I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

3.5 ⭐

Kudos first or all for that cover! Great and in line with so many other myth retelling books out there when I spotted this one I was like: "immediately yes"

✔️ Interesting untold stories
❌ Busy

I enjoyed this book but it was a bit hard to keep track of everything and everyone with all the POVs. I'm definately interested in reading more by this author because the concepts are good and interesting.

📌 Potentially would be a better audiobook experience

As usual Laura did an amazing job bringing overlooked and undertold characters to the forefront. I have long wanted someone to give Dido more than just a brief glance and I love that not only did I get Dido, but all the women in his life were able to tell their stories. So well done.

I hadn’t heard of this story before and also felt drawn to it as i absolutely loved Phaedra by this author. I honestly struggled with this one though. The change in POV & settings/timelines were messy. I found it difficult to follow this one and was often getting confused. It obviously affected the reader experience, and i felt that i didnt enjoy this one as much as i could have. Ill still read books by this author, but this one just missed the target for me.

I will start by saying that The Heir of Venus is a beautifully written work!! The words matched the setting and characters perfectly. The narrator did a fantastic job driving the story and bringing the characters to life. This book was a Greek mythology retelling told from the perspective of the women who were in Aneneas's life. Often the retellings and historical records are in a man's view, so seeing what his wives, mother, lovers, and women he betrayed was so interesting. I don't know much about the story of Aeneas. All my Greek/Roman knowledge stems from a mixture of Percy Jackson/Song of Achilles, but The Heir of Venus had me hooked the entire time on the edge of my seat. I wanted to know what was going to happen next. What interested me the most was the dialogue of this story, as women were not in the front line of the action it was their inner thoughts and feelings that drove this story which I found compelling. Women's perspective of history is making its turn in the world! This is a story you don't want to miss out on.

I was very excited for this but I unfortunately DNF'd. I felt like the writing was a little all over the place and personally it was hard for me to get into. I love different retellings but this one just wasn't for me.

Set in years after the Trojan War, The Heir of Venus by Laura Shepperson is a feminist reimagining of the story of Aeneas, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and Venus ( Roman equivalent to the Greek goddess Aphrodite), a demigod who escaped the fallen city with his infant son Ascanius, his aging father and several other survivors.

The narrative is non-linear and is presented in alternating perspectives of the women whose lives and fates were intertwined with Aeneas’s; his wife Creusa who was left behind in the burning city and who was the daughter of Trojan King Priam and Hekuba; and Lavinia, princess of Laurentum where Aeneas and the Trojans set up camp and whom Aeneas is to marry; and from Anna, a mysterious traveler, who tells the story of Queen Dido of Tyre, who founded Carthage and for whose tragic fate Anna hold the Trojan prince responsible and strangely enough, whose story Aeneas has neglected to share while he talked of his travels.

Lavinia’s perspective describes how her life and destiny and that of Laurentum change after Aeneas’s arrival. I was immersed as the narrative follows Lavinia’s thoughts and emotions as the events in Laurentum unfold - Aeneas’s agreement with her father King Latinus, his friction with Prince Turnus of Rutuli, Lavinia’s childhood friend who had hoped to marry her and the war that ensued. I was sympathetic to her situation and her pain and disillusionment are palpable as she is forced to accept that despite her being her father’s only child and having participated with her father in his role as ruler, her father’s plans for her to support her ambitions. I applauded her efforts to accept her father’s decisions but on her own terms.

The prose is beautiful and as a fan of Greek mythology (and retellings), I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The narrative is consistently paced and flows well. The structure of the novel works well to tell the story and allow us to see Aeneas as a person, with his strengths and flaws, as perceived by the women who knew him best. I liked that each chapter began with a quote from the source material. I appreciate that the author has given a voice to these women whose stories are often relegated to the background in the interest of glorifying the heroes of the Greek myths. Dido, Creusa and Lavinia not only present facets of the Greek hero revered for his origins and the prophecy that guided his actions, but they are women who deserve to have their stories told and the author has done a commendable job in this regard.

However, I thought that too much of the narrative was presented through telling rather than showing. I would have preferred that Aeneas’s adventures post the Trojan War before his arrival at Laurentum had been described in more detail. However, the telling of past events will provide those not conversant with the key players and crucial details of the Trojan War with a well-rounded, albeit brief, background to Aeneas’s story.

I paired my reading with the audiobook expertly narrated by Frances Butt, who has done a brilliant job of voicing these characters and breathing life into this story. The audio narration certainly elevated my overall experience.

Many thanks to Alcove Press for the digital review copy and Dreamscape Media for the ALC via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I love myth retellings and was very excited to have one about the Aeneid! It’s one I don’t see retold often and loved the idea of retelling through the eyes of the women around Aeneas but sadly the execution fell flat. The writing was very choppy and felt a bit all over the place. The characters also felt flat and one dimensional. Overall I just found myself having a hard time feeling engaged or motivated to read this and often was bored or confused. It’s one of those stories with a lot of telling over showing as well but I’d still give the author another try in the future.

