I Am Lydia

J. Ryan paints a glorious picture of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, through the eyes of a young princess of Sparta, Lydia.
The author has clearly extensively researched the historical evidence that exists to follow Alexander on his path towards becoming the King of Kings, and combined this with myths and pure imagination to make an exciting and engaging story.
At the heart of this epic adventure is a romance of true love torn apart by the perils of war. There are many poignant moments.
My eyes were opened to previously unknown cruelties perpetrated by the young warrior King of Macedon. A splendid novel.

I Am Lydia is an Ancient Historical Fiction novel that follows the life of fictional Lydia, a Spartan warrior who finds herself fighting in the army of Alexander the Great. The premise of this book was really exciting, Spartan women had a very different role than women did in the Greek City-States, training alongside boys and actively encouraged to remain physically fit and to exercise.

The novel is fast paced (having a race be the initial scene of the story was really fitting) and I found myself powering through the pages quite quickly and it ticked a lot of my boxes; Ancient setting, feminine perspective and a romantic sub-plot. I liked that a lot of the names used in the story were based on famous people and elements of Ancient Greek culture (like the Myrmidons and the names of its squadron members, like Artemisia and Xanthippe), it made settling into the story comfortable with easily recognisable names. While the text integrates a lot of terminology, it is not bogged down with excessive description, the writing is approachable, with all terminology thoroughly explained making it easy to read. The book was incredibly plot driven, it gave a clear and concise outline of battle scenes without dragging on and moved from one battle to another without filler or side quests. Additionally, I quite liked the conversational tone that Lydia narrated her story in, like the reader is a new friend. Adding on to this, the mini trigger warnings ( eg. “You may wish to skip this bit, because it is extremely bloody”) throughout the story would be a help for some readers.

Something that I noticed that I am not the biggest fan of in historical fiction is modern sounding nicknames and terms (like Liddy for Lydia and Misi for Artemisia or talking about Alexander’s ‘PR Machine’) I feel like it disrupts the immersion of the story. Additionally I felt the romance subplot was introduced a bit clunkily. But these are incredibly small things that in no way diminish my enjoyment of the novel (if anything it reveals I’m likely older than the intended demographic) and I am sure they will be non-factors for a lot of other readers.

I think this is a great read for late teens or those those new to historical fiction set in the Ancient World, with a developing understanding of the Greek world and Spartan society. A great gateway into historical fiction that is sure to foster a love and appreciation of ancient history, especially considering it is told through a female lens, which is often under-represented in a lot of our histories.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Book Guild for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting and entertaining historical fantasy in the time of Alexander of Macedon. In reality women in Sparta weren’t allowed to be warriors.

Set in ancient Sparta, the book tells us the story of an abandoned baby who is adopted by one of the Spartan kings and is raised as a princess. But not, mind you, a stereotypical princess!

Growing up, Lydia trains alongside boys, in the Spartan tradition, to become a warrior - an expert rider and a horseback archer. She is also a talented inventor, and comes up with a design to modify Spartan arrows to be twice as deadly, much to the delight of her Royal father and uncle.

The squad of female warriors Lydia sets up name themselves the Myrmidons, a hat tip to Achilles' elite fighters. Their achievements eventually draw the attention of Alexander of Macedon, soon to be conqueror of the world, and they agree to fight for him - provided he leaves Sparta out of his ambitions for conquest.

But as Lydia will discover, a warrior's way is not the only battleground in life. And, as has been well established, all is fair in the battle for love as well the conflicts of war, and sometimes the former is far more complicated than the latter...

This is a fast-paced and enjoyable read. Lydia is a strong MC, and after a while you forget that she is not a princess by blood. In a way, her story reminded me a little of Atalanta, the only female Argonaut, but in reverse. Atalanta being an abandoned baby who was born a princess, and Lydia an abandoned baby who became a princess through adoption. With of course both of them ending up as formidable warriors.

The main difference here being that Atalanta's story does exist in the Greek myths - even if it has largely been ignored until Jennifer Saint's wonderful book Atalanta, and Rosie Hewlett's Medea, where Atalanta has a role to play - both fine novels, and recent releases that I've read and reviewed on Netgalley.

Lydia's story is fiction, and her descriptions of Spartan society may well have taken some of the liberties allowed for fiction. But it's a fun historical fiction read, especially in the YA category.

This book follows Lydia, who after being abandoned as a baby was raised as a Spartan warrior and ends up fighting for emperor Alexander the Great. For me this kind of story being told in a female perspective was chef’s kiss, we love ourselves strong women over here!
I have to say that I don’t usually like the “historical” genre, unless it is ancient Rome / Greece (big fan of all things mythology obviously), so for me this had that going for it, plus it had romance and it was fast paced, with lots of action with the fighting.
Overall, this was great, super entertaining and very short if you don’t want to commit to a huge novel, if you’re like me and love ancient everything then dive right in!

Such a great book!!!! I love how Lydia explains to us how she thinks Alexander is leading his campaign. Our universal history books tell us a story of glory, not mentioning all the failures she could see from her perspective as a Spartan princess, raised for warfare. I really like your way of writing and I will love to read more from you.

I really enjoyed this book as I am a fan of ancient history and loved all of the famous figures mentioned throughout this book. Lydia and the other characters were very well written and I loved reading about the different adventures and battles they took part in. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in ancient history or Alexander the Great, and in riveting female protagonists you just can’t help but root for!

I've been on a historical fiction/retelling kick for such a long time and when stories like this come around, it is so exciting to me. I really loved this interpretation of Alexander the Great and Lydia. It was wonderful!