Thank you NetGalley and Mediterra Press for the ARC.

“Only search for answers if you are willing to find them.”

Zoë has written an amazing story that beautifully winds together myth with reality set in a novel where the main character struggles with figuring out who she is, what she wants and the mysteries of her mother’s disappearance. There were a few things that stopped it from being a 5 star read for me: some areas that were a bit of a info dump that were overwhelming, some parts where I had to reread to make sure I understood because I felt it was edited weirdly (may have already been corrected since I read the ARC) and finally the story is mainly revolved around various ancient Green mythology and stories there are random other pantheons introduced and we never found out why.

Her characters are fully realized with no one people being all good or all bad which I think can sometimes be missed in fantasy books where there is usually a good guy and a bad guy. This book is the first in a new series and I can already think of four additional stories I need to know. To avoid spoilers: what happens after the end for the FMC, Chloes story, Penelopes adventure and does Owen find love (intentionally vague but once you read it you will now exactly what I am referring too). I also wouldn’t mind a prequel with Alex’s mother’s story.

The Song of Gaia is such a good read!!! I recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can because it's really good and the characters are fantastic.

What doesn't work: Info-dumps, boring descriptions of the hum-drum, and repeating of information from only a chapter or two before with no more style or emotion than there was the first time.

Usually I love long books, but not when they seem this tedious.

My time-saving rule now is that if I'm annoyed by 10% into the book, I quit. Life is too short for mediocre books, particularly when there are so many possibly good books one will never live long enough to read.

What works: The concept of a family mystery, in a modern, yet esoteric and mystical setting.

Zoë Tavares Bennett does a fantastic job in writing this book, it was a strong start to the Realm of Emmeson series. The characters had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall story being told. It uses the ancient Greek elements in this perfectly and thought the characters had that overall feel that I wanted. It left me wanting to read more in this series and from Zoë Tavares Bennett.