Arc provided by the publisher and netgalley for an honest review.

I just want to say this book was not for me, but the people this book is written for will enjoy it.

I like the Greek mythology aspect. I liked the characters overall, but I did not love the predictability and the way some of the characters acted.

3/5 because overall it is good but it was missing something to make it great. LGBTQI+

I loved retellings of any kind and one of my favourites is rapidly becoming retellings of mythilogy from anywhere. So because of that I was excited to read this book and it didn't disappoint. It was well written with a compelling storyline and well developed characters that I found really captivating, and I especially liked that I didn't know much about some of them so that made them more interesting to me and made me want to learn more, I also really liked the setting and the descriptions/imagery around this. .
I loved the LGBTQIA aspects of this book as well as the ethnic representation within the book, as I love reading books with strong poc/bipoc/lgbtqia representation, and these in retellings make my heart swell.
I really enjoyed this book and I cannot wait to read more.

Greek mythology retellings are one of my favorite genres, so you know I had to read this! Overall, I would give this book 3 stars. My favorite part of this book was the different types of relationships shown between the characters. I love how there was an emphasis on friendship and didn’t just focus on just the romantic relationship between Apollo and Hyacinth. However, I thought the modern language and slang to be jarring. It didn’t fit the setting of Ancient Greece and it took me out of the story. This book definitely has potential, but is not quite there yet.
ARC provided by Netgalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I will preface this by saying, even with the harsh rating, this book wasn’t badly written at all. The original concept is interesting, and the writing style was fine. There were some scenes I liked, and moments where I could definitely see potential. Sadly, the execution of both the plot and the romance was lacking and by the end of the book I was a little bored.

So this is a story about the god Apollo and the mortal prince Hyacinth. It’s not really a retelling, because it doesn’t follow the original myth, but borrows the characters. In this, Apollo hasn’t “ascended” yet, which means he still lives on Earth with the mortals and doesn’t have access to his full divine powers. He doesn’t want to join his father, Zeus, and be a pawn in the games he plays with no regard to mortals’ lives. As a lesson, Zeus sends Apollo to live with Hyacinth for a year. This is marketed as an enemies-to-lovers romance, but rapidly, this premise runs thin. There’s no reason for those two to hate each other. Basically, Apollo despises Hyacinth because, at an event organized to praise the Gods 5 years prior, Hyacinth was polite and tried to please Zeus? As he should, as a mortal Prince whose kingdom is at the mercy of Zeus will. In the end, Apollo just seemed petty and rude in regards to his initial dislike of Hyacinth. I didn’t buy the enemies-to-lovers dynamics at all, which probably didn’t help me appreciate the romance. Hyacinth was a better character, in my opinion : well-rounded and actually competent at his job, which I appreciated. I thought he was a solid and likeable character. There were a few secondary characters I also quite liked, like Temi, who was great. Ares, Apollo's brother and the God of war, was a fun interpretation of the classical figure and makes a good impression even though he only makes a few appearances.

The other problem I had with Apollo is his simplistic views of how poverty and society in general work. He spends the first part of the book complaining about how Hyacinth is doing political tasks and doesn’t truly understand poor people, not like he does (because he goes around under disguise and offers food to poor children in the village?). At first, I thought this might be by design and would act as a starting point for character growth for Apollo, but Apollo’s Disney-like political views ended up reflecting the overall heavy-handed way this novel approached a lot of social issues. I don’t normally expect my romance books to be a valid criticism of privilege and wealth inequality, but this was a really big focus of the first part of the novel and the main initial conflict between the two MCs.

Notice how I said “first part of the book” and “initial conflict”? Yeah, there were some pacing issues and all those politics issues are forgotten at some point and only brought up in the last 10% where EVERYTHING gets solved really quickly. The romance also has pacing issues. It doesn’t really start until 50% and even then I just didn’t feel romantic tension. There were still some good moments between the MCs, but since there was minimal prior build-up, it didn’t totally work for me. Maybe it would have helped if 25% of the book wasn’t in Hyacinth sister’s POV, who is having her own lackluster romance… Yeah.

Got an eArc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"We both seem to have an issue with our hearts wanting something duty demanded we ignore."

When I saw this book on NetGalley, which has captivated me because of the cover, I just had to have it. Then, I saw that it's Greek Mythology fiction; I love Greek Mythology, and it's LGBTQIA+, I instantly hit 'request.' And when I got the email that said request accepted, I got soo excited.

A Veil of Gods and Kings is the first instalment on the Apollo Ascending series, and Nicole Bailey did a great job of introducing the characters. I love how some or almost all of the main characters are BIPOC. How Nicole Bailey described the characters in each point of view is outstanding, I love it! She also stated before why little things modernized in their world, and I absolutely understand because I still enjoyed and got captured in this book.

I love the platonic love Temi and Epiphany have for each other. I won't get disappointed if the author does make them a couple XD But Temi said that she's not interested in romantic relationships. So, she may be aromantic. And I respect that.

