𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4.25⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: fantasy/ romance 📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A sweet and fun sapphic Greek mythology retelling

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Modern Greek mythology retellings
Psyche and Eros
Family drama
Sapphic romance
Insta love
Video game streaming

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
A cat name Latte

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
The world building was a little confusing, I wish there had been more details

A cool world here, and I love to see messy sapphics!

I’m torn on this book because while I liked the premise a lot, and the author is deft at their craft (I enjoyed their earlier book The Tiger’s Daughter a lot!), this one could have really used a better edit. And by that I don’t mean proofread, I mean it needed some set of fresh eyes to catch the inconsistencies in character development.

All the way up to 50%, I still didn’t have a good idea of what made Psyche who she was and there were a lot of missed opportunities to tell the reader what was in her head. For example, when she throws Eros out in chapter 12 or 13, I don’t know whether it’s because Eros has just discounted Psyche’s statement, or because Psyche is mad that Eros has put her through a sort of test, or something else.

Another missed opportunity is Psyche’s sisters: they are mentioned a lot and are on page some, but when Psyche tells Eros about her sisters and their relationship, none of that is on page so we the reader don’t know.

Caracter-building and my understanding of their motivations is one of the most important things to me when reading, so the weaknesses of this book hit right where it matters (to me). If you have other priorities when reading, the book is worth checking out, and the author is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

I got an advance review copy from the publisher and netgalley, opinions are my own.

Oath of Fire is for anyone who likes Greek mythology retellings. This is a sapphic retelling of Psyche and Eros with a fantasy feel to it. At the beginning of the book the main character Psyche has lost another job as a therapist and soon finds herself in another court swearing herself to Eros. I thought this was very fast-paced and had instant lust where both Psyche and Eros instantly want to be with each other. The characters were the most compelling and interesting aspect and I liked the back story and getting to know more about each one. The character development was good and made sense for the characters. The video game aspect was really cool and I liked the mask aspect and how Psyche saw Eros without it. The worldbuilding aspect on the other hand was very confusing, I had no idea what was going on and the stakes so I just focused on the relationship and had a good fast paced read.

This book is for my sapphic mythology lovers. The story of Eros and Psyche told how it hasn’t been told before. As a therapist I was interested in the psychology of it all and as someone who enjoys Greek mythology I was entranced by the story.
How far would you go to be with the love of your life?

Oath of Fire definitely hit a lot of the right spots for me. Sapphics, an interesting twists on Greek Gods, the MC plays mmorpgs, family drama, and the vibes were right. I loved the sapphic twist on the Eros and Psyche love story.
Tho I’m definitely not usually one for falling in love fast plots the way it happens in Oath of Fire seems to make sense when it happens, along with Eros also being a god I feel like it wouldn’t be hard falling fast for a God. I did feel a bit confused throughout the book especially the beginning, I thought that I was missing parts of the lore/story, why some people know about gods and a few other parts didn’t seem needed or fully fleshed out.
Overall I would definitely recommend this to someone who enjoys Greek retellings, queer fantasy or spicy sapphic vibes. I’m excited to see Bondi’s story in the future…

Thank you Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I took a chance on this because I was sent a widget and it sounded fun, but this is a very quick DNF for me.

I could immediately tell the writing was not going to work for me, so I debated immediately DNFing, but figured I'd give this a little more of a shot. Then our main character gets fired from her job because she's a therapist who's outed a trans client to her parents. And she genuinely seems to think she's simply being misunderstood. How am I meant to sympathize with this character after that, as a non-binary reader?

I love sapphic romance and I love Greek mythology so I was super excited to read this! I enjoyed the descriptive writing, especially around the Courts and gods, the pacing of the plot, and the ending totally hooked me. My main issue is that none of the relationships had depth - Psyche and her sisters and friends, her relationship with Eros. In particular, throughout the book I kept doubting her relationship with Eros. Their initial obsession felt forced and I wasn’t convinced that they were so deeply in love. I ultimately didn’t understand who Eros was as a character so it was difficult to buy in to her devotion to Psyche. I also thought the spicy scenes were a little meh. All in all a fun read, though! I enjoyed it.

Psyche is a therapist and influencer feeling a little lost after losing her job, ruining her reputation, and having issues with her family. When she receives a personal invitation to a mysterious party from an alluring stranger, she figures she has nothing to lose. The party is more than just a little mysterious, as Psyche finds herself thrown into the world of Courts, suddenly surrounded by entirely new worlds, oaths, gods, and plenty of new rules. Among the gods is Eros, the embodiment of passion, desire, and love itself. Eros is instantly drawn to Psyche and her interest is only further piqued by Psyche’s boldness and selflessness, even when it comes to gods, and she immediately swears an oath to protect her. Psyche becomes further entwined with Eros and consequently, the rest of the gods as well.

I should probably preface this by saying I don’t tend to read fantasy. However, I’m willing to give any genre a shot, as long as it’s queer, so I was still interested in this. I thought some aspects ended up falling flat though and probably made it more of a 2.5 star read for me.

One thing I loved was Eros’ devotion to Psyche, but it would’ve been more impactful if their relationship had felt more developed. I get that she’s a god so things are going to play out a little differently and develop more quickly, but as a reader, to feel more invested, I need them to have more of a reason for being so devoted to each other. The oath sort of gets rid of that need but again, from the outside, I need more. Having a deeper development for them would’ve made the more emotional scenes hit harder.

I also had an issue with the occasional overly ornate prose. I could’ve understood if it came more from the gods, but it would just be thrown in completely random, simple scenes like Psyche going to sleep. I did like the way the gods and their Courts were described though. Like I said, I don’t read much fantasy, so I could have easily had difficulty picturing some of the aspects, but I think everything was detailed enough to really allow me to imagine how grand, fantastical, and otherwordly everything looked.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: All Psyche ever wanted to do was help people, whether it's in her job as a therapist or online as an influencer. So when a mysterious invitation arrives from the most captivating man she's ever seen, asking for her assistance, she can't refuse. But Psyche soon finds herself in a world of Courts, full of debauchery and treachery, where her only option for survival is to swear a strange oath to a mysterious masked woman named Eros.

Now Psyche has to figure out how to fulfill her end of her bargain with Eros, while trying to navigate having a flame-winged goddess show up in her tiny Brooklyn apartment. But how long can she keep her curiosity at bay when Eros makes her heart tremble?

Revew: This is a less daring/spicy version of Neon Gods. I love my retellings and have to say this was a fun one!

#OathofFire #NetGalley

I devoured this book in a day, which is a testament to how much the plot drawn me in and kept me enthralled. This has great writing, the complexity of characters and emotion, it all makes for an excellent book. Would highly recommend if love mythology retelling.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Forever for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh hey it’s meeeeeee I’m reading this for work! Aaaaaaand there's a character limit on reviews here are some more words