Another gem of a book from Jennifer Saint!

One of my favourite from her. Such an easy listen, the narrator does such a good job. Highly recommend the audiobook

Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy.

When I requested this book I was very sceptical as to how the story will be portraited. At the end of the day it's just Hera, the vengeful goddess that nobody really liked. But no one really saw her point of view. And no I'm not saying what she did was good and she should have done worse. I just think that it makes sense. So yeah I loved it, I grieved with her, got angry with her. I wish she could have done some harm to Zeus directly but alas the ending was fitting regardless.

Thank you for Netgallery for this Arc audiobook.

I love Jennifer Saints Greek retellings.

Hera is one of my least favourite Greek goddess but this story highlighted a different side to Hera and her full story.

I would highly recommend this to any Greek mythology lover.

The narrator was great too

Many eloquent analyses have been written about Jennifer’s Saint latest epic, so I will be brief:

First, I have read one other novel of Saint’s - Atalanta - and I enjoyed it much more. It’s interesting to note that the other retellings of mythology that I have enjoyed, have been tales of mortals, and not of gods.

I felt this was not truly the story of Hera, but the story of the gods (and their eventual obscurity). I felt more intrigued by Hera in Ithaca than in this very book about her.

The gods are just about always wholly unlikeable, so perhaps it is not surprising that it is the stories of mortals, and their interactions with the gods, that are more successful. Even though I grew to “understand” Hera more, I didn’t feel that she became three dimensional to me.

The themes of relevance, holiness, and progress were interesting, and might make for good discussion.

I read an audiobook for review (thanks, Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group) so it is also worth noting that I did not enjoy the narrator’s reading, especially pronunciation of some names, and the pace. I found it best listened to at x1.25 speed. I definitely preferred the narrator of Atalanta.

I so enjoyed this audiobook. I feel like Hera has been my companion for the last couple of weeks and I was sad when it came to an end. The author did a brilliant job of capturing her character and conveying it through a series of events spanning hundreds - or potentially thousands - of years, which is not easily done.

I really love a female PoV retelling and I was not disappointed with this one. If you were a fan of Madeleine Miller’s Circe, I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this too. Saint certainly had a rich history to play with, as Zeus’s exploits are pretty well-known to anyone who has even a cursory understanding of Ancient Greek mythology. We get to hear it all from Hera’s perspective, how she felt robbed of her right to rule, humiliated by his behaviour and trapped in what was supposedly the perfect example of marriage. I really felt like I got to know her as a character and that the nuances of her were also conveyed effectively.

I would say, I think it would be helpful if this book had a trigger warning as readers not familiar with Greek mythology may not be expecting descriptions of SA, one of which is pretty vivid, even though it fades to black. There are also several mentions of miscarriage, which I wasn’t expecting and could potentially upset readers.

I really loved the narrator. The only major negative was the choice to pronounce the Greek “e” as an “eh” sound. It felt very odd to hear Ares called “Arr-ez”, Hebe pronounced “Hair-bair” and Persephone “Persephon-air”. Hera was pronounced “Herra” which, I suppose it sometimes is, but I have to say the others did grate on me! And I noticed the one time she lapsed and pronounced it “He-ra”. (And apparently Hermes and Aphrodite escaped unscathed!)

Overall I found it very entertaining and really enjoyed getting to know Hera as a character in her own right. I particularly enjoyed her relationship with her sister, Hestia, and the complexities of her relationship with her son Hephaestus. Definitely recommend for fans of Greek retellings.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for the free advance review audiobook. All opinions are my own.

I'm waiting to get a physical copy of this book either from my library or my local bookstore to reread. I enjoyed the audiobook, but I'm very particular with narrators, and for this book, I think I will enjoy the story more as a physical read.

Nothing wrong with the narrator, just personal preference!

I love Hera and Greek myth, and Jennifer Saint hasn't disappointed me once with any of her retellings.

Giving 3.5/4 stars, will provide a proper review after rereading my own copy!

I absolutely loved this so much. Jennifer Saint is an amazing writer an never fails to deliver. Probably one of my favourites from her so far.

I have really enjoyed all of Jennifer Saint's previous books so I was very excited to receive early access to the audiobook of Hera. She is not a character I know very much about and so I found this audiobook to be so interesting and informative. The breadth and depth of this work is absolutely mind-blowing; Saint has covered literally thousands of years! The amount of research she must have completed in order to tell this story in such detail is incredible. There were characters that I was familiar with (Zeus, Demeter, Apollo etc) but also lots of new characters such as Echidna and Typhon. I listened to these new aspects with particular fascination.

I thought the narrator did an excellent job, although I found that some of the names were pronounced slightly differently to what I am used to.

Overall another brilliant addition to Saint's series of feminist Greek re-tellings and one which I definitely recommend.

Having become a huge fan of Greek Mythology over the last couple of years, I was very excited to read Hera by Jenifer Saint.