I swear, I was adding to my storygraph journal the lines I like and/or love from the book, but I was soo into reading that I wasn't able to do so XD This happens to books I can't get enough of, which means I'll be doing a reread to save the parts or lines that made me laugh, smile, and love.

In conclusion, just know if it's still not obvious, I love A Veil of Gods and Kings, and the second book of the series will come out in May! I can't wait to know more about how their plan will come to fruition and how Temi and Epiphany will wave their flag to show sexism is shit. Apollo Ascending is the second Greek Mythology series that I will be committing to, and not stop hinting this is added to my favourite books.

Head to Nicole Bailey's website to see a bonus chapter, what the characters look like, and the pronunciation of names. There's also a YouTube playlist for this book attached to the author's website! (I instantly stalked her website just for those reasons)

I admire Nicole Bailey for adding to the book that the trigger/content warnings mentioned may be spoilers before proceeding to the story when a particular author refuses to add TW because of that purpose. Though, Nicole Bailey still added it for the well-being of the readers.

TW: Hunting, animal death, animal sacrifice (mentioned), misogyny, a father hitting an adult son, blood, death, sexual assault (mentioned), deaths in fire, strong language and sexual content (These are all mentioned by the author in the book)

*I haven't posted to my bookstagram yet but I promise, I'll be prioritizing this*

When a novel is based on or inspired by Greek mythology, rest assured that I will read it!

The protagonist of A Veil of Gods and Kings by Nicole Bailey is Apollo, a deity...or almost.
Young and handsome, he spends his nights having fun, running away from his role and responsibilities, which is to assume the position of the God of Sun.
However, a deity has duties that he must fulfill. For his father, the time has come, he must ascend!
Apollo has no intention of assuming his role at all, so he is forced to mentor Hyacinth.
Both are not the biggest fans of each other, but this forced closeness leads to the birth of something unexpected and passionate.

A Veil of Gods and Kings is an engaging, adventurous, funny, and surprising novel.
I became very passionate about the events of Apollo and the relationship with his father and Hyacinth.
The relationship between Apollo and Hyacinth is what really keeps the focus of the story.
In conclusion, I absolutely loved it! I requested the arc intrigued by the cover, but the synopsis kidnapped me. I can't wait to read the sequel!

2.5 stars

A NA Greek myth retelling, with a HFN ending as this is the first book in a series. It’s worth noting that this is pretty low steam - it tends towards vagueness or fade to black for most of the physical parts outside of kissing.

While I found the writing itself to be decent, I have some larger criticisms, though I think it has potential.

<b>Romance</b>

This promises an enemies-to-lovers, high emotion book. I personally found the romance to be lacking on several fronts. First, it’s barely enemies to lovers. Mild dislike predicated on assumptions to lust to love. They don’t meet for a while in the beginning, and barely start interacting until halfway through.

I would not classify it as a slow burn either - there’s no burn. As a book labeled as a romance, I’d expect at least interaction between the characters for more of the book.

<b>Characters</b>

<u>Hyacinth:</u> The prince is painted as a stick in the mud, rule bound, no fun person. As far as what is shown to the reader, he’s just being responsible, trying to run a kingdom while his father is out.

He does have a consistent personality based around this, which makes for a solid characterization. I also appreciated that he is a competent prince - taking his responsibility seriously, and trying to improve his kingdom and caring about his people.

<u>Apollo:</u> Apollo comes off as a childish brat for a very long time. He is judgmental of Hyacinth for weak reasons, and never really walks those opinions back in a satisfactory manner. It ends up with him coming off as self-centered, to the point of unable to care about people on a large scale, versus his favorite pastime of giving nuts to individual poor people.

While this can make a solid character personality - and does - I don’t think he ever managed a redemption arc or personal growth, which made him less appealing.

<u>Everyone else:</u> There are a fair amount of secondary characters to keep track of. Notably, we have the sister of Hyacinth, Epiphany - I’ll get to her having her own, frequent POV chapters next. Epiphany seems to be mainly a vehicle for discussing the plight of women in this world, and her romantic arc fell flat for me.

We spent a lot of time with Temi, and though I liked her a lot, it still didn’t work for me as far as book cohesion. Temi voiced a lot of my own opinions though, especially at chiding Apollo for being an unreasonable brat, which was satisfying.

The king, when he returned at the very end, is probably one of the better characters. It was nice having a reasonable, loving father figure present. Especially in contrast to Evil Zeus.

<b>The sister’s POV:</b>

This, I did not like. There are a lot of chapters in Epiphany’s POV. Why? Why are we reading her entire sort-of-romance and interactions separately? It takes away from the main storyline without contributing much. Her struggles with her lot in life could have been communicated through interactions with Hyacinth in his POV. This would keep the book feeling more focused, rather than jumpy. I ended up skimming these chapters fairly heavily.

<b>General other thoughts</b>

I felt that the pacing in general was a bit inconsistent. The beginning had much longer chapters and slower build, and by the end it felt like we were racing along with each chapter barely a conversation. The content of these later chapters didn’t match the sense of urgency created by these rapid switches in POV either, so it was not effective if the intent was to use it that way.

