As the daughter of a black single mom, seventeen-year-old Candace Evans is on her way to becoming another sad statistic when she steals a pair of shoes and lands herself in a detention center. But all of that changes on her first day of community service when Candace finds a box of ancient scrolls in an old woman’s apartment and becomes immersed in the mythical world of Persephone and ancient Greece. Persephone is a goddess, or at least, she hopes she is — any immortal powers she might possess have yet to show themselves. But when Persephone is invited to train for the Odyssey of Olympians, she finally has a chance to prove herself. The Odyssey takes Persephone far beyond the golden gates of Olympus to the depths of the underworld, where Persephone willingly sacrifices her freedom in exchange for the life of a dear friend and finds herself bound to the land of the dead and its ruler, Hades. Hades is just as dark and mysterious as the land he rules, but Persephone discovers that all is not as it seems when she uncovers a forbidden secret powerful enough to bring both the underworld and Olympus crashing to a cataclysmic end. Persephone is a Young Adult novel with crossover appeal that explores love, meaning, and purpose against the backdrop of life, death, and what lay beyond. Framed within a contemporary story, this colorful reimagining of the Classical Greek myth presents a fresh perspective on making sense of the timeless mysteries that still challenge us today.