This is the latest of Jennifer Saint’s novels telling the stories of female figures from Greek mythology. Previously she’s written about Ariadne, Elektra, Atalanta and Hera; now it’s the turn of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
Beginning with the moment she’s born, the daughter of Uranus stepping fully formed from the sea, the novel takes us through many of the key events and myths associated with Aphrodite. Like the previous book, Hera, it has an episodic feel, but it’s all tied together by the overarching story of Aphrodite’s romance with Ares, the god of war. With love and war being opposites, Aphrodite and Ares seem an unlikely pairing, but maybe that’s why they’re attracted to each other – they represent the two sides of human nature, with passion the driving force behind both. Their relationship causes quite a stir on Mount Olympus, particularly when Aphrodite is forced into marriage with Ares’ brother Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmiths.
The triangle of Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaestus is the main focus of the novel, but we also see how Aphrodite becomes involved with various other characters from Greek myth: she brings to life Galatea, the statue of a woman created by Pygmalion; tries unsuccessfully to protect Pandora from the schemes of Zeus; and falls in love with the beautiful Adonis. I loved these glimpses we get into the world of the mortals and wished we could have explored some of these myths in more depth.
The whole book is narrated by Aphrodite herself and although I did like her, I felt that she was a bit too passive at times. It seemed that she spent a lot of time reacting to the actions of others rather than making things happen and I didn’t really get a sense of her being a strong, powerful goddess like the others on Mount Olympus. As for Ares, he’s not a popular god, being proud, angry and devoted to war and destruction, but a more tender side does begin to emerge later in the book. However, there’s no tender side to his companion Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, whom I found a fascinating but chilling character with her obvious delight in death, misery and suffering.
The parts of the book I found most interesting were those involving Hephaestus, a much more sympathetic character than Ares, being concerned with creating rather than destroying, and treated badly by Zeus. His marriage with Aphrodite comes about when he takes his revenge by binding Hera to a magical golden chair, leading Zeus to promise that the first god to free her will be given Aphrodite as a wife. There’s naturally some overlap here with Hera’s story in the previous novel but, interestingly, things don’t play out in exactly the same way. As Jennifer Saint explains in her author’s note, there’s more than one version of each myth so when writing her novels she chooses the one that feels most appropriate for the story she’s trying to tell – as well as keeping things fresh for the reader.
Although this isn’t my favourite Jennifer Saint novel, it was nice to have the opportunity to learn a bit more about Aphrodite as I’d never read a book specifically about her before. I’ll be interested to see which woman from Greek mythology she writes about next.
Thanks to Viking for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
Book 11/20 of 20 Books of Summer
She Reads Novels 
I haven’t read any of these but I liked Hephaestus in The Iliad so I’d be interested in reading more about him, do you have a favourite one?
I think Ariadne, her first book, is probably my favourite. I liked the way it concentrated on one myth rather than feeling more episodic like her later books. And yes, Hephaestus is quite likeable, for a god!
Good and balanced review Helen. I preferred the parts about Hephaestus too – as you say he’s more concerned with creating rather than destroying. And I also think Eris is an interesting character – I would have liked to know more about her. Reading the book has made me want to read more retellings of Greek myths.
Thanks, Margaret. I enjoyed the sections about Hephaestus and wished we could have seen more of him and less of Ares. I never used to have much interest in Greek myth retellings but have been reading a lot of them over the last few years.
Which of her books in this series is your favorite?
Probably her first book, Ariadne, but they’re all interesting.
I thought Hera was already a different so when I read this review I believe this one will be more or less the same. So I’ll probably read it, but I find Saint’s focus on one myth such as Ariadne a bit stronger.
I now have QUITE the pile of Greek myth related novels. I *really* must start working my way through them!