The politics stuff - this was very very heavy in the beginning, and felt wildly out of place. It’s trying to take on the plight of the poor, feminism, rich vs. poor attitudes, etc. It’s a lot, especially given how there’s other things that would be a better fit for the story. Despite all the focus on this in the beginning, it gets unceremoniously dropped once the lust kicks in.

<b>Overall,</b> I think this would have been more successful if it had adhered more strongly to the theme of fighting your fate. This did pop up occasionally, but if it had been a stronger thread, it could have brought all the plot, romance, characters together much better. A focus on fate would be a better match for the gods vibe as well. The big, overarching plot barely began at the very end, so perhaps the sequel will have more intrigue and plot action.

I really enjoyed this book. An Apollo/Hyacinth book is something I've been waiting for, for a long time and this really scratched that itch.
The prose was good, the plot was explained well, and I really loved all the relationships in the book - be it the romance between Apollo and Hyacinth, the brother-sister one between Apollo and Temi, the friendship between Temi and Epiphany or the familial relationships.
In some places the book did feel a little lacking, the emotional hits didn't land as well as they should have, but they could easily be looked over.
4.5/5 to this book, I am very eagerly waiting for the sequel.

I like the plot of this story and I think it has a lot of potential, but I did find a few spelling and grammar mistakes. It would benefit going through another round of editing.

I was really excited by the premise of this book. Greek mythology is always a strong basis to rest a book on, but I was in a bit of two minds of this just because as a person who loves Greek myths, there was a lot here that didn't entirely work within each character's mythology. That can be overlooked though, especially because myths are meant to be told and retold in different manners, that's the whole point, but the most glaring thing that kind of drove me insane was the idea that Zeus and Jupiter are two different deities... They are essentially the same exact thing, so the idea that they both inhabit the same universe is kind of bonkers. Zeus handles all of Greece's thunder and Jupiter handles all of Rome? It just doesn't make much sense.

I also wish that I liked Apollo more as a character but every time he lectured Cyn on his own kingdom despite being there for two days, I rolled my eyes. Frankly, there's a stronger case to be made that the true love story of this is between Temi and Pip (who have vastly more interaction and chemistry than Pip does with her actual love interest. There was also a distinct lack of build up between Cyn and Apollo becoming lovers than I would have liked.

Overall, this didn't hook me the way that I really wanted it to, which was a bit of a disappointment.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Veil of Gods and Kings
by Nicole Bailey

I truly enjoyed this first book in the Apollo Ascending series.
Nicole Bailey really did a wonderful job with her writing style and I knew once I finished chapter one I was hooked.
This reimagining of the Greek myth of Apollo and Prince Hyacinth, a new enemies-to-lovers fantasy series that just rocked.
I can't wait for book two.

 Victory Editing,
Thank you so much for this eARC.

Thanks, Netgalley and Publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
Really intriguing love story between Apollo and Prince Hyacinth and just as interesting representation of their characters. I really needed a deeper reason for them to begin as enemies. Different than some silly childish brawl. I wanted something harder to overcome to stand between them, But their friendship and the deeper relationship bloomed nicely. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of what it truly means to become a god. Overall quite an intriguing story and a nice beginning for future books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC of "A Veil of Gods and Kings" by Nicole Bailey. This book is the first in the Apollo Ascending series, based on a Greek retelling.

The story felt really natural and the way the author wrote the characters made them feel realistic and that they truly were more than just a book character. All the sex scenes were made to be interpreted which meant for a smooth reading experience and allowed me to feel much more comfortable with the story as a whole. I would happily love to read the next book by this author, Nicole writes in an amazing form.

I really love the whole premise of this book, it has Greek mythology, LGBTQ representation, and enemies to lovers! This is a great addition to Greek Mythology retellings that don’t usually follow this formula. For me, the plot was unsatisfactory. There are things that could have been explained with greater detail. I also would have preferred a slow burn enemies to lovers, not one page they are enemies and the next they are lovers. This book has the potential to be a great one but just fell short for me. I’d be interested to read a sequel if there is one.


Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was just as good as it's synopsis. I was doubtful because it had A ____ of ____ and ____ title, and the cover looks like something I've seen before, but this was a unique, swoon-worthy book. It had all my favorite tropes and has so much potential for future books. I'm really just in love. This book is an Apollo/Hyacinth retelling. Apollo isn't a god yet but Zeus wants him to be. He forces him to spend a year with Hyacinth because he's the perfect son. Apollo doesn't want to become a full god yet because it'll take him away from his "mortal" sister Temi(Artemis). Temi is my favorite character but I also loved the enemies to lovers romance between Apollo and Hyacinth. I love the nicknames the characters had for each other. I really like how Ares was portrayed and hope we get a sequel showing the other gods/goddesses!

I want to say that the cover is so gorgeous and the overall premise is so original and creative, however there were DO many spelling mistakes riddled throughout. There was literally one on the second page.

Nonetheless, even though the writing was a bit lackluster and the dialogue even more so, I can definitely see the appeal it would bring after another round of tight edits