While I'm always interested in Greek mythology titles, I prefer mine to remain a little closer to the original myth. I had a hard time with this one because it deviated so much from the original source material. But that is not to say it's not well written and wouldn't appeal to a large audience, it just wasn't my favorite. There is a lot of interest in this myth and the strong female lead will be be appealing to a lot of readers.

A Greek mythology retelling with a romance that will have you swooning. Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara is a great take on a classic love story with ancient characters that still feel relatable.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

After 25% I sadly could not get into this one.

I wasn’t the right reader, but I greatly appreciate the opportunity to try it!

Enjoyed this read, I don't read a lot of books like this but the story telling and detail was entertaining and interesting.

My expectations for this book were low. I'm not exactly a fan of retellings because the author takes too many liberties with the mythos or it feels derivative. However, this book was absolutely fabulous.

Psyche and Eros are the most "well-known" in the Greek pantheon, so a lot of their story is lesser known. That being said, there are still plenty of other myths that Greek nerds will recognize. Luna McNamara is a Greek mythology wizz. She effortlessly weaves various myths together to create a beautiful masterpiece. Perhaps my thorough playing of Assassin Creed's Odyssey created some bias, but this is one worth reading.

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

I LOVED it! I love mythologies. While I’ve read a version of this tale before, I’ve never read it with both perspectives set in the traditional world setting. Beautiful!

Love a mythological retelling and this one was really well done. The scene setting felt lush and the characters were intriguing. Of course, already knowing the story meant I could see where it was going from start to finish, but that didn't do much to detract from my enjoyment of the book. Recommended!

This is perfect for fans of myth retellings. I enjoyed a different take on some of the Greek Gods and Goddesses. Their stories are always up for interpretation. Psyche and Eros was definitely a Rom-Com with a happy ending. It just took a bit of trial to get there. Overall a fun book.

Having read a few other fictitious tales from other authors about gods, goddesses, demigods, and heroes alike, I was interested in a romance heavy tale of the same topic. The story of Psyche and Eros is one of great love and loss. It ranks in my mind as one of the great greek tales with desire, love, and passion as it's centerpiece. However, some of these tales from other authors are written in the same clunky writing style as Homer with a minimal contemporary flair. Luna McNamara wrote this story with the ease of contemporary writing and the content of a great epic.

Together, this made this story easily accessible for both adults and young adults. While it is fiction, the tales of the greek mythology are being retold and kept alive in fiction like this one. Where readers can delve into the story and understand it and be fascinated by it in a way that previous mythology texts didn't allow. Luna McNamara opens a door for readers to enjoy the ancient tales, and, if desired, explore it further through their own research.

I am not a great Greek literary envoy, so I do not know how accurate McNamara was in her retelling and embellishments. I will say, however, that I enjoyed it and it made me want to learn more about not just Psyche and Eros, but Atalanta, Clytemnestra, Helen, Zephyrus, Iphigenia, and others.

Love the story of Psyche and Eros.

But as I was reading noticed the timelines and characters were not quite aligned with the classic stories. It was hard for me to get into. The pacing and cadence of the story was enjoyable but I had a hard time getting past the fact that not all the characters should be together or even in the same stories in the same areas.

This will definitely be great for someone who is not familiar with all the original stories.

Eros, the god of desire, is cursed to fall for the mortal woman, Psyche, but the minute she looks directly at his face, they will be cursed to be apart forever. As they fall in love, they trigger the curse.

Instead of ending the story there, we are taken on their journey as they try to reconnect. I love the way Psyche was portrayed as a fearless woman, fierce in her quest to reunite with her love.

McNamara succeeded in centering Psyche in this Greek mythology retelling while creating a compelling love story. I adored it!

I am all about the Greek mythology. I love the different stories and the different retellings, so when Frenzy mentioned Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara at their spring presentation, I was all over. I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, as I had never heard of either of these names before. I’m not sure how much it follows the actual mythology, but I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy their origin stories presented here.

The Good:
Most Greek mythology is a new retelling of a story I’ve already heard, but not this. Psyche and Eros was completely new to me and I really enjoyed that. It was a fun read, with whit and humor and visits from other more well know Greek gods and individuals. The story moved rather quickly and was a fast read.

The Bad:
I never felt like there was really a pinnacle moment in this book. The flow was steady and even the whole way through, which isn’t bad, but I was left longing for something more. As much as it was something new, there was nothing that grabbed me. I didn’t connect like I did with the stories of Artemis or Hercules. And I have to mention, I fell hard for the cover of this one, but when I went to grab a physical copy the colors were a lot more muted then the digital version. This is a personal preference but I loved the bright vibrant colors.

The Mentionable:
This book follows suit with most Greek mythologies. There is blood and gore. There is sexual scenes. There is mention of rape, physical abuse and murder. There is also the mention of death of parents and loss of mentor due to disease.

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t my favorite Greek retelling. If you’re looking for something different maybe check it out and see if it’s the right book for you!

Thank you to Harper Collins Frenzy for the gifted e-Arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Such a great telling of the story of Psyche and Eros and the struggles they went through to be together. I have read several different tellings of their story and this one was one of my favorites.

Thanks to William Morrow and Book Club Girl for this ARC!

I enjoyed the story of Psyche and Eros. I also like that it paired with some of the events in Ancient Greek history. I found the first half of the book to be pretty slow but once Psyche received her quest it really picked up. I definitely did not know their story so it was very interesting.

