// Smashwords // Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Twenty-two-year-old Emma Keane has a secret friend. He’s powerful, mysterious, and devastatingly handsome. In her dreams, anyway.

In real life, he’s an enigma. Maybe just a teensie jealous. Definitely overbearing. He’s also a voice only she can hear.

So who or what is he? He won’t say. But if she wants to be free, to be normal, Emma will have to trek to the jungles once ruled by the Mayans and find the forgotten ruin holding the answers.

However, the ruthless deity she’s about to unknowingly unleash on the modern world might not be so easily extracted from her life. Bottom line, he’s got enemies, and now, so does she.

Upfront, that cover does nothing for me.  I don't think it even comes close to the perfection that is 'Guy'.  That said, don't let the cover fool you, this is a seriously entertaining novel.

Its longer then it probably should have been (340 pages according to Goodreads here), and that leads to retreading of a lot of the same issues plaguing Emma and Guy.  But I'm happy to forgive that (for the most part) because Emma was fun.  To get the bad out of the way--I got tired of the constant struggle the two went through in regards to how much Guy should or shouldn't tell her.  His constant 'Oh well if I had maybe this would have gone better' hindsight, her constant 'I hate you! I hate you!' but then her neediness for him.  All of that got tiring quick.

As did the weird shifts in POV.  This was primarily from Emma's first person point of view, except for a few chapters in the beginning that got us up to speed about Guy's situation (those were third person limited), and the most sporadic spread of third person limited from Guy's position in the present.  I can only assume Pamfiloff did this to expand what was happening and give a larger view of the events, but they were a bit jarring.

What saved the book for me was the fact that when separate Emma and Guy were delightful.  Her internal debates with herself, random commentary and apparent need to nickname everything (which I completely understand, I do it too) made her scenes funny and engaging.  Guy's solo scenes were likewise interesting, especially when he'd try to put on the 'I am a GOD' front and fail pretty spectacularly.

This is a fairly tame romance novel as they go--some sexy dreams, a bit of heavy making out, erotic thoughts, but by in large none of the sexy romping happens until the end and the book doesn't suffer from that.  The reasons why are a bit murky, as is some of the other world particulars.  Pamfiloff vacillates between being very detailed about the world (mostly Guy, the Uchben and the 'Scabs') and very vague (practically everything else).  As this is the first book, and focused mostly on the Gods, I'm not too worried over that.  The second book focuses on vampires...however my god the ending to this one!  SERIOUSLY. WHY.  I hope it gets answered. I'll be so pissed off if it doesn't get answered. 

Pick this up!  Its fun, its got a lot of humor and hey Emma gives Guy what-for quite often for being a controlling possessive jerk.