in overthrowing the Titans. She needs a fake relationship and ends up going for a drink with her best friend Daphne, who works in the make up department of Aphrodite’s dating show. She tells Alexa that Aphrodite wants her on one of her shows, but Alexa is a little bit too reserved to want to appear on one, she isn’t as easy going and at ease with others like Daphne. They both get rather drunk and are photographed in the garden with Daphne presenting her with a flower. Someone took their photo and sent it to the paper, leaving Alexa embarrassed, as the assumption was that she was with a date, not just a friend! She tries to apologise to Daphne, but people at her work have already figured out it was her and are asking questions. They meet up, with Daphne arriving in disguise, and try to figure out what to do, with Alexa getting a kiss on the cheek in greeting that suddenly has her very aware of her friend and in a different way than normal. They agree to a fake relationship to give the public what they seem to want and to allow Alexa to keep her job until after her review, when it will be much harder to sack her. Both are catching feelings, but aren’t sure what the other feels and Alexa doesn’t want to ruin a really long friendship by acting on her feelings. A family issue brings them together and caught on camera again, as Daphne comforts her, clearly as a bit more than a friend this time and their true feelings come out.
Lots of fun at the end, as Alexa has her review with the Titans and does just about everything she can to pretend she is nothing g like her normal self in her job. She does all she can to convince them she is a airhead and not serious about the role, even though she is extremely competent and not exactly the party goer she has to persuade them she is! A good, light hearted look at the gods of old and putting a modern spin on things. Always fun to read short stories with a HEA ending guaranteed. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.