Her previous books (Elektra, Atalanta and Ariadne) have all been about mortals. Hera is the first book about a Goddess and what a huge undertaking it is. Hera is the sister of Zeus and together with the other Olympian gods, they defeat the Titans. Hera is shocked when Zeus announces he is dividing the realms between himself, Hades and Poseidon, leaving the female gods with more minor roles, despite fighting side by side. He marries Hera and then makes her the goddess of women and marriage, a role she is not happy with, especially as Zeus ignores their wedding vows, fathering children both in the immortal and mortal realms. She isn’t jealous, more insulted about the way he treats her. She often ends up punishing the women who have had relationships with Zeus - often the ones whose offspring may threaten her power.

Hera herself has several children with Zeus and also Typhoon, a monstrous snake like giant is born to Hera in revenge after Zeus fathered Athena. She desperately wanted to defeat Zeus and knew the only way she could do it was with her children.

What I love about Greek Mythology is the huge amount of wonderful stories and how I always go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole to find out more about the characters! The story is an epic undertaking, covering thousands of years and including key events such as the Trojan War and Jason and the Argonauts going after the Golden Fleece. Hera isn’t that likeable as a character but I had sympathy for her for the way she was treated.

Another wonderful story from Jennifer Saint, I am enraptured by her story telling and the ambition is choosing to tell such a vast story with so many elements is admirable. For lovers of Greek mythology this is a must and for those that haven’t dipped in yet, I’d urge you to give it a try.

I listened to the audio book of this.

Please read the trigger warnings for this book because as is common with Greek myths there are a lot of incidents key to the story that centre SA in various forms.

This is my first time reading a Jennifer Saint book and Hera was a really good choice to start with, as she is the much maligned goddess of marriage with lots to work with.

It took me a while to get into this story. I found the events that happen to Hera deeply frustrating and sad, but by the end I was fully immersed in her story and felt a deep satisfaction to the way it ended.

I think Jennifer Saint did a brilliant job at showing Hera’s side and adding dimension to a goddess who is often presented one dimensionally.

Overall, the audio was good but there were a few odd pronunciations of names (notably, Hebe as “hair bear”). If you’re interested in Greek myths and a fan of Jennifer Saint, then I really recommend this book.

I loved Greek mythology growing up. Hera was always painted as the villain and seeing her from this perspective was really interesting. This is my first Greek mythology retelling and I really enjoyed it and will be picking up more of Jennifer Saints’ books. I loved the audio for this the narrator was engaging to listen to and really fit the book.

thank you so much to the publishers and netgalley for this audiobook!

i truly loved this from beginning to end. the plot was there, the narration was there, and the connection to Hera was definitely there.
being able to go through Hera’s journey as she is betrayed by those she held close was truly heartbreaking and seeing her vulnerability had me sympathising with her as we moved along. do i agree with everything she’s done? no. but do i understand her a lot better now? yes.

as usual Jennifer Saint has done it again and written a beautiful greek mythology retelling with beautiful writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy of this audiobook.

Fantastic tale narrated wonderfully. Enjoyed from start to finish, such a great read/listen. One that I will return to again and again. Such an interesting look on an oft-overlooked God.

“She’s certain that nothing will happen. That she can relinquish her weary fidelity and the world will still have its goddess of wives, carved in wood and stone and ivory, set down in scrawled ink, trapped in song and verse forever.”

Pushed to the wayside, Hera is most famous for being forgotten by Zeus. We know her story less than we know how she doesn’t fit into Zeus’. Like many others, I’m guilty of only knowing her as an angry wife (who can blame her). I loved discovering her story through Jennifer Saint’s writing.
I really liked how, unlike other Greek myth retellings, this didn’t focus on one key myth. We got a whole overview of the Greek God pantheon, from them overthrowing the Titans to falling out of worship in more modern days. I found it really interesting when the myths that usually get whole stories on their own were just mentioned in a paragraph or so, and I thought it was a really effective way of showing the different impact these events had on humans versus gods.
This book gave the opportunity to not only see the whole pantheon, with Gods, mortals and quests, but we also saw monsters. I didn’t know that Hera fit into their story before this, so I loved learning about that.
Jennifer Saint’s writing style is beautiful, lyrical and easy to understand. It can’t be easy to fit hundreds of godly years into a 400 page book, but Saint still manages to accessibly do so here.
Although I don’t think this book tried to excuse all the things Hera did to punish Zeus’ infidelity, it gives us the chance to understand her actions more. A lot of her anger stems from when Zeus tricked her, raped her, then promised her the world – but didn’t actually give her the latter. It’s easy to understand her frustration too as she watches Cronos’ other children get given the skies and the sea and the underworld, and Zeus’ illegitimate children also get given realms, when she has to beg for anything.
TLDR – Zeus is a dick and deserves everything coming to him (it’s just a shame Hera punishes him by punishing the people around him)

Thank you netgally for this EARC
I listened and both read this book I really enjoyed it I find learning about the Greek gods interesting. The struggles of what Hera went through just to get back as Zeus. Jennifer’s story telling had me hooked and I wanted to know what was going to happen. Learning about what happens through Hera’s pov was interesting as it showed a new light on what happens as well as how the women were treated.

