Helen Hamilton is a teenager growing up Nantucket Island in New England who's always been different, and always tried to ignore that fact. That's made difficult when she starts having these strange, vivid dreams she doesn't understand and keeps running into the New Transfer Student, Lucas Delos, who moved to Nantucket recently with his family.
It turns out that the Delos family has answers to the questions Helen has had about herself ever since she was little: she's a Scion, and all of the strange things about her and that have happened to her are either because of that, or because of a curse put on her by her Missing Mom.
As the series goes on, Helen learns more about her abilities, her bond with Lucas, and the issues that have tormented the Scions all the way back since the Trojan War.
The series provides examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Matt, being the closest the cycle has ever gotten to a reincarnation of Achilles, has this, of course.
- Batman Gambit: Daphne made everyone believe Helen's father was Lucas's dead uncle, Ajax, in order to break her and Lucas up. Then she sent Orion, who she believed was fated to take Hades' place, to help her out. Her hope was that they would fall for each other during the time they spent together so that when Orion took Hades' place he would be completely willing to use his new power and authority to help Helen actually get to know her supposed biological father by bringing him back to life.
- Being Good Sucks: Helen's attempt to do the right thing and avoid making a Sadistic Choice only brings a whole new bunch of problems.
- Better as Friends: Helen and Orion reach this conclusion in Goddess when it becomes apparent that as much as she cares about Orion, she'll always love Lucas more.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Delos family. Especially their more extended family.
- Blessed with Suck: Helen can create an entire world of her own, but the minute that she uses that power Zeus and the other gods will challenge her for her world.
- Andy is half-siren with a Compelling Voice, and people naturally feel drawn to her. Normal people misinterpret this as being very interested in her, since they think the draw is their own feelings towards her. This has resulted in her having to go to an all girls boarding school, and even then she still has to isolate herself from everyone there.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: At the beginning of Dreamless, Lucas convinces Helen that he hates her so she doesn't have to deal with the issue of their (thought to be) Surprise Incest on top of everything else.
- Break the Cutie: Helen throughout the series in general, but especially in Dreamless.
- Lucas starts off the series a fairly confident teenaged guy, and by Goddess he is so convinced of his worthlessness that when Hector is killed in a duel, Lucas offers to take Hades' place in the Underworld in exchange for Hector's life because he thinks it's the only way he can help.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Lucas's dad convincing him that Lucas needs to make Helen think he hates her to make her stay away from him.
- Didn't See That Coming: Because of Hades' striking resemblance to Orion, Daphne assumed that Orion was fated to take over Hades' position of power. She based her entire Batman Gambit on that assumption, only for the person taking Hades' place to turn out to be Lucas.
- Dramatic Irony: The Fates love this, so it happens all the time.
- Ariadne spends the first two books not making a move with Matt, since he's a mortal and mortals romantically involved with Scions tend to get dragged into the conflict and sometimes end up dead because of it. Then, in Goddess, Matt turns out to be the 'Achilles' figure in the latest repeat of the Trojan War, making all her efforts to keep him out of it pointless.
- In-Joke: There's an in-universe example in Goddess, when Orion gets mad about everyone assuming he's the Tyrant in the prophecy:Orion: Face it. The Fates speak in riddles because they don't know what the hell they're talking about. If they did, they'd say something like, 'Orion is the Tyrant and he wants to eat your brains for breakfast' or whatever.Jason: (trying very hard not to laugh) Zombie Tyrant.Lucas: Huzzah death.
- Jerkass Gods: Hector puts it best in Goddess:Hector: All the gods were miserable, raping, warmongering bastards. Not just Apollo.
- Last Request: Zach asks Helen to give Matt his dagger and tell Matt that he was a good friend to him.
- Liar Revealed: Helen becomes a Falsefinder in Goddess, but her mother doesn't know that. She compliments Helen's ability to fly, and says something about how her father could fly, too. Helen immediately knows that Daphne is lying then, and has been lying the whole time about Ajax being her father.
- Living Lie Detector: Lucas is a Falsefinder, which means that he can sense when people lie to him. However, it's based on whether the person talking to him thinks they're lying to him or not, so if they believe a lie is true then it will register to him as true.
- Love Triangle: Lucas/Helen/Orion, though it doesn't start until Dreamless.
- It becomes an Imaginary Love Triangle in Goddess when Helen and Orion break up, but Helen lets Lucas think they're still together in hopes that he will move on from her.
- Love-Obstructing Parents: Lucas's parents act as this to him and Helen, but it's justified since they have very good reasons for doing so.
- Meaningful Name: Lucas's little sister, Cassandra, can see into the future. Justified in that she's a reincarnation of Cassandra from the Trojan War.
- Missing Mom: Helen's mom, Daphne.
- Hector, Jason and Ariadne's mom, Aileen.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Helen just wanted to free the Scions from their blood oaths without having to kill the furies. Unfortunately, she played right into the gods' hands, and this resulted in the gods being released from Mount Olympus.
- Oblivious to Love: Despite being able to read people's feelings, Orion is completely unaware of Cassandra's crush on him. Justified, in that the Fates are literally blocking him from seeing it.
- Refusal of the Call: Matt attempts to do so in Goddess, but does not succeed.
- The Scapegoat: Lucas. Being the 'Paris' figure in the newest cycle of the Trojan War, things tend to be his fault.
- Stalker with a Crush: Apollo towards Andy.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Considering the title of the series, it shouldn't be surprising that there are quite a few of them in the series.
- Helen and Lucas are not only the latest in a cycle of reincarnations of Helen of Troy and Paris, but are also led to believe that they're related.
- Surprise Incest: Helen finds out from her Missing Mom that she and Lucas are first cousins, but this turns out to be a lie.
- When Orion takes Helen to see his parents so he can better explain his backstory, they first see his dad. . .and her mom. He very quickly explains that it's Not What It Looks Like.
- Tag Team Twins: Both Ariadne and Jason are healers, so they tend to work together when people get injured.
- There Are No Coincidences: At first Helen tries to brush off her continually running into Lucas as pure chance, but she is pretty quickly told that it's the Fates literally forcing them to interact with each other.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Justified because the Fates specifically set things up that certain faces get 'repeated' as the next cycle of Scions start to be born.
- Unwitting Pawn: Poor Helen manages to be this not once, but twice.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Lampshaded by Ariadne.Ariadne: Because [the prophecies] are vague. Think about it. The roles are the Hero, the Shield, the Lover, the Warrior — and seriously? That could mean any one of the Scions who have been born since like ever. We're a bunch of hero, warrior, lover, shield-the-weak-with-your-own-body kind of people.
- Waif Prophet: Cassandra.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Throughout the entire series. Dreamless goes into the downsides of this, which Helen being overwhelmed and exhausted by all the responsibilities she has. . .and still having to go to school, which she can barely bring herself to care about.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: When Helen decides to tell her best friend, Claire, that she's a Scion, she flies to her house and then to her window. She expects Claire to be shocked and to scream when she sees her best friend floating in mid air, but Claire is completely unsurprised. Then, this exchange occurs:Helen: (motioning to the locked window) Let me in!Claire: (disappointed) Oh, damn it. You are a vampire.
- You Can't Fight Fate: A firmly held belief by most Scions.
