Girl, Goddess, Queen by Bea Fitzgerald

Pages: 496 

Publisher: Penguin 

Released: 20th of July 2023 

To hell with love, this goddess has other plans...

Thousands of years ago, the gods told a lie: how Persephone was a pawn in the politics of other gods. How Hades kidnapped Persephone to be his bride. How her mother, Demeter, was so distraught she caused the Earth to start dying.

The real story is much more interesting.

Persephone wasn't taken to hell: she jumped. There was no way she was going to be married off to some smug god more in love with himself than her.

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.

But consequences can be deadly, especially when you're already in hell . . .

What I Have to Say 

Unapologetically feminist, this book was fun, daring and imaginative. It takes the toxic qualities shown by certain Greek gods and shows what it might be like to try and be a women in a time when just anyone can kidnap you and take you for their own. Running away from all that, Persephone acts boldly and goes to the underworld hoping for a better life. 

This was a really interesting take on Hades. Artistic, sensitive and caring for many people he would be the perfect man, though best look elsewhere if you're looking for a bit of dark romance, this novel is about stereotypes that are cast on people and how there might be something different hiding underneath the surface. 

There were just two things that held me up about this book. One was that the slow burn romance was a little two slow for me in some places and everything would have been solved so easily if the characters had just hurried up and talked to each other. The other was that the Greek god of life was Phanes and the god of illusions was Dolos (a quick google search told me this much) and not the characters these things were attributed to in the book. 

Overall though, this was a good read, great for teenage feminists looking for a bit of girlbossing. 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for gifting me with this copy for review.