#Blogtour Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara

It's truly a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara. This is a feminist retelling you don't want to miss.

About the Author

Luna McNamara holds a master's degree from Harvard University in the study of women and gender in world religions. A lifelong lover of Greek myths, she has studied ancient Greek language and philosophy. She is currently a social worker living in Boston. Psyche and Eros is her debut novel. Follow @McnamaraLuna on Twitter, Visit lunamcnamarawriter.com

About the book

The greatest love story ever told...

Born into an era of heroes, a prophecy claims that Psyche - a Princess of Mycenae - will defeat a monster feared even by the gods themselves. Rebelling against society's traditions, she spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing to fulfil her destiny.

But she is soon caught up in powers beyond her control, when the jealous Aphrodite sends the God of Desire, Eros, to deliver a fatal love-curse. The last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the mortal world, but when he is pricked by the very arrow intended for Psyche, he is doomed to love a woman who will be torn from him the moment their eyes meet.

Thrown together by fate, headstrong Psyche and world-weary Eros will face challenges greater than they could ever have imagined. And as the Trojan War begins and the whole of the heavens try to keep them apart, will they find their way back to each other...before it's too late?

Psyche and Eros has every single mythological ingredient readers could hope for: a fierce, aspirational female protagonist (this is definitely Psyche's story), a Herculean-like quest, all your favourite Gods and Goddesses wreaking havoc on mere mortals and set against the outbreak of the Trojan War.

Review

Not going to lie - absolutely freaking loved it. It's all the way up there when it comes to the fantastic retellings, reimagining and new interpretations of Greek mythology, although to be fair this is more than just that. The author has taken a chess board of a variety of mythologies and well-known personas, well maybe more of a smorgasbord, and moves them and makes slight changes to known narratives to create this riveting retelling. It's a reawakening.

Psyche is born under the glow or shadow, depends on how you see it really, of a prophecy that speaks of her future defeat of a monster. Just a minor problem with being perceived and treated as a possible heroine, society doesn't expect girls to save the day.

Eros is a wee bit bored, confused and even perplexed by humanity, especially the way mere mortals manage to take what he bestows upon on them and manipulate, destroy and abuse it. He is frustrated by his fall from status and having to bow to those once lesser and now in control. He has no choice when he is forced to deliver a curse, because Psyche has come to the attention of a green-eyed monster.

The two are destined to meet, collide and change their paths forever. Love under the constraints of a cruel curse or never the twain shall meet per the fine print of the same curse.

I can't recommend this enough, especially if you're embracing old material view through a different lens. Narratives, myths, gods, goddesses and mortals written through the eye of the needle called man. Let's turn up the volume a little louder on the silenced and unwritten perspective.

Buy Psyche and Eros at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Orion Fiction; pub date 25 May 2023, available in hardback, ebook and audio £16.99. Buy at Amazon com.