Her emotional journey and growth from dutiful daughter into a confident, formidable Queen was really satisfying to watch, as was her fury and defiance regarding Zeus and Demeter’s plans for her future. But regardless of my age, it was my Amphidromia, the day a child received their name. And as I was a goddess, I would also receive my domain – the aspect of the world that I would be responsible for. Persephone (ugh I felt so bad for Hades at one point, I thought this man might jump in the Styx or something) That one weird line about hades taking about Persephone’s father (Zeus) to her and making a “compensation” joke to her

That was before the goddess of marriage became queen of the gods. Rivers of Hell, I might not like Hera but at least she gained power somehow, made marriage mean something to bind even her own husband.’

About Bea Fitzgerald

As a self-confessed Hades and Persephone fan girl I knew I needed to get my grabby, Greek Myth-loving hands on a copy of this ASAP! It took awhile but I finally managed to win a copy in a giveaway (thanks again @imysbookshelf) and I’m glad to report that it lived up to all of my expectations. So much repetitive dialogue and scenes and scenarios. It genuinely feels like I’m reading the same stuff over and over again I love a good Hades & Persephone retelling, but Girl, Goddess, Queen exceeded my expectations in every way and made me see these two characters in a new and unique way. Without smut, without pretences, these are the raw personalities of Hades & Persephone and Fitzgerald wrote them in such a beautiful way. Different topics are dealt with which makes the reader connect to the characters on a deeper and emotional level. Please, Father’s the one who made me the goddess of flowers, he can hardly be surprised by a bit of mud, can he?’

Sometimes the discussion on political aspects of real life thinly veiled in the narrative are thrust forward a bit too much and interrupt the flow of the story. (Although still a million times more deftly than Babel by R F Kuang manages it.) And what would you do with the world?’ my father asked. His words were lined with sharp edges but I didn’t catch their threat until Mother squeezed my shoulder. Her fingers were too hard to be a comfort – a warning, perhaps? Or a threat of her own? They gather round, tell me the worst things I’ve ever heard in my life and then give me tips for staying safe. ‘Don’t wear a gown if you have to travel,’ from Aphrodite, ‘disguise yourself as a man if you can and at the very least travel as part of a group.’ Or Athena patting my head, telling me the places to hit a man to break free of him if, god forbid, one ever made it onto the island and took me away. Hestia wasn’t much older than me and would harp on about how it was always safest to stay at home – though admittedly, as goddess of the hearth, I assumed she’d say as much – but if I ever found myself stranded I should march straight to the nearest palace or estate and request Xenia, a bond of hospitality of her own creation that would make them unable to hurt me without consequence. They could still hurt me, of course, but there would be consequences for it. Before Xenia men could do whatever they liked if you were foolish enough to be unprepared for their advances.I loved it, I loved it, I loved it, I loved it (sung to the tune of the all time classic, 'These Words' by Natasha Bedingfield)

Sadly, this will probably end up being a forgotten read as ai dont see it being that memorable or standing out to me in the future Now all she has to do is convince the Underworld's annoyingly sexy, arrogant and frankly rude ruler, Hades, to fall in line with her plan. A plan that will shake Mount Olympus to its very core. Sometimes with fantasy, especially Greek myth, it can be easy to dive into a book and immediately lose your footing. I don’t think this was the case with this one, and I think Fitzgerald did a really great job of making the world, the characters, the politics etc really easy to digest and follow along with. I think the writing was well done, and suited to the audience. It was quite ‘YA’ in tone at times for me, but then again that’s literally the point of the book. It was an easy read, it was fast paced, I stayed engaged throughout, and it made the mythology very accessible. Talking of these two MCs, they were a delight in their slow dance towards friendship and the even slower dance to more. Styx and Tempest were feisty side characters and I enjoyed the development of the underworld at the hands of Persephone and Hades. I feel like we got a lot of story but equally, there's so much potential here for more. I'm excited to see this will be a series. I’m not certain what I expected from this Hades and Persephone retelling, but this was quite different from the many others I’ve read in the past. It was definitely more of a rom-com, complete with a very light tone and a lot of Gen-Z language. The snappy and witty banter, however, was a lot of fun and made it an easy read, regardless of the book’s length.I liked the plot enough, but I didn’t care for it. I was way more focused on the character elements of the story and persephone’s personal growth, and I actually didn’t really care for the actual plot of the book weirdly. It could have been full of plot holes and terribly boring, but I didn’t really notice it. I was too interested in the different relationships at play. Fitzgerald’s story retells the myth of Persephone and Hades, in which Hades ensnares Persephone in the Underworld by making the ground split beneath her feet. In Fitzgerald’s version, our heroine is less easily fooled. We meet her as a young child: “When they asked me what I wanted, I said: ‘The world.’” But her father, Zeus, decides instead that she should be ‘Goddess of the flowers’, and she senses “all my hopes, all my lofty ambitions crumbling away… This felt like a punishment.”