Ancient Greek-inspired books have always attracted me, and Jennifer Saint's "Hera" is a brilliant contribution to the genre! I've always been captivated by the intricate, sometimes misinterpreted characters found in Greek mythology, and Saint's rendition of Hera's tale is nothing short of extraordinary.

We get to explore the life of the formidable goddess in "Hera," not only as the jealous spouse or the spiteful god that many legends depict her as, but also as a sovereign in her own right, battling the harsh realities of betrayal and power. Hera is portrayed by Saint in a complex and captivating way that offers a new angle on this well-known character.

"Hera" is a must-read if, like me, you find great pleasure in the enchantment of classical Greek mythology!

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although full disclosure rewrites of mythology are my bag! I love the way this author enables you to understand previously vilified characters through the use of believable, emotional back-story. A satisfying read and one I recommend. 4/5

I don't know that I should be allowed to continue writing reviews for JS's work. She could write me a speeding ticket and I'd give it five stars. I loved how she took a pretty universally unliked character and gave her a back story and didn't try to re-write all of her misdeeds, but instead made us understand them a little more. I read a ton of greek mythology and Hera is always the butt of the jokes and easy to villainize so it's hard to change my perspective when its been drilled in so consistently, but she did it. And I grew up watching Hercules where Hera was the primary villain with the peacock eyes on screen so thats a pretty big deal.

Lovely story showing a different side to Hera. Usually she is portrayed as a jealous and vengeful wife so it was nice to see her with dreams and ambitions. Really enjoyed this book and love the author.
Thankyou to netgalley for sending me a arc to read and review.

Book review 📚
Hera by Jennifer Saint
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can, hand on heart, say that I will not ever be disappointed by Jennifer Saint and her Greek Mythology books. I have read every single one of them and each time I think that it will be hard to beat. But yet, somehow, she does.

Saint has such a beautiful writing style, throwing mythology out there without it feeling as if you cannot contain all this information at once. She makes it so easy to keep up with what she is telling us, in this case Hera, and all the details that follow suit. It's hard to become burdened with so much "information" in a book, but Saint always succeeds.

She creates such vivid imagery which transforms the whole book, both with character and world building. It is a skill she possesses and I dread the day when she stops writing Greek Mythology books. Maybe she could move onto Nordic Mythology?

Anyway, this book is beautifully crafted and Saint has clearly put a lot of time and attention into yet another masterpiece.

I’m a big fan of Greek mythology retellings, and Hera was no exception. Reading about significant events, such as the fall of the Titans, the dividing of the realms, and the Trojan War, through Hera was insightful, and you really get a feel for how much time her life spanned.

Hera is far from perfect, she’s known to be cruel, jealous and vengeful. Whilst nothing can justify the horrific acts she goes on to take, we do get to see how this version of Hera came to be. Despite being Zeus’’ closest ally in overthrowing the Titans, Hera was forgotten when it came to having any claim to the realm, instead being offered the domain of wife hood. And she can’t think of anything worse.

I’ll never get bored of learning more about the strong women of Greek mythology, and I’m planning to read Jennifer Saint’s other retellings asap.

I really don't think I'm ever going to think about this book again. This is my first Jennifer Saint book and I'm really disappointed. I feel like there's been so much social media hype over this author and this just wasn't it.

Everything felt fairly surface level. There was no deeper feelings that were stirred in me to sympathise or relate with her regardless what happened to her or with her.

I loved the concept of seeing these ancient stories from the female perspective when it has been so male dominated for centuries. For me this just wasn't executed well.

I liked how Zeus was shown to be a whore and sleezy and I liked how he "died" at the end.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ALC/ARC of this book

I applied for this book because I love history and mythology & I have heard others excited about this and even heard some say they love it.

This book talks about Hera the queen & mother of the gods who was known as one of the strongest gods as well, we are taken on a journey by the Goddess Hera her life up on Mount Olympus, she is a strong woman who is highly desired by Zesus because of her strength and unfolding nature. As the book slowly builds up to show the tests and trials she is put through we see that Hera as a female Olympian is not above being seen as a prize or a possession by those around her. At one point we have a Scene where Hera is forcefully taken by Zesus (claiming his authority over her to summit) this scene made me uncomfortable ( in the history books about the mythos of Zeus it does claim he was like this with the woman he desired no matter who they where or who they are) still wrong though.

