Step into the Coliseum at the Spartan War Academy where monsters are made, immortality is won, and even a god can die…

When a blood test leads to Alexis' admittance at the Spartan War Academy, she’ll have to do more than merely survive.

Alexis will have to claim her birthright: immortality.

But immortality is a privilege, one earned in the crucible of the academy, where the heroes are villains and classrooms battlegrounds.

Where there are gods, there are bound to be monsters, and there is more than one hunting Alexis…

🖤 Dark Romance x Fantasy 🗡
🏛 Greek Mythology
👀 Why Choose? Romance
🐍 Talking Animal Companions

Goodness me...
This was such a unique story with a bunch of tropes that I LOVED. The writing style was brilliant It slowly builds the world, draws you in and then the chaos begins... I usually like to pride myself on being able to guess the twists at the end of a book but oh my gosh, this book was so good at keeping me guessing.
I listened to the audiobook and the delivery was THE BEST I have ever heard. Meg Sylvan honestly outdid herself. There were so many points where I laughed out loud because her take on Alexis' inner thoughts were outstanding.
There was some spice included - it was the perfect amount without taking away from the plot and felt like it naturally fit into the story.
It gave me ACOTAR vibes, mixed in with the Four Psychos series - LOVED, LOVED, LOVED.

Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas (Villains of Lore book 1)
𝖱𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀:🌟🌟🌟

“Experience a dark, sarcastically funny twist on Hercules in a plot filled with Titans, immortals, and elite Spartans at a War Academy. An enthralling enemies-to-lovers story awaits.”

Blood of Hercules is a stirring and darkly humorous tale of fantasy romance and Greek mythology. This fast-paced adventure with a dash of sass and wit, also includes strong heroines, war academies and enemies-to-lovers tropes.

Throughout this book I loved the Greek mythology and animal protectors. However, I felt that the FMC and other main characters were extremely immature with cringey phrases and one liners. The “war college” didn’t actually feel like a war college and I wasn’t really sure of the point of it especially with how repetitive it became throughout the story. The “enemies to lovers” I felt missed a massive chunk of turning to lovers and there was no build up in the relationships. As for he slow burn, call it no burn until the last 50 pages, which felt extremely rushed compared to the rest of the book and the build up to the ending would have been so interesting if it had been expanded. However, I’m guessing we will see more of the relationships in book 2.

Overall, as much I as I enjoyed this story, there were just so many qualities within this book that could have been amazing and that I love including why choose, enemies to lovers and a war college but I just felt short changed by the end of it.

Thank you HarperCollinsUK for sending me this ARC.

“A man was speaking, so I stopped listening.” the FMC immediately became one of my faves right off the bat with this line 🤭 she was soo funny, the comedic timing of both the narrator and the writing made this such a good experience.

This is full of so many fun things - trials mixed with greek mythology. While this delivers on engaging plot it was the characters that made this story for me.

This is a reverse harem romantasy which might not be for everyone but it was done very well. This wasn't fully developed in this first instalment, however, we are introduced to some of the love interests and honestly, who can blame the girl. This a stacked cast with both Aiden Snow and Teddy Hamilton voicing the MMC's 😍

My only criticism is that this probably could have been shorter, although the ending was a little rushed. I desperately need the next book after the cliffhanger!!

I had SOO much fun listening to this and I highly recommend the audio if you're contemplating picking this up.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for sending me a copy of the audio in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really incredible story. The author pulls you right into the vivid setting, the characters are rich and well developed. I loved the plot and am so looking forward to reading what comes next!

Blood of Hercules was a highly anticipated read of mine and I really was looking forward to listening to the audio, however for me the narrator just didn't hit. This is a personal preference and not one that should take away from the story at all -hence my rating still being high. I really enjoyed the storyline, The development of the characters as well as the storyline made it enjoyable. I thought it was written well and though I didn't get on with the narrator well I could see that the premise and the writing was spot on. This is a novel that I will definitely go back and read, as I feel I will get a better experience from the written format.

Alexis has lived in a horrific, torturous life of starvation, beatings and loneliness. During her exams she is discovered to be a missing ‘mutt’ Spartan and is taking to compete in their trials for immortality.

I wizzed through this book in a day, so I definitely had a lot of fun. It is the beginning of a Romania’s with some spice. I enjoyed Alexis’ internal monologue and sarcastic, horny snake friend.

There was language used that felt out of place and changes in moods of characters that threw me a little. The audiobook of blood of Hercules is great and I loved the voices used especially for Nyx.

