A sensational read. Bea Fitgerald is a phenomenal writer and that is shown once again in this beautiful retelling.
Cassandra and Helen were incredibly easy characters to fall in love with and I love that this story was Sapphic with fantastic asexual representation.
Bea is without a doubt an auto buy author for me.

I love Bea Fitzgerald’s writing style. This retelling of the Helen of Troy myth from the point of view of the women through the voices of Helen and Cassandra is a fabulous tale of female agency. Although described to me as a sapphic tale, it is so much more, giving a voice to, and a representation of, so many kinds of love among the characters in this story. Reading a representation of an asexual character as one of the main protagonists was revelatory - and empowering for such an under represented group within the LGBTQIA+ community. Thank you Bea Fitzgerald for writing her character so beautifully and convincingly.

I look forward to the next retelling with great anticipation and excitement.

A beautiful sapphic story. I adore a good Mythology retelling and this is one of the best.

Adored it from start to finish. Cassandra is portrayed so well and leaps off the page as a fiesty princess. Helen is my favourite though. I needed more from her POV.
This is a more adult book than GGQ but that's great for me.

Bea is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and I'll read anything she writes.

Greek retelling check
Sapphic romance check
What’s not to love? The story of Troy from casandra point of view. I am sucker for myths and legends retellings and this was definitely up there.
For fans of Margaret Atwood The Penelopiad

Finally finished this book! It took me a bit longer than I’d hoped because I had a lot going on, but I’m glad I made it through. I really like Bea’s writing style—it’s so easy to follow and just flows really well. I didn’t love this one as much as *Girl, Goddess, Queen*, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

The book dives into some heavy stuff like sexism, misogyny, feminism, and how women fight in a male-dominated world. It’s told from two perspectives: Cassandra, the princess of Troy and priestess of Apollo, and Helen, the queen of Sparta and also a princess of Troy. They’re both just pawns in a bigger game played by the gods, with Helen getting caught up in the manipulations of Apollo and Aphrodite.

The story kicks off with Cassandra, who’s given the power of prophecy by Apollo in exchange for her virtue. When she can’t go through with the deal, he curses her, and she has to deal with these visions to save her city. Helen helps out, and they grow closer while trying to figure it all out. But then Aphrodite pushes Helen into a relationship with Paris, sparking the legendary war between Greece and Troy.

I love how Bea mixes Greek mythology with strong feminist vibes. She really nails that girl power energy, and I hope she keeps writing more takes on Greek myths.

Absolutely fantastic read, loved this reimagining of the Trojan War. I loved that Cassandra and Helen made their own future, rather than accepting the one given to them. I loved the friendship that blossomed between Cassandra and Helen in the end, and the way all the women supported each other.

"The End Crown All" by Bea Fitzgerald follows Cassandra, cursed by Apollo when she fails to uphold their bargain, and Helen, who flees Sparta for love but faces hostility in Troy. As war approaches, their intertwined fates may hold the key to changing the future, despite the gods' control over their destinies.

I loved both lead characters, especially how there story beginnings mirrored each other with the marriage prospects: Cassandra removed herself from the equation by becoming a priestess while Helen bent over backwards to try and please her husband. There relationship was very sweet and I loved how they went from enemies-to-allies-to-lovers! Cassandra was my favourite character.

I am not the most familiar with the Trojan War but I never found myself lost. The character index at the start was also very handy, especially as there was such a big cast. I will say the last 100 pages had me in a chokehold as I couldn't tell if there would be a HEA or end in tragedy.

I do think I had different expectations from reading Girl, Goddess, Queen. GGQ is very much a fake dating romcom while TECA is a commentary on women's autonomy with a backdrop of a war. I think if I read this first, it would have been a 5 star read. I went in expecting a sapphic romcom and instead got emotional trauma (no regrets). I also think reading this first is totally fine as the events of GGQ aren't really mentioned.

Bea Fitzgerald’s enthralling narrative places Cassandra, the seer of Troy, and her brother Paris at the forefront. Presumed dead, Paris resurfaces to abduct Helen of Sparta, transforming her into the iconic Helen of Troy.

Cassandra's deal with Apollo, granting her the gift of prophecy, turns tragic when she reneges on part of the agreement, resulting in a curse of unrelenting visions. Meanwhile, Helen grapples with her former husband's refusal to let go and Aphrodite's insistence that their saga becomes legendary, with Helen's beauty sparking a war and launching a thousand ships.

Their intertwined fates and shared struggles lead Helen and Cassandra to question if their alliance can defy destiny and save their city. I found myself completely absorbed in this tale from start to finish. I did enjoy book one more, but the rich detail and deep emotion in Fitzgerald's writing are remarkable, and I eagerly await her next work. This is a sapphic romance with asexual representation which was a first for me.

This book even has the reappearance of Hades and Persephone!🥹

Although you can enjoy this book on its own, I highly recommend reading the first book to fully appreciate the story's depth.

I absolutely love Greek mythology retellings and I was really excited for this one but unfortunately, I didn’t connect with this book for multiple reasons.

