Thank you Net Galley and publishers for letting me read this arc in return for an honest review.

I love a good Greek myth retelling, and I've been on a kick lately reading them. This is the beloved story of Psyche and Eros but with a twist. Eros is nonbinary, able to change her body to both male and female. Psyche is head strong and fierce, a force to be reckon with. This story is beautifully written and is all about communication and trust. Psyche has the eyes of every male suitor in her town, which she doesn't want and which angers Aphrodite. The goddess tells her daughter, Eros to do away with her and make her fall in love with the ugliest man. Instead of doing that Eros takes Psyche away to a hidden palace to protect her and fall in love. Her only rules are to never come to the bedroom unless it's dark. Spurred by her sisters she takes an oil lamp to bed where it falls on Eros's wings betraying her rules. In the end they must both fight for their love of each other. The way this is written is just so captivating I got lost in the story I know so well. It's like a love ballad in itself. I couldn't get enough.

I really enjoyed this retelling of psyche and eros. i will admit that i felt like their relationship was more lust-y than love. towards the end though you get to see than it is more than lust. i thought the author did such an outstanding job of giving Eros's character the spotlight they deserved. Eros represents so many individuals that are pained with the process of working through their identity and how they want to be represented while fighting a battle with those that surround them. this story was pretty much psyche and eros to a T, with the retelling being Eros's identity and representation. I thought this was well done and i definitely enjoyed it. it will definitely be a retelling i remember.

The Palace of Eros was an excellent read. I loved the character study and the writing felt propulsive. I would read more from this author again.

2.75 rounded up. I really wanted to love this book. I thought the idea of Eros as a female was so interesting and I understand the motive of the book. I appreciate the advocacy of gender fluidity and women’s empowerment, but in my personal opinion it was a little rushed in the last third of the book. The first 2/3 was basically all lust with very little plot. And these Greek myths always end in tragedy so I found it a little disappointingly unrealistic that we ended up with a happily ever after. The trials were so short and everything was too neatly tied up in the end to be truly interesting. Some of the prose about the power of women was very lovely though.

Very interesting subversion of the established mythology, and handled rather deftly. The writing style is quite immersive and evocative. One of the better authors to come out of the post-Madeleine Miller era of Greek retellings.

Real Rating: 3.5* of five
All the Muses please praise the Divine Madeline...Miller, of <I>The Song of Achilles</I> fame...for igniting the seemingly unquenchable flame of queered/regendered mythology retellings we've been treated to this past decade.

The existence of a flood means, obviously and inevitably, some iterations will not live up to the flood-breaker's level. This book is one that doesn't quite reach heights the very best do. Most of that is down to a tendency of the author to, um, overelaborate:
<blockquote>She came here on some winged creature through the night sky, she is a woman free to roam the sky, a woman with a palace, a woman whose days are hidden from you, a woman who can do outrageous things to another woman’s body, a woman whose power is mountainous, whose strength is vast, whose charm is boundless, you’d never imagined such a woman could be, yet here she is, and far be it from you to anger her when she’s already given you so much, how could you ask for more, when she has chosen you for this adventure for some inscrutable reason you’ll never understand, just as it’s impossible to understand how this adventure can exist or what the scope of it will be, but there it is, the need to clasp it close and not let go because you want this life she’s offered you, want it with every fiber of your being, yet also want to hold on to your own knowing, however tiny it may be compared to hers.</blockquote>
I think that single sentence says more than I ever could.

I am very sure that, absent familiarity with the many versions existing of the underlying myth, this story will still make sense. After you take out you mental machete and whack back some of the vines and shrubs in your path. It is not, in the final analysis, a terribly complicated plot. It's about the nature of desire, and to twenty-first century eyes, the nature of consent.

I was most interested in Author De Robertis' decision to use first-person narration, and a deep access to her thoughts and feelings, for the human/victim of coercive sex Psyche, while according the deity/rapist third person freedom. A force of nature like a deity should, I agree, have an impersonal voice; if any personification of a natural force needs and deserves this distancing, it is the personification of Lust, and subsidiarily, physical Love. There is a reason the Greeks split Love/Aphrodite from Lust/sex Eros. These things are not the same.

I don't entirely understand why, post-#MeToo, one would choose to retell this particular myth without including some examination of the romanticization of coercion that the myth has always represented. Making Eros a non-binary deity, while very much in the spirit of the times, doesn't change what Eros did to Psyche.

A slender reed of a story to hang a novel on, and one that still misses its chances to add value to the ongoing conversation about sexuality and romance. Published about ten years too late to make its best and biggest splash.

g thank you to netgalley for the arc of this book.
i think the reason i enjoyed this book so much is because this is what i wanted from the aong of achilles when i read it and i didnt quite get it. this book is beautifully written and lyrical and poetic in its prose. it is slow paced but the characterization of psyche and eros was beautifully done and the way they come to know each other was well done as well.

