What happens to a goddess when people stop believing in her? In Steve Coyle’s American Goddess, the answer includes a suburban home, a Prius, and a rescue dog named Kirby. It also includes a decision that could cost her life.
The Woman Behind the Name Valerie Wells
Long before she called herself Valerie Wells, Issanja was a pagan goddess worshipped across Scandinavia and Germania. Temples stood in her honor, and countless people knew her name. Fifteen hundred years later, those places are gone, and the faith that sustained her has nearly vanished from memory.
Valerie’s present life looks ordinary from the outside. She lives in a quiet American suburb, drives a Prius, and adores Kirby. Passing as human lets her move through the world without explaining where she came from or what she has lost. Her home offers the comfort of familiar routines after centuries of watching societies rise and fall.
She has protected that comfort by staying clear of conflict. Whenever war, revolution, or religious persecution threatened to draw her in, Valerie found somewhere else to go. Over time, leaving became her practiced response to danger. It allowed her to survive, and it shaped the life she leads when readers meet her.
Coyle gives that long history a compelling setting in the present day. Valerie can care for her dog and settle into a neighborhood while carrying memories of an age when people worshipped her. The distance between those two lives raises a question that runs through the novel: how much of Issanja remains beneath Valerie’s carefully maintained human identity?
The Risk of Caring for Campo Verde
A compassionate act pulls Valerie into a supernatural conflict hidden within Campo Verde. Rival paranormal factions are at war, and their struggle threatens the people and place she has come to know. The danger reaches beyond anything her quiet routine can contain.
Valerie has another reason to stay. She has grown deeply attached to a resident of Campo Verde, someone who is caught up in the war. Her feelings may even be a crush. Whatever name she gives them, they make the thought of leaving harder to bear. For the first time in centuries, her concern for someone nearby outweighs the instinct that has kept her moving.
Joining the fight brings a daunting realization. Issanja is a goddess of healing, and Valerie has spent centuries avoiding violence. She has no combat training to rely on as the war intensifies. Caring for people gives her a reason to act, though it cannot tell her how to survive a battle.
A mystic ritual offers a possible path. Valerie must die for it to work. If enough mortals still believe in her, she can be reborn with the strength and combat skills she needs to protect Campo Verde. Her chance depends on something she cannot measure: whether faith in Issanja has endured despite the disappearance of her temples and worshippers.
That condition makes the ritual deeply personal. Valerie must place her life in the hands of a world that has largely forgotten her, hoping belief still exists where she cannot see it. At the same time, the people she wants to save have given her a reason to seek that uncertain return. Their importance to her has grown out of daily life, compassion, and one connection she can no longer set aside.
The premise gives American Goddess room for both supernatural suspense and an intimate character journey. The war brings danger to Campo Verde, while Valerie’s decision asks her to reconsider centuries of habit. Readers follow a goddess whose power may depend on faith, yet whose choice to take the risk comes from the bonds she has formed as Valerie Wells.
About the Author
Steve Coyle is the author of American Goddess, an urban fiction and fantasy novel about an ancient healing goddess living in modern America. Steve places Valerie’s centuries of history within a recognizable suburban life, then follows her into a conflict that tests her devotion to the people around her. The book is available in Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon.
Why Valerie’s Decision Stays With Readers
Valerie has spent a long life knowing when to leave. Campo Verde becomes the place where she chooses to remain, even with an uncertain path ahead. American Goddess makes that choice the heart of its story, inviting readers to care about who Valerie hopes to become and the people she hopes to bring safely through the war.