This feels like the beginning of a spicy, dark romance so of that and funny internal monologues are your thing, you will devour this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC of Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas.

I really loved the idea of this book. Greek mythology, poor down and out girl with a mythical snake companion competing in a Greek theatre Hunger games-esque competition to be immortal? Sounds amazing.

The book itself, I sadly, was let down. I really did not get on well with the FMC. We get it, she's shy and anxious, but the internal monologuing in relation to actual dialogue is 90/10, and with the nature of the character and her actions, it doesn't gel with me.

I've seen this book getting a lot of love on Tiktok, and I'm glad it is reaching the right audience, but sadly it didn't live up to my expectations of its own blurb.

This was addictive! Such a funny heroine. It was great being inside her head. Hilarious inner monologue.
Why choose romance, lots of action, lots of twists and turns. Loved the Greek mythology elements that the author put in the story. Loved the dark romance.
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Loved the audiobook. The narrator really brought out the action and humor!

Alexis is used to living life in pain and suffering. She doesn't know any other way. But when she is whisked away to become a Spartan warrior and have a chance for a better life for herself and her brother, well... she has no choice but to go. Literally. But the horrors of Spartan life are just beginning.

This book was great! Everyone needs a bitey friend like Nyx in their corner. She was the comic relief that made me giggle out loud a few times. Overall, I liked everything about this. Truly. The voice actors were amazing. I actually highly recommend the audio on this. I will definitely be reading the sequel.

💭🎧📚 Blood of Hercules 🩸🏺(#VillainsOfLore)
- Jasmine Mas (narrated by Teddy Hamilton, Tristan Morris, Aiden Snow and Meg Sylvan)

I’ve seen this one get a lot of attention on the socials, and as I’m a fan of Greek mythology and retellings, I was really lucky to be granted early access to an audiobook. Swipe ➡️ for the blurb and read on for my thoughts.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Before I start this one, this one has a lot of content warnings, a lot. Read more at the end for more information if you want to learn more.

Back to the book. This is billed as a gender twist to the Hercules story, with a different take on the Greek mythology trope - and it was interesting. Although it was a little hard to keep track of in parts. Alexis is also snarky. Really snarky. And some of her internal monologue that did have me chuckling. But this did have me conflicted. I enjoyed the story, but how she responded to some of the situations she found herself in didn’t sit well with me.

Whilst the narration is delivered by a trio, the main narrator was top tier. She really put the snark in Alexis’s voice and I was here for that.
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⚠️Content warning/potential spoilers: there’s detail and repeated reference to suicide, abuse and assault. There are also heavy references to suicide. And whilst Alexis has gone through a really traumatic past, her references felt more flippant rather than truly and reflection of her emotional distress. ⚠️

Well this is not your typical Greek mythology retelling. A dystopian Hercules meets hunger games. Definitely a unique story.
The writing reminds you of being a teenager so could be aimed at that audience but also there are a lot of tough subjects covered and mature themes so check your triggers. Follows Alexis as she goes from slums to trials mentored by Achilles and Patroclus. Odd but hilarious and I am intrigued to see where the story will go

I absolutely adored this book, Alexis is my all time favourite character she’s brilliant. I loved the storyline and tensions and the narrator was really fun as well! This was a top read for me.

2.75

Unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me.

The premise of this one was so promising with the mesh of Ancient Greek mythology with an almost dystopian futuristic SciFi setting, however the tone and rhetoric really let this down (in my opinion).

The FMC is said to be 19 but reads more like 14/15 due to her naivety and “innocence”, the other characters fell quite flat and the insta lust/love again just didn’t have the payoff I would hope for.

In terms of the rhetoric style, I feel this is definitely a “this just isn’t for me” thing and not necessarily a books issue. We spend most of the book in Brynn’s inner monologue which is written in quite an immature way and continually (and repetitively) sarcastic which just became tiresome for me.

All of all it was a disappointing read for me but would probably be more suited to dark romance readers as I think that may be more the target audience for this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the Audiobook for me to review

This book started off so good and I wasn’t hooked. Alexis was so interesting and the mystery around her had me reading one more chapter. Her sarcastic and self deprecation voice was actually fun to read but I was not a fan of the romance as there was no development or chemistry between any of them and so i struggled with the second half of the book.
I also wasn’t a fan of certain reveals at the end but there are some interesting things that I want to know the answers that I may read the sequel.

I really wanted to like this but it wasn’t for me. It was to cringey and it felt like there were so many logic and continuity errors that it was really off putting.