We See Hera over the time of this book question herself, her role and even the kids she has had hoping to overthrow Zeus and try and make something fairer or purer, and at one point she thinks her prayers are answered when she has a child that's been born that's not a child of Zeus ( her love for this child is like no other but we see as it's described that this baby her child is half snake half human and would be seen as an abomination in the eyes of Zeus ). I have always taken this child to be a representation of all the hurt anger and mistreatment Hera Had to deal with in silence given a form but like her pain has to live in the dark underworld with another creature who looks similar in appearance to her child.

The way this story was written is beautifully done, almost poetic really... drawing you in to feel her pain and strength.

I love a mythology retelling from a female perspective. However, this was not my favourite of them all. The things I did enjoy included the portrayal of Artemis. The middle section of the book was most enjoyable but I found my mind wondering in the first and last thirds. I think what was missing for me was some of the humour and depth in connections between the characters which I didn't really feel with this at all. There was a heavy reliance on the idea of Hera being a victim to the world... to the point that she was often distracted by that concept. This then motivates her decision making and that for me, was not enjoyable to read 300 pages of.

This captures the frustration of Hera completely as she learns to live in Olympus with Zeus and the other gods. Refusing to back down again and again, we see the strength and cunning of Hera as she fights against the patriarchy of the gods. Her anguish and anger all apparent in the actions taken. This story shows the gods live in a messy and disorganised world , each trying to outdo eachother with often the females suffering whether goddess or mortal in this male led world

"Hera" by Jennifer Saint is a captivating retelling of the life of the Greek goddess Hera. Known as the queen of the gods and wife of Zeus, Saint reintroduces Hera, showing us her character beyond the traditional myths.

I liked the feminist leanings of this one. I didn't know a lot about Hera and learned quite a bit about her. The author did a great job of highlighting the goddess's strengths, intelligence and the challenges she faces in navigating the patriarchal world she exists in.

I feel like some parts could be more descriptive but overall this was a nice fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I have to say this is without a doubt my favourite Saint retelling so far! She has cemented her place in the Greek Mythology genre and just continues to add to her legacy. Her ability to bring a uniqueness to well known characters and stories is second to none and I constantly look forward to reading her work.

Onto the story itself, Hera is an unlikeable character, specifically she's a wicked woman, which up until this book Saint hasn't written before. I love reading from the perspective of an unlikeable character, just to get an insight into what they're thoughts and feelings are and this did not disappoint. Hera is angry, understandably so, but she often doesn't direct that to the person responsible. Did she take out her anger on the wrong people? Absolutely! But she is a flawed character and is blinded by her rage.

She is strategic, strong ang very smart. In this we get to see her join forces with Zeus to overthrow their father but she quickly realises that was a mistake. As is often the way, men tend to forget about the women that build them up once their goal has been reached. In the ends she decided She was also a funny narrator, which is something I didn't expect.

I found her relationship with her children to be fascinating. Her hope is to use them to help her bring down Zeus, but that doesn't quite go the way she wants it to. I especially loved the explorations of Hera's relationship with Hephaestus. She deemed him unworthy of being a god but he is definitely the child that cares for her the most.

Overall, I really enjoyed this addition to Saints catalogue and I look forward to seeing where she goes from here.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I think this might be my favourite of the feminist Greek mythology retellings (apart from maybe Circe). Hera is a fascinating character and is barely explored in traditional Greek mythology apart from as a jealous wife, but here Saint imagines a ruthlessly ambitious and strong woman who was sexually assaulted and unjustly kept from her rightful position of power. Her inner monologue is illuminating and always feels realistic, especially as she's not always likeable. Another slamdunk for Saint.

A beautiful read. Loved the author's writing style, a melodic prose, absolutely delightful to read. A retelling of Greek myths, with a very different but refreshing point of view.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC of Hera.
I quite enjoyed reading this greek mythology retelling. It covers a vast majority of greek myths and it is told from Hera's POV. The reader gets to meet the Queen of Olympus and can understand why she acts the way she acts. Well... most of the time the reason's called Zeus.

Jennifer Saint strikes yet again with a retelling of Hera -- this time telling it right. If you are a fan of Jennifer Saint's previous work, the plethora of Greek myth retellings in the industry right now and women getting sh*t done, then you are going to have an amazing time diving into the world of Hera.

📖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 📖 ★★★☆☆
𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Hera, Jennifer Saint
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: Greek Mythology
𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁: Kindle

I struggled connecting with Hera for the first part of the book. It is a really interesting story though from Olympian creation through to mortals not praying to the gods. Considering it’s such a long timespan the pacing was great and it flowed really well. I didn’t find myself really liking any of the characters. Although I think they are supposed to be portrayed in this way - the gods believe themselves above us in every aspect at so empathising with them is tricky.