In all honesty, i give this book two stars to be generous, however, i feel its more because i had the chance to read it while having the audiobook as well & the fact i was truly hoping to enjoy it. This was really a major, MAJOR let down, there's no other way to put it. As a woman, as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, i felt deeply insulted but more so suprised knowing who the author is & how they treated the beautiful parts of being a woman who sometimes does not feel like one & has tried to name that part of herself but it's so far from growing a member at random times because she pleases. And also, as someone who grew up loving myths & creatures outside of this world, the treatment of psyche here left me speechless. Why do she uses trees, kitchen objects, various things around her house to please herself? Why are we reading this? A woman can be a sensual & sexual being & rightly so, we own our body, we love it, we live in it, we are free to do as we please but why taking such liberties when reading her being empowered in having that much freedom would have being more compelling, more direct, more palpable, understanding? I don't know why the author thought taking such liberties, borderline appealing to the male gaze so much, to that kind of explicit things was a good choice, when the whole book revolves around a women and a godlike being exploring a life together? And i don't want to start explaining why elimitating a task, the whole feud with aphrodite, adding demeter & a kind, pliable persephone to the story diluted everything, being so progressive in a world where psyche wouldn't exactly had those thoughts & not giving her the chance to come to terms with her newly found life. Anyway, i really think this book had no point nor purpose & needed much reviewing, probably some more sensitivity readers before being published.

In this fascinating and complex Greek mythology retelling, Robertis revisits the myth of Psyche and Eros in this bold, racy, feminist, and LGBTQ+ retelling. Mostly told from Psyche’s perspective with the occasional shift to Eros’s point of view, readers explore Psyche’s troubles with suitors and the male gaze because of her beauty when she really wants to live away from male expectations and demands. When Aphrodite requires a sacrifice to appease her anger, Psyche’s father ties his beautiful daughter to a rock and leaves her for a monstrou husband. However, the nonbinary deity of desire and child of Aphrodite, Eros, falls for Psyche and everything about the myth and Psyche’s life changes. The novel grapples with secrecy, freedom under and from the patriarchy, and sexuality (from several angles) in ways that muddy the waters of this myth and add several kinds of tension to the novel. Psyche and Eros’s characterizations are fascinating and complex, and they both receive new personal qualities and agency in Robertis’s retelling. Their relationship is particularly fascinating in its development over the course of the novel, and their personalities complement each other brilliantly through their strengths, weaknesses, and passions as demonstrated over the course of the novel.

The Palace of Eros was a major letdown, despite my initial excitement for a queer, sapphic retelling of a Greek myth. The writing, while occasionally beautiful, often felt overly flowery and dense, with long, winding sentences that made it hard to follow. The dual narrative style—first-person for Psyche and third-person for Eros—felt disjointed, and Psyche’s introspective moments became tedious. Characters lacked depth, and their motivations were revealed too late. Eros’s gaslighting of Psyche didn’t help either. Though the book shines with its queer and non-binary themes and a refreshing take on Aphrodite, these positives weren’t enough to redeem it. If you enjoy lush prose and can overlook plot and character issues, it might be worth a try, but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

Since her youth, Psyche has always been different--headstrong, curious, and beautiful enough to make even the gods jealous. To punish Psyche, Aphrodite sends her daughter Eros to shoot Psyche with an arrow to make her fall for her most horrible suitor. Instead, Eros falls in love with Psyche, defying her Aphrodite, Zeus, and all of Olympus itself. To keep them safe, Eros conceals her true identity from Psyche, but the darkness is no place for a relationship to grow.

This was a lovely, queer retelling of a classic myth. It had thoughtful nonbinary representation and its prose was rich and dripping with love and desire.

However, I think this myth was not reimagined enough. With Eros as a god and Psyche a mortal, there was a huge power imbalance, particularly with Eros literally keeping Psyche in the dark. This was mentioned, but not really explored in the meaningful way I hoped it would be given the heaviness of the theme.

Still a solid 4-star read.

Reading this book was like experiencing a beautiful celebration of womanhood, mothers and daughters, sapphic passion, and non-binary and trans bodies! Author Caro De Robertis has such a stunning way of describing the queer and female gaze and personal empowerment that I immediately went in search of more of their writing. The vivid picture of the love between their misunderstood main characters is simply stunning.

I’ve read many “retellings” of mythology over the years. It is such an enjoyable genre. But they can begin to feel stale with how similar many of them are. This story, The Palace of Eros, is anything BUT stale. So spicy and with such emotional depth, reading from the perspectives of Eros and Psyche provided the joys of ancient mythology with the sensitivity and diversity of our queer leaders here in 2024. And Caro De Robertis wonderfully balances pleasurable content with intensely introspective material; while reading, one moment I’d be blushing and avidly turning pages, while the next I’d be taking my time to sift through the questions and applications their writing had me considering.

Basically, I loved this book. I loved Eros and Psyche. Such magical yet REAL characters. I will be recommending The Palace of Eros to all my friends and look forward to gifting several copies as birthday and holiday gifts.