That being said the performances from all of the narrators were great inspire of the poor story.

I know I’m in the minority for the reviews but this style is not for me.
It droned on and felt so repetitive.

I could feel the irony and some of humour coming through which was so dry and dark it certainly isn’t going to be for everyone but that didn’t put me off.

Maybe listening to this as an audiobook didn’t help because the tone set made it feel slow and dreary and I don’t think that is the narrator’s fault it just may be a book better read so the reader can inflect their own tone and humour to it or at least skim read the very many repetitive parts

I received this book as an ARC and provide my honest review

🎧Audiobook Review🎧

#adprproduct

I want to thank NetGalley for approving me for an ARC of this audiobook.

I loved the uniqueness of this book, the use of Greek mythology in a post-apocalyptic setting was genius.

The trials and angst were evident throughout and the romance has been set up to be interesting in future books.

My only critique is that it felt quite long for what happened. I loved the narration and thought having multiple narrators helped to distinguish from the different characters.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.25

I started this as an audio bit then finished it on my kindle. I loved the story, this was exactly something for my taste! Not sure how I will wait for the next book now, desperately need to continue this series omg

I listened to the arc audiobook, and I must admit I think I definitely enjoyed the audiobook more than I would have enjoyed reading the book, because there was a lot of dialogue within dialogue, within dialogue, this FMC doesn’t stop thinking. She doesn’t say much but her inner dialogue is endless. I’ll say it was definitely funny, but more of a “oh my gosh this is silly “ kind of funny.

It was my first reverse harem, why choose romance and im not to sure if im a fan, I didn’t hate it, but I am definitely a one love interest kinda girl!!

It kept me interested, if nothing else I wanted to see who she ended up with in the end. Unfortunately It was not totally for me, but im sure there are tons of readers out there that love it.

Thank you for the opportunity to get the arc audiobook.

I have such mixed thoughts on this book…

Did I find it rather messy? Yes
But did I inhale this book? Also yes…

3.5 🌟 just for the potential.

I’d say it’s an extremely bingeable book, especially the audiobook. Normally for fantasy I find audiobooks harder to keep up with the world build, but this was easy enough to get to grips with. But as addictive as it was, that didn’t stop me cringing and groaning at some of the content.

—-

Premise:

Alexis is a homeless orphan in a post apocalyptic world where Greek gods are revered. During a routine school test she is discovered to have Spartan blood, and forced to enter the crucible, a deadly competition for young Spartans.

Achilles and Patroclus become her hesitant mentors and Kharon and Augustus are her terrifying professors, all with ulterior motives.

And whilst trying to survive the competition, Alexis is certain someone is stalking her and sending threats.

—-

Firstly just leave all your knowledge of the Greek gods at the door and go with the flow… although Hades proves himself as still my favourite in every universe! (Definitely read the bonus chapter!)

There are some really good characters in the book, and I especially love Nyx, who is 100% me as a motivational friend! And there are some good relationships, especially Alexis’ bond with her brother. I think the characters I like the most aren’t necessarily the main characters.

The plot itself, is really fun and I think it’s what had me hooked. The whole deadly tournament and mystery of Alexis’ heritage and powers. The entire concept was great and the world created is really strong!

Where it kind of fell flat for me was:
- all the MMCs were kind of one dimensional. Kharon went all broody emo. Augustus I still don’t quite believe even likes Alexis. And Patro was so over the top and whiny. (Which annoyed me because of how emotionally intelligent he should be). I only like Achilles because he never spoke and I feel kind of bad for him. He seems like a gentle murderous giant. I think a lot needs to be done in the next book to build on their characters and actually show that they genuinely feel for Alexis. The challenge with a RH is you are given limited pages to develop each love interest, compared to a book with a singular MMC. There’s potential but I hope their characters are fleshed out.
- Alexis, whilst being marketed as a rather badass FMC, infuriated me. Why all these men were obsessed with her was beyond me, when her outward persona was so weak. I loved her inner monologue, it was punchy and hilarious, but I really hope she starts showing that!

But there’s potential, and I love the world, so I will continue!

Audiobook notes:
- I really liked the narrator for Alexis, especially in drowsy / sleep deprived mode. She really immersed you in the crucible.
- Teddy Hamilton is fantastic as always. Definitely suited Kharon!
- The narrator for Augustus at first was far more gravelly than I expected but it kind of grew on me.
- I kind of liked Patro’s narration. Again it’s not the Patro I imagine based more on who Patro is in my head but he suits the Patro of this world.