Anyone that knows me, knows I’m always down for a mythological retelling. I’ll eat it up every time. The Heir of Venus was no exception.

The Heir of Venus is a retelling of the story of Aeneas, told from the perspective of three women that he knew at different points in his life. As I said above, I’m always down for a mythological retelling, but especially when it’s told from the perspective of women. We don’t often get to see their side in the original myths, so I love to be able to see it in modern retellings.

I was particularly drawn to Creusa’s POV, as she was the one who knew Aeneas best. We knew how her story ended even from before her first POV was introduced, so it really added to the heartbreak of reading her story. Creusa just felt like the most developed of the three women, which only makes sense as her POV starts when she was a child. In a sense, we got to grow up with her.

The Heir of Venus is a solid retelling that I would absolutely recommend to anyone that loves the genre. Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for the advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to author Laura Shepperson, Alcove Press, and NetGalley for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

~I minored in Classical Studies in college, which has led to an immense love for all that is related to the ancient world--specifically ancient Greece and Rome. With that in mind, stories or retellings covering this subject matter can always be a hit or miss for me due to such background knowledge. With that in mind, I do believe that this is the perfect story for those intrigued by this myth yet not familiar with it, but not for avid followers of the tale.~

Despite this title being called The Heir of Venus, Aeneas (the titular heir) is not quiiiite the main character of this retelling. While Aeneas will always be known to humankind as The Main Character of The Aeneid/Greek and Roman myth, it is the impact of his legacy on the women in his life that is the focus this time around. The driving force of all these womens' stories are center around Aeneas's task of essentially founding Rome as we know it. While the primary focus is on the character Lavinia (Aeneas's last wife), we are also told the story of those who have been wronged in the past, like Dido (Aeneas's would-be but not-quite wife). Also present is Creusa, (previous wife of Aeneas and mother of their child, Ascanius). Even now I feel terrible describing these woman as a man's wife, but alas, he is what connects these women.

With that in mind, Shepperson does have 3 different main female characters that she must balance. Despite the relatively short amount of pages, she does well to develop both them and their relationship with Aeneas. However, since their were 3 different women from 3 different periods of Aeneas's life, the story could feel a bit choppy at times as the non-linear narrative does hop around quite frequently, which messes with the pacing of certain characters stories. Because of this, I do wish that these stories were expanded upon more and given more pages to transition from one plot/flashback to the next. In addition, while this story does stay pretty close to the original myths, I do wish that the characters had more dimension to their individual personalities, as sometimes I felt that their voices and characters came off as too similar--With such complex relationships and backstories, I just wish they stood out a bit more as people, but that just might be me.

Overall, I loved this retelling and would recommend it to others! It is a super quick read if anyone want's to dip their toes into mythology without having to read Epics upon Epics to catch up.

I had a bit of a struggle getting into the story at first but then I got in and I managed to get invested into the story and characters, although I know of the myth about Troy. the book gets better the further you go into it, the characters are complex and it's very interesting to see the different sides different characters bring to our main character and how a myth can get told in so many ways.

3.5 stars for a retelling of the Aeneid from the perspective of Lavinia. I want to give this a higher rating, but I'll have to wait until I have the polished version. The eARC had bad formatting and made it difficult to concentrate on the actual story.

I am looking forward to picking it up and reading it! I got about 45% of the way through before it became too much.

Lavinia is such a great character to focus on. Having never read Aeneid, I can't tell how much of the story is on her, but if it's anything like all the other great stories named after a man, the woman behind him is forgotten.

The Heir of Venus is a myth retelling of the story or Aeneas but told in the point of view of the women in his life. I was initially intrigued by this book because I rarely read Roman myth and have little knowledge to what happened to the Trojans after the war. The story itself and the myth is what kept me interested and made me carrying on reading.

However, the writing style was very choppy and clumsy and the overall plot felt bland. I also found whenever the characters were angry, it came off very childish? I think it was mainly how it was written and portrayed but it felt like I was reading about children arguing; very dramatic and overdone.

There was also a lot of spelling/grammatical mistakes throughout. Also a lot of inconsistencies in using Roman/Greek god names which was annoying.

Overall, the story had so much potential but ended up not enjoying it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will review the audio book that I was graciously provided. Thank you for both copies! I appreciate your generosity.

eARC Review: The Heir of Venus by Laura Shepperson🕊️

This was a great analysis of Aeneas through the eyes of the most important women in his life: his wives Creusa, Dido, and Lavinia. I really enjoyed getting back into the lives of these women as they are huge influences on a man who I honestly love to hate on. 😂

The book is separated into equal parts of POVs between the three women. You get to see the young Aeneas through Creusa’s eyes and how that correlates to the grieving man that Aeneas is with Dido, and then finally to the battle weary warrior that Lavinia meets. I really enjoyed all the POVs in their own way, but I did find myself more excited for Creusa’s POV simply because she’s such a minor character in most Aeneid and Iliad retellings that I loved getting time in her head. 🔥