Firstly, the main characters, Helen and Cassandra, weren’t likeable at all. They were both more likable towards the end, but I never found myself actually liking either one of them. I was interested in reading about Cassandra's power of prophecy, that was the only interesting quality of this character. She angers Apollo multiple times and wonders why she gets cursed which ends up being very repetitive.

Apollo was probably the most interesting character of them all, although it felt very out of place when he started calling Cassandra ‘love’. It really didn’t match the way the story is written. There were other words used throughout that felt out of place but this was the main one that agitated me to read.

The discussion and explanation of Cassandra’s asexuality was perfectly scattered throughout the book, which really helps us understand her and what she feels with Helen. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of the romance between them, Cassandra very suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about Helen after hating her since arriving. However, after this, the romance progressed well.

On the other hand, the book had a good premise. The description of Cassandra using her power of prophecy, weaving the golden threads of fate, was very well written. It felt very easy to visualise and was beautiful.

Overall, this book felt slow, there weren’t any moments where I felt I couldn’t put it down. The characters were difficult to like and I didn’t feel entranced by the romance. Fitzgerald stays true to most main events of the war as told in the Iliad, but they are extremely rushed that they feel as if they happened all at once. The story ended up feeling repetitive, Cassandra screaming about prophecy's and no one believing her, this makes up almost the entire book. I did, however, really love the way Cassandra accessed her power.

Thank you Penguin Random House and Netgalley for this ARC. ♡

A fantastic feminist retelling of a story we all thought we knew. Highly recommend for both teens and adults!

I couldnt get into this book and decided to soft DVF at first and waited untill i could try the audio- it still wasnt for me so DNF'd very early in

‘Terrible things happen to those who deny the gods.’

The End Crowns All is a brilliant reimagining of the Trojan War, told from the dual perspectives of Cassandra - an oracle and royalty of Troy, and Helen - queen of Sparta turned princess of Troy.

Cassandra saw what was coming. The deaths, the war, all because of Helen.

But after denying Apollo of the one thing he wants from her, all of her, he has turned her prophecies to a laughing matter, ending her chances at saving their home and people... or is it?

Helen needed to escape from her ex-husband, Menelaus, and what better way than to be whisked away with Paris, the lost son of Troy, with permission from Aphrodite herself?

Nothing will go wrong with Aphrodite on their side... right?

This sapphic, enemies-to-lovers romance left me biting my lips and nails in anticipation, hoping for a happy ending.

But the question is, can Cassandra and Helen save their families while navigating their new relationship without further harm from the Gods?

Thank you so much to Penguin Random House UK for providing me with an eArc of this book! It was one of my most anticipated, and it did not disappoint 👏

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

Loved it even more Thant the 1 one

I loved this story way more than the first book don’t know
But I feel like you need some background and basic compare to book 1

“Strong men become heroes immortalized in the stars. Strong women are snapped quicker, punished harder, fall further."


Sapphic retelling of the Troyan war.
And I am not that big fan of the Troyan war.
But I love this.

All the feministic elements were combined perrrfectly. It was a more mature read than GGQ (and had waaaayy more mythology elements) and it dealt with topics of asexuality elegantly. The writing was beautiful, the characters did so much learning and growth, and it was amazing to see those journeys. It's generally healing to my soul to see some of these feministic retellings. :) It also heals my soul to have another retelling show a god as a man-child throwing tantrums. Apollo, they can never make me like you.

As a huge fan of Bea and her debut, Girl, Goddess, Queen, I was beyond excited to read this book. I have read countless retellings of the Trojan War but I just KNEW this one was going to be The One. It was described as sapphic rivals to lovers and I was already gripped by that, and when I threw myself into the pages and rediscovered Bea’s beautiful writing style, I was entranced. Helen is often a controversial character, with authors either being very antagonistic towards her or not really giving her much of a personality of her own, but in The End Crowns All, Helen is not only given POV chapters for herself, but she also gets to embrace her Spartan heritage and learn to fight and stand up for herself as so many of the stories never let her do in mythology. I loved the relationships all of the women had and one of my favourite characters (besides Helen and Cassandra) was Andromache. I found the creative tweaks near the end to be absolutely amazing and I was cheering on different characters throughout (especially Cassandra!). Apollo made for the perfect villain and it was interesting to see Cassandra learning to fight for herself more and more during the story. I absolutely adored this book and recommend it to anyone with an interest in mythology! It’s phenomenal!

A sapphic Greece mythology retelling already sounds like a 10/10 in my books but this one knocked it out of the park!

The character's individual stories and personas outside of the relationship were so intruding and amazing to read about.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin, and Bea herself for the ARC!

I read Girl, Goddess, Queen at the start of the year and it remains as my only 5 star read of 2024 so far, so I was so ecstatic to be approved for The End Crowns All!

Just a note to start, thank you thank you THANK YOU, to the author and publisher for including content warnings at the beginning. I recently read Hera and was not anticipating how graphic certain things were because of the lack of content warnings, it ruined the reading experience for me, so I am always grateful when they are included.