I LOVED this one. Jennifer Saint always delivers and her latest book Hera is no exception. I found that the narrator of this audiobook was a perfect pick. Her voice was strong and soothing but didn't put me to sleep. The story itself was brilliant. History typically shows Hera as merely Zeus's bitter wife but in this book she comes to life in a much more three dimensional way. Is she always great? nope. In fact she's typically quite wicked but I feel in this book we're provided with the context for her behaviour. Highly engrossing read. I definitely recommend.

What do you picture when you think of Hera? Zeus’ willing and loving wife? A vengeful queen? Jennifer Saint is about to open Hera up and give you a much rounder perspective of the Queen of the Gods.

Firstly this book gives you such a great history of the gods and how they came to be.

Admittedly I actually didn’t know much about Hera at all - I think I literally just pictured the Hera from the Disney film Hercules 😂🙈and that was it.

I felt like this account really broke down the character of Hera and the motivations behind who she was and why she became the way she was. I think a lot of women can understand what motivated a lot of her decisions - right or wrong.

I thoroughly enjoyed the start to finish history of the Olympians as this is not something I had fully immersed myself in previously so to get a background in this was really helpful along with the family tree at the start. All very incestuous as you can imagine.

I would say that if you are unfamiliar with Greek Mythology that whilst this is a fantastic book to start with for the break down of the origins of each God/Goddess there is sadly a several scenes/indications that may be triggering on account of Sexual Assault and Rape.

As I said initially I read the physical book alongside the audio of this book and really enjoyed both. The narration is great and with great cadence- I read quite fast in comparison to the audiobook standard (apparently)so had it on x2 speed in order to match my reading speed and found it to still be perfect.

Definitely a book for Greek Mythology lovers.

I'd always understood Hera to be a powerful but rather unpleasant figure. An overthrower of the Titans, the Queen of the Gods, the sister and wife of Zeus but also a devious plotter and vengeful schemer with a cruel nature.

Now I also think of her in ways I wouldn't have expected - as a victim herself, a woman desperate to escape the confines of the patriachy, misunderstood, vulnerable and full of feminist rage.

Jennifer Saint delivers a great reimagining of a well worn story in Hera. It's feminist, fresh and full of life. I listened to the audiobook read by Naomi Frederick - it was fantastic and I'd recommend it in a heart beat. It's easily my favourite retelling of Greek mythology to date.

Thank you NetGalley and Headline Audio for the advance copy.

As a blended lover of Greek mythology and have great interest towards the movement to re contextualise the women of in mythology altogether . I knew I was going to dive into Jennifer Saint's Hera, having already completed Atalanta. Hera, from the get go, a truly complex figure to carve out, especially from the immediate predisposition you have about her character. Saint's flow of language is a smooth,graceful and fluid. But the voice of Hera, ( outside of the audio book rendition) sometimes felt too distant. I understand we aren't connect with Hera as a figure ( she is high and might and above humans). Sometimes that characterisation was lost in the character her self , which was a bit of shame. While my other issues- with the audio book didn't help , in that the narrator could not pronounce many of the Greek names, and not to sound obtuse, but these names are well known, so that was jarring.

However, because Saint was almost restricted to re-telling stories of old in such a strict way, it felt sometimes the input into Hera's character was flat because she was being used a purposeful work around to allow the voice of the author. I don;t know if I learnt more about the character I didn't already know about. Sometimes events weren't being fleshed out in challenging ways. only worked around in ways I came to expect. I wasn't expecting adventure, however, as a goddess with a modicum of power, I was looking for maybe more cunning?

Overall rating is : 3/5

Thank you, NetGalley and Headline Audio | Wildfire for providing access to the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hera: Female Rage, the book.

I've been meaning to try Jennifer Saint's books for a long time since I adore Greek mythology and they seemed like some of the best fiction books out there that focused on it - and let's face it, the gorgeous covers by Micaela Alcaino are a massive selling point as well. And now, after reading Hera, I suddenly understand the criticism brought up whenever mythology retellings are involved.

This book felt like a simple character analysis of Hera, trying to make sense of her insensitivity towards Zeus' victims and Hephaestus, changing and adding very little to the stories we already knew. Apart from a couple of interesting viewpoints and some well-considered dialogues, especially between Hera and Hephaestus, I spent most of the book just appreciating Hera's complicated and slightly alien feelings regarding other gods, ambition, purpose, and mortals. The last one, especially, had been a highlight, the development from considering them unworthy of even her gaze to hatred, then the understanding that pushed her to go as far as to abandon her virtuous Goddess status with one of them, being incredibly note-worthy. Naomi Frederick is also stellar in this, being an incredible choice for Hera.

For people who hope to learn more about Greek Mythology or need a refresher, this would be a worthwhile read, but for those who have a solid knowledge of the matter and want something more consistent than a character analysis, I'm not sure it would be an ideal journey.