Enjoyable read
Thank you for the advanced readers copy!

Having read Ariadne and Elektra, I was keen to start this one but sadly it just wasn’t quite my cup of tea.

There are so many gods and monsters, all fighting over various things that I lost interest after a while. I enjoyed learning more about the origin stories behind some of the gods, and it did fill in some of the backstory to many of the other Greek retellings that I’ve read - such as the children of Echidna and Hera’s son Typhon being Cerberus, Hydra and Chimera,

If you have a real interest in Greek myths, or love a story of battling gods with a few monsters thrown in then this will be a great book for you. If the Pat Barker Silence of the Girls series is more your thing then maybe give this one a miss.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review,

I love a mythology retelling and I've really enjoyed the books of Jennifer Saint's that I've read so far, so I was very excited for this release!

Hera is a really interesting and enjoyable goddess to read about, but she's always portrayed in the very unflattering light of the jealous wife who punishes her unfaithful husband's lovers and victims (let's be honest, the majority were victims!). So I was interested to see how Saint would tackle a Hera retelling and write a kinder story.

I think Saint approaches it well and does a very good job of showing Hera's motivations and feelings. It didn't feel like it was being spoon fed to me just to try and explain away Hera's actions.
While I enjoyed reading about Hera in a softer, more forgiving light, I often felt like it took away from Hera's power a lot. While I can sympathise with a lot of Hera's actions and why she's jealous and vindictive (even if she punishes the wrong people), but in this retelling it felt a lot like a toddler throwing a tantrum. I love a petty god (it's why I love reading about Aphrodite so much) but she often came across as childish. I half listened to the audiobook for this and I don't think the narrators voice helped here - it was much too quaint and twee.

It was fun to read all the Olympians interacting with each other and see their relationships, rivalries etc, but much like my issues with how Hera was portrayed a lot of the time, it all felt very childish and more in a high school teen drama way rather than petty gods kind of way. In fact, this whole book would have been great if it had been set in a high school (has someone written a Greek Mythology retelling set in high school with the OIympians as the popular kids? Because I'd so read that!).

I really enjoyed Saint's portrayal of Hera with the monsters. Seeing Hera's softer, maternal side was refreshing, but especially juxtaposed with the creatures she had this maternal, pure love for.

I also liked the ending for the most part. I particularly liked Hera's thoughts and realisations about why she acted like she did, that felt clever but natural. I do wish that had been peppered in throughout the book a bit more though.

I did enjoy this retelling, but it fell short of the others of Saint's that I've read. I would still recommend it though.
I'm rating 3.5 rounded up to 4.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy of this book.

“‘He made me be the custodian of marriage, and then he behaves as though he has no wife at all.’ And it’s the measure of her success; that’s what makes it sting. If she isn’t the most perfect of all wives, then how can she be their goddess? The paradox makes her rage; it makes violence surge up in her breast, violence that can’t be contained, and yet it has nowhere to go.”⁣⁣⁣
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From: 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘢 by Jennifer Saint⁣⁣⁣
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I love me some mythology retellings. I took Latin and Greek in high school and have always loved these stories and I am a big fan of Madeline Miller’s 𝘊𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘦 and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘴. All this is to say that I think I went in with a little too high expectations.⁣⁣⁣
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Even when I was younger when reading about Hera, I always felt that she was portrayed so unflatteringly as the angry, jealous wife, when let’s face it, Zeus was not the most dependable husband and yet there was never any nuance (one could say nuance is not mythology’s strong suit). And I was hoping for a fierce, independent, proud retelling of Hera’s story, reshaping the story to make her more than all that nasty bitterness. I was even hoping to see her in a completely new light, like Miller did with 𝘊𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘦, but unfortunately that was not the case. I think the quote above was meant to “make us understand”, but I was hoping for more. ⁣⁣⁣
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What was left is an enjoyable read that does succumb to the apparent need to tell everything that ever happened in Hera’s life. And I get that impulse, because pretty much all mythology is fun to read, but many passages serve no clear purpose to the story. ⁣⁣⁣
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All in all, you can’t go wrong with this if you enjoy mythological stories and I’ve seen many people that really enjoyed this one! ⁣
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Thank you so much @headlinebooks and @netgalley for the ARC.