There's just something about Bea Fitzgerald's writing that just really clicks with me. A combination of beautiful prose with more to-the-point modern writing, perhaps? A lightness to it even when discussing darker themes? Whatever it is, I'm so grateful to have found her.

The concept is interesting and I'll be honest, one I wasn't expecting to get on board with. Helen falls for and marries Cassandra's brother, Paris, to escape to Troy from Sparta, where she falls for Cassandra instead. Love triangles are my enemy at the best of times, but ones with siblings involved?! Ew, thank you, next. It could have gone awry very easily, but where Fitzgerald takes the relationships and eases one into the other was perfect. I cannot think of a better way to have handled this, especially with the characterisation of Paris where yeah we feel a little sorry for him... but not THAT sorry.

The cast of characters, despite being a lot of them, were all distinct in their own way. I can understand readers being frustrated with not knowing all of the characters present in TECA, but honestly you don't need to know anything about Greek myth and it's characters before reading. Fitzgerald explains where necessary, and where not necessary she doesn't explain! I'd argue it's an ideal introduction to anyone just getting into Greek mythology. We see real character growth with Cassandra, and Helen is the strong (physically, mentally, and emotionally!) female character we all need.

I loved both seeing this side of the story (previously I had only read about the side of Achilles and Odysseus), I loved the female perspective, how close it actually is to the original Iliad, and allowing loopholes for how this retelling could have truly happened. But beyond that, I loved the love story, the rare sapphic relationship and the even rarer asexual representation. I need more aspec wlw romance asap pls.

It took a while to get through the first part, but after this the pace picks up. I wish we had more of Helen's POV, and I didn't QUITE like how it ended (though I can't say why without spoiling it!) but these are my only criticisms.

I'll be picking up Fizgerald's other upcoming release, Then Things Went Dark, despite the genre and tone change, simply because I love her writing.

4.5/5

The end crowns all is a brilliant retelling of the Trojan War.

I love retellings & mythology so this was right up my street.

I loved how defiant Cassandra is. I also enjoyed watching the characters develop.

The ending was everything I wanted it to be even if it took awhile to get there.

Bea Fitzgerald’s debut, ‘Girl, Goddess, Queen’ was in my top 3 books of the whole of 2023 (you can read my review right here) so I was SO excited to get my hands on an early copy of her follow up, ‘The End Crowns All’, via NetGalley.

We’re heading back to the Ancient world for another retelling, this time focusing on Helen of Troy and Cassandra, a Princess of Troy and Apollo’s Oracle, during the Trojan War. There’s been a real resurgence in recent years of retellings of classic myths from a female perspective, and this is just that, but it’s also YA and sapphic.


Love caused this war. At least, that’s what the stories will say.

When Cassandra’s patron god, Apollo, offers her the gift of prophecy – and all the power that comes with it – she seizes the opportunity. But when she fails to uphold her end of the agreement, she discovers just how very far she has to fall. No one believes her visions. Which all seem to be of one girl – and she’s going to start a war.

Helen fled Sparta in pursuit of love – though that’s proving more elusive than she’d hoped. Far from home, Helen’s navigating all the politics and backstabbing of the Trojan court.

And one princess seems particularly intent on driving her from the city. . .

But when war finally strikes, it’s more than the army at their walls they must contend with. Cassandra and Helen might hold the key to reweaving fate itself – especially with the prophetic strands drawing them ever closer together.

But how do you change your future when the gods themselves are dictating your demise?


While ‘The End Crowns All’ is technically still YA, it feels much more grown-up and complex than ‘Girl, Goddess, Queen’.

For a start, the mythology is much more important and present in this novel. We find ourselves in Troy as the Trojan War begins up until it’s end, and the politics is high across the novel. We see a whole lot from the Royal court of Troy and the machinations behind the war, but also a lot of action in and among the gods and goddesses and the alliances, betrayals, and rivalry between them. It very much paints a portrait of Ancient Greece/Troy at the height of the mythology that we know and how much these characters were pawns of their deities. The brutality of their lives and the lack of freedoms afforded to them under the ministrations of the gods becomes very apparent and very clearly moves away from the un and playful tone of Fitzgerald’s first novel.

If you’re not already at least somewhat familiar with Greek mythology and the Trojan War, I can imagine that starting this book will feel extremely overwhelming, but Fitzgerald has a gift for retelling mythology and everyone soon settles into place. Everyone is so vividly drawn and distinctive that it’s easy to get to grips with the world and the characters, even through the split perspective.

Cass and Helen’s romance is a true rivals to lovers - Helen has become the trigger for a war that will level Cass’s home and kill her family, after all - and it’s a real slow burn in the best way. They grow to be companions, then co-conspirators, then friends, then lovers. It’s a joy to watch them slowly begin to fall in love without even realising it, fighting against all of the endless restrictions placed upon them and the battles that they’re facing throughout the war. It is YA so it’s not spicy in any way, and it didn’t need to be - their feeling shone through the novel.

‘The End Crowns All’ will be released on 18 July 2024 by Penguin.

Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for the review copy.

Written by Sophie