Hera by Jennifer Saint ~Blog Tour

 Publisher: Wildfire

Publication Date: 23rd May 2024

Genre: Myths/Historical Fiction

Summary:

When Hera, immortal goddess and daughter of the ancient Titan Cronus, helps her brother Zeus to overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side.

As they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera suspects that Zeus might be just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed.

She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?

Often portrayed as the jealous wife or the wicked stepmother, this retelling captures the many sides of Hera, vengeful when she needs to be but also compassionate and most importantly, an all-powerful queen to the gods.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Things Book Tours, Wildfire and Jennifer Saint for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
I knew I'd love this book before I'd even read it, there hasn't been a Jennifer Saint book that I haven't loved, she's one of my auto-buy authors!
Now that's out of the way let me tell you why Hera is just fantastic. For a start, the cover is just stunning! It's so beautifully eye-catching and if you take the sleeve off the hardback it's a gorgeous purple on the inside, and we have beautiful peacocks on the inside, I've loved all the covers of her books but I think this one is by far my favourite. Inside we have an amazingly written book, Jennifer Saint just has such a way of writing Greek Mythology retellings, everything flows so beautifully that you easily get absorbed in the book and happily lose hours reading it and I spent hours reading and finishing this book in a day. I couldn't bear to put it down, we get to know Hera in her own words rather than the typical narrative of through tales of heroes. It completely changed my opinion of her! I could never understand why in all the mythology she took her anger out on the women that Zeus cheated on her with when he tricked them into being with him, they were just as much victims as she was. But the way that Jennifer Saint has written Hera and shown us why she might have done that, it now makes sense to me why she chose that path. She's far more than the vengeful Queen of the gods that we've all come to know her as and I think now when I read the mythology I'm going to be seeing them in a very different light.
Every woman that Jennifer Saint has chosen to write about has been a brilliant, largely forgotten about or misrepresented woman of Greek Mythology and I can't wait to see who she's going to write about next because she has so many choices and I know whoever she picks is going to get a fabulous retelling.

Krystina xx

The Heart of Winter by Shona Kinsella~Blog Tour

 Publisher: FLAME TREE PRESS

Publication Date: 16th April 2024

Genre: Fantasy/Mythology

Summary:

When Brigit is faced with a forced marriage to Aengus, god of Summer, she flees into the highlands in search of the Cailleach, the Queen of Winter. There, she hopes to learn how to live on her own terms, without the need for a man to speak for her, but can she persuade the Cailleach that she is worthy? Caught between two gods and finding an unlikely ally in the Fae witch, Nicnevin, Brigit will be tested to her limits and beyond.

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Thing Book Tours, Flame Tree Press and Shona Kinsella for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
Once again my magpie tendencies came into play because I kind of went for this book mostly based on the cover, but I did also love the Celtic mythology basis of it. I love mythology and it is rare at the moment to find books that aren't using Greek mythology, which don't get me wrong I love it, but there is something about Celtic mythology that makes my heart sing. I really enjoyed that we saw the turning of the wheel of the year with this book and the balance that's needed for that to work, especially as I sat reading this with Hailstone falling in April! Spring seems to have lost its way this year a little and it made me smile to read/see the personification of those seasons and watch Brigit's understanding, especially of winter, broaden as the book progresses.
The writing style is just beautiful, it flows so well and we get the emotions coming off the pages so easily as you read them. The connection between Brigit and Cailleach is beautiful to watch grow, I thought it might progress in a different direction than where it went but I still adored the ending and how Brigit grew and matured throughout the book which spans a time frame of just over a year.
I've already got a list of friends that I think need to read this book, but they're going to have to buy their own copy because I know I want to read this again, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be soon.

Krystina xx

Gods Galore by Rupert Stanbury~Blog Tour

 

Publisher: Matador

Publication Date: 19th October. 2021

Genre: Humorous Fiction

Summary:

The Olympian Gods have made it to the 21st century AD. We may not have heard much about them in the last two thousand years, but they’re still controlling what we humans are up to – or at least they think they are.

The reality is that the Gods are like us – they’ve got problems!

