Goddesses #3: Muses on the Move, and Goddesses #4: Love or Fate, continue and conclude the story about three teenage Muses exiled to modern-day Earth until they can overcome certain character flaws. When we last saw our heroines, Polly (Polyhymnia), Era (Erato), and Thalia, they were headed off on Thanksgiving break to enjoy the road trip of a lifetime. And while Polly and Era just want to have fun, and their mortal friend (and driver) Pocky just wants a really good Thanksgiving dinner, Thalia has an ulterior motive: to find the ultra-hot football-playing transfer student, Dylan from Denver, who’s supposedly moved back to Denver. Little does she know that Dylan from Denver was really Apollo, the very god she refused to marry, and that after his unsuccessful attempt to win her over on the mortal plane, he’s gone home to Olympus.

As the three mythological teenagers and their mortal escorts careen from city to city over the course of an ever-crazier weekend, jaunting from Athens (Georgia) to Williamsburg (Virginia) to New York City to New Orleans, Thalia breaks one of the cardinal rules of her exile to Earth: she uses magic to shorten the trip, all in the hopes of getting to Denver. Poor Pocky gets more and more confused, and he still can’t get his Thanksgiving dinner. Worse yet is the trail of magically-induced chaos left in the Muses’ wake, the futile attempt Apollo (once again disguised as Dylan from Denver) makes to track down Thalia, and the undeniable fact that the Queen of the Gods, Hera, wants the three sisters to fail in their redemption. To that end, she’s allowed the three Furies (Meg, Tizzie, and Alek) to do whatever they want to make our heroes slip up. At the end of Muses on the Move, they’re back in Athens, just in time for Hera to show up and banish them all to Hades. For all eternity. At the mercy of the Furies, who have no mercy.

In Love or Fate, Thalia, Polly, and Era must marshal their resources and overcome those pesky character flaws if they want to escape. There’s the Furies to avoid, a three-headed dog (Cerberus, not Fluffy) to tame, a maze to master, and Hera to overcome. Magicless and doomed to a miserable eternity if they fail, they may need a little help from their friends, including ever-faithful Apollo. But if they succeed, they’ll be welcome back home in Olympus, and maybe Thalia and Apollo can finally get to go on a real date…

To be honest, I was surprised to see this series end so quickly. I had it pegged for one that would go on for quite some time, the Muses not earning their redemption for many books to come. However, Book Four seems to wrap up that storyline in a neat little package, even if it does drop their mortal friends like several hot potatoes early on with no promise of returning, when the focus shifts to the perils of Hades rather than the comic misadventures on Earth. I almost expect to see more in the series; after all, there are six other Muses to consider… Like the first two books, this series is part Greek Myth Lite, part teenage comedy, combining the two elements for an entertaining if somewhat airy story. If that’s all there is, it’s still a fun read, sure to appeal to its target audience. If there’s more to come, I’ll definitely check it out.