This book follows the events of the previous book in the series (Amazon Princess). In the previous book, Brandee Jean Mason, the beauty pageant regular from Wisconsin, won the challenge to become the new queen of the gods and replace the dead Zeus. However, during her coronation ceremony, Zeus reemerged. Since he died, he now occupies a different body, that of one of the contenders, Sora. Hades is the one responsible for bringing Zeus back and for refusing to accept the result of the competition and Brandee's triumph. After deliberations, the gods concede to allow Zeus to participate in one final competition, with the remaining other contenders, on a remote island. After several challenges and the death of two more contenders, the vampire royalty Sophia and the lion shape-shifter Malik, Branddee, Alaric, and the harpy Zahara decide to form an alliance. Together they manage to outmanoeuvre Zeus and his crony, Trevor, Alaric's treacherous half-brother. The trio then decides to split the power between them and not allow only one of them to win all of Zeus' powers. In doing so, the three of them become immortal god and goddesses.

However, Hades still refuses to accept the results and opens gates to hell on earth. Furthermore, he resurrects Brandee's mother (who killed herself, as we were told in the previous volume). The mother seems to be on Hades' side, abandoning her daughter, yet in the final confrontation with Hades, she stands by Brandee and aids her in overcoming the god. For her last defence of her daughter, she is killed by Hades. Trevor, who was also partly resurrected by Hades, comes to their help in the last battle as well and as punishment, Hades vaporizes him.

Each member of the divine trio has to sacrifice something to overcome Hades. Brandee lets go of her mother forever, Alaric sees how his ancestral home was destroyed, together with his parents, by Hades and Zahara loses her wings. However, they all gain new powers and Zahara also becomes a mother to numerous baby harpies.

After vanquishing Hades and his legions of zombies, the trio must now settle the mayhem on earth, which is plagued with paranormal activity and battles. They decide to create a jail or reformatory for rough paranormals in what was once Underworld Academy (which was ruled by Hades). In the final chapter of this book, Brandee discovers to her great disbelief and alarm, that her good friend from the Earth, Shauna, whom she thought was kidnapped, is now locked in the special jail since she is a faerie-vampire hybrid. Furthermore, another dangerous faerie locked with her is Trevor, who still exists in ghost form.

As in the previous book, the mythological elements provide the setting for the characters' actions, and the series does not engage too deeply with any specific myth. The main emphasis of this book (as in the entire series), is on true friendship and finding your inner strength to overcome challenges. The mythological-fantastic world provides intimidating obstacles which the mortal Brandee must overcome if she wishes to live.

The gods in the series (as in other many YA novels and other recent items of pop culture) are depicted as selfish and cruel who care only for their own interests. Even though Athena supported Brandee's win and deemed her worthy to become queen, she still adheres to Hades, Zeus and Hermes' complaints and allows another competition. Later, although she advises the trio, she does not actively participate in the battles against Hades and his army, nor do the other gods. Only Artemis arrives for a short intervention during the final battle, to help the trio kill an anthropophagus. She says, "'Can't let you have all the fun,' she tells us with a wink. 'But if any of the other gods ask, I was just passing through on the way to my skiing holiday. I saw this beastie and couldn't resist putting my mark on it'" (p.184). Artemis jokingly makes this comment, yet it also reveals the character of the gods. She did not come to help save humankind or the new divine trio, but because she was intrigued by the demon.

The trio of Brandee, Alaric and Zahara may have been created as a direct contrast to the more famous mythological trio of Zeus, Hades and Poseidon (or the Roman triumvirate). Although Poseidon is not mentioned in the series, the creators probably knew of his co-rule of the universe with his siblings. Hence, our new trio represents a new power structure for a new world. Not the old (male) hierarchy of three elderly gods, but a unique trio, of a mortal, faerie-descendent and a harpy. This new trio offers a share in the power for the less-privileged (in keeping with our modern sensitives of equality, especially gender equality). Hades bluntly expresses the reasoning of the old divine patriarchy: "Well, I put forth that gods are gods and girls are girls, and that’s the way it should stay!" (p. 8). 

Furthermore, the new goddesses and god prove themselves to be worthy of their newfound powers. They are caring and daring. They have some fun with their powers as well, yet they are always attentive to the suffering of humankind, which the older gods completely ignored in this fantastic universe. Does power corrupt? Alaric is interested to know, "'Did all this power corrupt you?' Alaric asks Zeus as he studies him with disdain. 'Or were you always this way?'" (p. 88). Here is another jab at the all-powerful gods who can also be easily corrupted. Sharing the power is aimed to prevent our trio from falling into depravity. The gods' philosophy, articulated by Zeus, is that they cause mayhem due to their boredom, "'Stop the chaos!?' Zeus throws his head back and laughs. 'My dear dear girl. We won't stop it. We'll redirect it. That's how we keep the world intact, by controlling the fighting. People need something to be mad at.' (p. 88). This is a tyrannical approach that echoes dark human regimes.

One more key point in the narrative is Brandee's growth beyond her mother's wishes. While in the previous instalment Brandee talked about her mother as the driving force behind her pageant career and her inspiration, in this book we get a closer understanding of Brandee's psyche and complex relations with her mother. She was, in fact, a tool for her mother to achieve her own wishes. As she notes, "But Mama was always steering the ship. And I just went along" (p. 75). She later adds, that she is doing fine without her mother, which surprises her. "Mama always said, 'Brandee Jean, you just do what I say and everything will be okay.' Most of the time, though, it wasn't." (p. 112). In order for Brandee to become a goddess, the metaphorical mother of humankind, she must understand what being a mother means and how a mother should not act, this is what she begins to realize.

Brandee painfully remembers how her mother forsook her for occasional boyfriends (as she does as a zombie with Hades as well). Yet, her mother never let her lovers hurt her daughter and in the end, she comes through for Brandee, forsaking her undead life for the salvation of her daughter.

Parting (metaphorically as well as physically) from her mother is a necessary step for Brandee (as for most YA novels' heroes and heroines) in order to become her own person. She is insecure, she is afraid ruling the world might be too much for her, but she is not doing it alone. Sharing the power is also sharing the responsibilities and creating a true partnership into which each of the three can grow. A teenager from the Midwest is not going to run the world on her own, although she might be perfectly capable. It is her agreement to share power that truly makes her a worthy queen and goddess.