Zeus is still Top God on Mount Olympus, but he’s got issues with many of the younger gods. His brothers, Hades and Poseidon, have issues with themselves – they’re getting too set in their ways ruling the Underworld and the Seas; they probably need a job change.

But help is at hand from an unexpected source – we humans.

It’s surprising what a dose of good common sense can do for even the most powerful of the gods, especially when it comes from a couple of teenagers!

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Things Book Tours, Matador and Rupert Stanbury for having me on the tour and sending me the book.
Now if you remember not that long ago I reviewed The Four Horsemen, the second book in this series, and I may have ever so slightly gone on about how much I loved it. Well, prepare for more of the same because this is another amazing book.
The cover is again that slight Pratchett cartoon style which really suits the writing style, as I said last time it's very much reminiscent of the late great Terry Pratchett. Fantastically clever with very witty things thrown in that you take a minute to register. One of those made me stop and think for a moment, we had the very brilliant Vesta being shown around the torturing department by Mr Atilla ( yes the Hun) and in Vlad's area they come across two men being impaled called Harold and William and I stopped for a moment before carrying on to see if I could figure out which historical figures they were before I found out by reading. And I loved that I did that throughout the book and I lost count of the amount of times these little things made me laugh out loud, I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book.
And for once I actually found myself tabbing a book so I could remember things I wanted to tell you all in the review(I've never understood tabbing a book before now) because we start with a list of Principal Characters and the detail added into their little one-line explanation is fantastic. Some of my favourites are Homer-Once a writer, now head librarian ( ok so not so much detail there but it made me really giggle) and Mr Wong- Works in the kitchens, having once run a Chinese restaurant in Alderley Edge, England.
Once again I loved reading this book, and I'm off to go re-read The Four Horsemen now because I do so love this series and I'm eagerly awaiting the next book, with the hopes that we have many more to come.
Btw if you think you know who Harold and William were, comment and let me know!

Krystina xx

The Four Horsemen by Rupert Stanbury ~ Blog Tour

 Publisher: Independently published

Publication Date: 17th April 2023

Genre: Humorous fiction

Summary:

ALL THE ROYALTIES RECEIVED BY THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVEN TO SUPPORT THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE

The Four Horsemen is the second book in the Gods Galore series about the Olympian Gods in the 21st Century AD.

The gods are still trying to control what we humans are up to. Unfortunately, they’re not being particularly successful. The world is experiencing both plague and famine which Zeus and the Gods’ Council never approved. What’s going on?

Athene’s determined to find out, but before she can get going the God of War initiates an attack on Poseidon’s realm. It’s now all out conflict and the gods are taking sides – one side, in particular.

Wherever there’s a fight, Hebe’s involved. She soon signs up to an army regiment which is full of soldiers even smaller than she is. But war these days involves brains and not just brawn and there’s plenty of both ready to be deployed in this fight!

Review:

First off thank you to Random Books Tours and Rupert Stanbury for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book to review.
I have to say I loved it! I wasn't sure I would because if I'm honest I wasn't keen on the cover ( and yes I prejudged on the cover and I know I shouldn't) But once I started it I devoured it. I've really enjoyed the writing style, it's so easy to just sit and read and the humour in it really reminds me of Terry Pratchetts Discworld books. 
I've enjoyed having moments of "OMG that's who that is" because the author has cleverly woven in historical figures and other literary works into it that which just meant I spent the book smiling at the references and laughing out loud( Zeus and modern technology is a constant giggle)
Now I don't normally add spoilers but I just want to highlight some of my favourite little bits in the book. I so enjoyed having Vlad in Impaler as head of torturing in the underworld, and the Renaissance painters as the painting team in the construction department, as I said it's so very cleverly written.
We start off with the brilliant notion of Death (one of the four horsemen and hard worker of the underworld) telling Hades that he'd quite like to someday have a Mrs Death and maybe retire to Bournemouth and pass the family business onto Mister Death, and it was just so absurd that it was brilliant and I can't wait for more of this series.
In fact, I've got book one in my basket awaiting payday! And I'm looking forward to the day I can share the books with my small ones because this is such a fun read.

Let me know if you've read this book and if you have tell me your favourite bits!

Krystina xx