TW// slavery, sexism, incest, mentions of war, cheating, mention of bestiality, physical abuse, violence, rape, suicide, self harm, death (of wives, parents, animals), murder, mention of maternal death

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book, but I think I overall enjoyed it. It was really messy and it had the potential to be a lot better, but it brought some great life to a Greek myth that not everyone knows about.

Psyche and Eros had a terrible opening. There’s no other word for it. The first 20% or so of the book was covering about 18 years in Psyche’s life and thousands of years in Eros’ life. It read like info-dumping at times and a lot of that first 20% of the book wasn’t super relevant to the story. If I had been a historian who wanted to know every detail of this section of Greek history, maybe the start of the book would’ve been interesting, but for the casual reader like myself, this first section of the book is a drag to get through. It would’ve drastically improved the story if the book got rid of all that backstory and instead started at the action, specifically when Eros got impaled by his own arrow.

The middle section of the book starting after the arrow incident was really good. I especially liked every moment when Psyche and Eros were together. While I wasn’t super fond of each of them individually, their talks and their chemistry were really well written. Psyche’s stubborness and daring with Eros’ kind soul and protective heart made for a fun combination.

I also found that the settings in the middle of the book were amazing. The seaside house was my favorite location they spent time at. The seaside house was described so well that I could picture it as if I was sitting in the house. It had unique magic as well that captivated me from start to finish.

The trials were fun in their own unique way. They weren’t my favorite part of the book, but I flew through the trials. They were paced pretty well and I even found myself nervous about whether Psyche would be able to complete them or not. This nervousness shocked me because I had initially found the first section of the book to be so boring that I thought for sure I’d rate the book one star. However, some way along Psyche’s journey, I found that I had begun to care for Psyche.

The ending then ruined my last moments with this book. It quickly rushed through several years of the characters' lives when it should’ve ended sooner, but the most frustrating part of the ending for me was that Psyche all of a sudden lost her powerful and stubborn nature for no reason. Her powerfulness and stubborness were two of the key features of her characterization. To have those all of a sudden disppear for seemingly no reason irritated me. If it had been a gradual disappearance of those traits, it would’ve made a lot more sense but her personality change felt very abrupt.

I appreciated how this book portrayed some of the characters from Greek myth. This version of Hekate, Persephone, Medusa, and Demeter were some of my favorite depictions of them that I have ever read. Luna McNamara did a great job as well with shining light on lesser gods that don’t get as much attention in modern Greek myth stories. Zephyrus in particular was really fun to read about in this story. I would love a whole novel focusing on his romance.

Despite having so many things about this book that I enjoyed, I have one final criticism of it - the story would’ve benefited from more Eros chapters. Eros’ chapters are prevalent in the start and end of the book, but they’re basically nonexistent for the large middle section of the book. A few sections here and there describing his miserable circumstances would’ve helped balance out all of Psyche’s chapters.

My thoughts on this book are a bit all over the place, so it was hard for me to settle on a rating at first, but I think three stars is fairly accurate. It had lots of good moments, but it also had tons of flaws. This book is great for Madeline Miller fans and hardcore Greek mythology fans. However, if you don’t fit into either of those groups, you should skip this one and instead spend your time reading better books.

While I love Greek myths and retellings and I love love stories this one fell a tad flat for me. Reading more like an autobiography of their story rather than them living it in the moment I lost a lot of butterflies (pun intended) and feeling of falling in love I’m sure they had.

The side characters really stole the show more than anything and the bits of history that went by as the story progressed was fun. Seeing Helen of Troy and Achilles and Patroclus, recognizing the bits of history I know. Even the side gods were great and I felt emotionally connected to them and felt they added a lot to the main characters. I wish we saw both Psyche and Eros fall in love with each other, especially Eros being under the curse, Psyche questioned his love when she knew of the curse but I would have loved to watch Eros realize he genuinely loved Psyche in spite of the curse.

I’m excited to receive a hard copy regardless and add it to my collection.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this book early! I really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was very well done, and the story kept me interested. I believe my students/patrons would also love this book and will be acquiring it for the library!

I can’t resist a Greek mythology retelling, so I was excited to read Luna McNamara’s take on one of the greatest mythological love stories, Psyche & Eros. I’m drawn to the combination of the traditional story elements along with some fresh reimaginings. Here, the framework of the myth exists but McNamara puts an original twist on it.

This Psyche is a warrior, trained by the great Atalanta. While I love that she can slay monsters and less was made of her appearance, I didn’t always enjoy her attitude. I think she’s meant to be taken as spirited or standing up for herself, but her outspokenness sometimes comes across as abrasive or rude. Her characterization is almost diametrically opposed to Psyche’s usual depiction.

McNamara also takes a lot of liberties with the relationships that are established within Greek mythological cannon, linking Psyche into a branch of Agamemnon’s family tree as a princess of Mycenae. Setting Psyche & Eros’s timeline within the Trojan War is unexpected too and feels like a device to name-drop a number of key Greek heroes, as the war isn’t directly relevant to the central plot.

The prose is solid but the pacing is a bit uneven. The first chunk of the book is slow with a lot of time spent on exposition, but once the pace picked up, I became more invested and enjoyed the second half much more. I would have liked more narrative about Psyche’s quests instead of investing so much detail in side plots that were only vaguely relevant.

Although McNamara’s imaginative approach didn’t entirely work for me, I think it’s a worthy read for fans of Greek myth retellings. Readers of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint, and Claire Heywood should consider giving this one a try. Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Sadly this didn't do much for me. I was very excited to read a feminist retelling of the myth of Psyche and Eros but I am not entirely sure where this so called feminist twist came into play other than making Psyche a 'warrior'