The Palace of Eros, by Caro De Robertis, was published on Aug 13, 2024.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Atria/Primero Sueno Press for generously allowing me the ebook ARC for reviewing. I enjoyed every page.

I was so curious how this mythology could be turned into a Queer love story amongst the gods, but the way that Eros experiences both masculine and feminine was very intriguing and I liked that form of godly expression. My favorite parts of this book were the sexual expression and connectedness between two feminine people, we don't get this enough in books and I find it hard to believe that history didn't experience these love stories.

But there did feel like a lot of loose ends within the story; For example the mother's history, the sister's relationship, and the falling in love with someone you don't actually know? I was also confused what perspective the narrator had, from Psyche's perspective she was telling the story but then there were chapters from Ero's perspective and we didn't get around from so just wasn't sure how the story was meant to be delivered.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! I love queer stories and was so excited for this greek mythology retelling. I loved that Eros was gender fluid and that the author explored what that meant to the character. I struggled a bit with the Eros / Psyche relationship as it felt like it was fast tracked and was hard to imagine the love and desire Psyche was feeling. I didn’t know the greek mythology before reading and was surprised when the trials started. They felt a little rushed and I felt that Psyche’s character development could have been explored further during that time. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that loves queer stories and greek mythology!

I love greek mythology retellings. And a queer retelling of Psyche and Eros is just what I was looking for.. It was intense, fun, adn I really enjoyed the relationship between the leads.

I wanted to really enjoy this one. And while it did accomplish telling a story, I personally felt that it missed the mark. It gave the sapphic representation, and tried to represent more than just the emotional complexities of a marriage unseen… there is an original story being retold with a twist, and I felt like the twist became the crutch for one of the main characters.

Caro De Robertis' 2019 novel, Cantoras, is one of the best books I've read this year, so I was thrilled to see a new release coming so soon after I finished it. The Palace of Eros is a retelling of a Greek myth I was unfamiliar with. I've completely avoided this popular genre in recent years, but a sapphic retelling by a trusted author felt like a great place to start - and it was!

Learning a new-to-me myth was the highlight of the story for me. There was a bit of an assumption that the reader had basic knowledge of the Greek gods and goddesses, but a quick Google of names got me up to speed sufficiently. I enjoyed the character of Psyche, especially her development over the course of the story into a strong, independent and dynamic woman. Eros was less compelling to me, and at times I found their relationship to be a bit boring. I think this was largely due to the choice for Psyche's POV to be in the first person, and Eros' in the third - it centered Psyche and made Eros a supporting character.

At times, I found the casting of modern ideas and concepts onto an ancient Greek myth felt overdone to the point of being silly - near the end, Psyche has a particular monologue that was very Social Justice Girl Boss Explains Misogyny and Patriarchy. It was overwrought, which was disappointing considering how I found Cantoras to be more even-handed in this way.

This books comes in at a 3.75 out of 5 stars for me - solidly "good," but not quite great. I'll look forward to picking up De Robertis' next book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

A queer retelling of the Eros and Psyche Greek myth. I liked the storyline but must admit that the Psyche chapters and p.o.v were more detailed, so I felt more swayed by her story. Although the Aphrodite and Eros relationship made for some good family drama. I read somewhere that Eros and Psyche have long been considered one of the most beautiful love stories and Caro de Robertis kept that vibe with their slant on the story.




Publication Date 13/08/24
Goodreads Review 31/08/24

Book review
The Palace of Eros is a queer retelling of the myth of Psyche and Eros. This book truly dives in to themes of gender identity, self discovery, and love, all through the lens of the queer and feminist perspective. I really enjoyed how the book gave the perspective of both Eros and Psyche, flipping between the two. I will say that at initially the jump from 1st person to 3rd person was jarring but you do get used to it. If you are well versed in Greek mythology, you may be disappointed that they author did not stick as close to the classics when it comes to the trials of Psyche but I did not find that this deviation from the classics left the story wanting. As many other reviewers have noted, there is a bit of a lull in the middle of the book that could be strengthened as far as tempo goes but the book does finish strong and is overall enjoyable.

A queer retelling of the story of Psyche and Eros.

Psyche is young, and beautiful. She catches the attention of every suitor in town, which leads to unwanted attention and jealousy from the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite pushes her father to follow the prediction of the oracle and leave her chained to a rock to be taken by a monster.

Only a monster never shows up, Eros was charged with finding the monster that would take Psyche, but upon looking upon her, Eros decides to take Psyche to a palace and keep her safe a hidden. By day Psyche is left alone to fill her time with whatever pursuit she desires, and by night Eros comes to visit her and they fall in love in the darkness. The bubble they find themselves in may not last forever, and their love will be tested.

I am not well read on the true myth or Eros and Psyche, but I really really enjoyed this take on the tale. I love a queer greek retelling, or even a more feminist retelling, and this delivers both. This had very good conversation about identity, and gender which I appreciated reading about. I loved the characters, and I know insta lust was the point of the book I still would have liked a little more build up. This was a fantastic read.