I have never read anything from the perspective of Aphrodite. This feminist retelling by Bryony Pearce brought new depth and context to her story.

Aphrodite is born from the sea, and is eventually discovered by the gods. We follow her as she finds her way to Olympus, where her beauty is immediately seen as a threat by jealous goddesses, and a prize by careless gods. The book retells several myths and legends from Aphrodite's point of view, as she wrestles with her beauty being the main thing others see.

I really enjoyed this book - there are plenty of recognisable figures, and some lesser known, and themes including misogyny, feminism, and power struggles. The writing is modern and realistic, with the complicated Olympian family dynamics offering both humour and threat. I would absolutely recommend this to fans of mythology retellings!

I absolutely love a Greek mythology retelling and this didn’t disappoint. Despite being one of the the 12, Aphrodite is quite often a side character and it was refreshing to read something with her in the spotlight. A goddess who is arguably a bit ‘marmite-y’, it is often easy to dislike Aphrodite, but the way Pearce portrays her and the trials she faces makes it much easier to understand and love her. Would absolutely recommend.

Greek Mythology ✔️
Gods✔️
Drama,adventure and excitement ✔️✔️✔️✔️
The title kind of give it away but this book us definitely one of my favourites of the year so far. A story based on one of the 12 main Greek gods especially one that we don't really hear much about... not my favourite godess but now looking at her view point she is definitely one to adore.....starting from her birth and her journey to Olympus I have never been so engrossed in a story and the urge to throw it because of the amount of injustice she suffers. The story is told beautifully and makes you so angry and annoyed that you want to go and commit revenge for her......the struggle of females in a male dominated world has you rooting for Aphrodite....

I have an obsession with Greek god/goddess retellings so the second I saw that Aphrodite gets HER ENTIRE OWN BOOK I knew that I needed to read it. I feel like Persephone gets all of the attention (which, she is awesome so its deserved) but Aphrodite is also so important because like the tagline on the cover says - she's not just a pretty face.

Needless to say, I went into the book with high expectations. I LOVED it. I admit that I don't know a lot about Aphrodite's past or even her myth in general and I adored the author's take on it. Aphrodite is so often portrayed as a lust-filled silly woman or just a vapid pretty face - or sometimes just vile and jealous - and I really just love that Pearce takes her to the next level and gives her a complex personality and life.

The pacing was great, the character development was top tier, and I love the 'sibling' rivalry aspects - Greek myth familial lines are so convoluted and funny that I always love seeing how they interact with one another.

As I was reading I honestly kept trying to think of any kind of constructive criticism and came up blank. I loved all of it.

I’m yet to find a book that features Aphrodite and her story so I was immediately intrigued by this story’s premise. Typically we know Aphrodite as the Goddess of love and beauty and she tends to be portrayed as a side character with a shallow personality. It was refreshing to see her in all her complexity - she did start the Trojan war after all so there has to be more to her than just shallow attributes!

I enjoyed the author’s own personal take on Aphrodite - the story focusses on parts of her myth that seem to get overlooked and gives us more insight into her beginnings which is quite sparse in mythical literature. I did find the writing style hard to engage with but that is just a personal taste, I feel that the characters were well developed and the story was well told.