While I really enjoyed getting to know the women through their POVs, I did feel like the plot rushed through some events here and there. I also would’ve liked at least a few more chapters into Aphrodite/Venus’ POV and relationship with her son. There was a lot of talk about her, but the reader doesn’t really get to know her and her reasonings as to why she stays away from Aeneas and desires his descendants to rule Italy save for the prophecy. 🐚

In general, I thought this was a great retelling that meshes the Greek and Roman elements together. Makes me really excited for next year when two more Roman retellings about Rhea Silvia and Dido come out! Big thank you goes to Alcove Press and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this retelling in exchange for an honest review, and to Shepperson for once again making me really enjoy an Aeneid retelling even though I find the main hero a bit of a dunce. 😅

Publication date: August 6!

Overall: 4.25/5⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I really liked how the POV's for this story were set up as "books" and how they were interwoven in such a way. At times I was a bit confused by who the side characters were (I guess I don't know my Greek mythos that well lol) but I was able to follow along very well once I got my bearings. I think of all the women Creusa was my favorite. I loved reading her parts the most because she was smart and funny and utterly devoted to Aeneas. It was clear that he loved her a lot too. I was really glad that she was the POV for the epilogue. I'd thought there would be more to Lavina's story but hers cut off a bit abruptly. I was really surprised too to learn that Anna had died. I didn't see the point in her death, especially at the end of the story. It was just sad to see her go. Dido was nice but I don't think I liked her story as much as I should. I thought she was also really clever in how she tricked her brother but her love for Aeneas just felt convenient and almost desperate unfortunately. I did see why she clung to him so fiercely but I wished she hadn't died the way she did. (but that's how she died in the mythos so I guess I can't fault the author). It was jsut a lot sadder seeing everythign from her perspective.

3.5⭐ rounded up to 4. While I didn’t dislike it, this book failed to meet my expectations. Aeneas has always been one of my favourite mythical heroes, but there were many editorial choices that annoyed me, and I just couldn’t feel an emotional connection to most of the characters.

❤️ Feminist take on the myth
❤️ Imperfect, flawed characters
❤️ Short
❌ Lack of likeable characters
❌ Too many POVs, settings, and characters for the page count
❌ Chaotic non-linear structure

Trigger warnings: violence and torture, war, injury and injury detail, death and grief, death of a parent, death of a sibling, toxic relationship, trauma, misogyny.

Plot:
Aeneas was entrusted with the mission to lead his people to safety and create a new Troy. This divine quest beings him to Latium, where he is a given shelter and betrothed to the peaceful king’s daughter, Lavinia, breaking her engagement with her childhood friend, Turnus. The king of a neighbouring kingdom, Turnus goes mad and declares war on the Trojans to reclaim Lavinia’s hand. Over the course of the war, Lavinia learns about Aeneas’ two former wives, who both met untimely ends.

In under 300 pages, 3 different stories with 3 different settings and sets of characters are told using a non-linear / criss-crossing structure. The result is a short, easy read with huge potential and some great moments, but an inconsistent pace and underdeveloped, flat characters. Now, a feminist take on Greek mythology? The Trojan War, Dido’s downfall, and an ambitious princess who wants to rule rather than marry? Yes please! There are so many things I liked about the premise of this book, and I feel like I would have preferred a longer book with the *full* narrative of each story, more atmosphere, more differentiation between the narrator’s voices, as well as more thorough editing and well thought-out progression. The criss-crossing structure didn’t make sense to me on more than one occasion, and I felt like some “flashbacks” weren’t included at the right part of Lavinia’s story.

Characters:
So many characters for such a short book! All 3 narrators are women Aeneas’s life collided with. The main narrator was Lavinia, with “flashbacks” about the other 2. I thought Creusa’s parts were the best, but I couldn’t feel any emotional attachment to Lavinia, and Dido’s part felt rushed and had some loose ends (i.e., Anna). It was also hard to perceive Dido as another victim of Aeneas’s ambition, since she appeared weak and manipulative in this retelling.

Writing:
I didn’t dislike the writing, but it didn’t leave a strong positive impression on me either. There was too much telling instead of showing, as well as many formatting and grammatical mistakes, typos, and spelling errors in character names. (Note: This might have been corrected in the final version of the book, but I can’t confirm.) Also, the list of god names at the beginning felt overwhelming and useless to me. In the end, only Venus/Aphrodite played a significant role.

Aeneas, rumoured to be the son of Venus, destined to found a new Troy. Lavinia, rules by her father’s side and hopes to one day rule in her own right. When her father engages her to Aeneas, a man she knows little about and doesn’t trust, she decides to do what she can to take her future into her own hands.
I really had a good time reading this story. There are three timelines and perspectives interwoven, following the three woman who Aeneas will marry and the destruction that will come to them for loving a demigod. I love mythology and this was a story I wasn’t fully familiar with but it also touches on the siege of Troy so it’s not entirely unknown. If you are a fan of mythology retellings I definitely recommend picking this one up when it releases on August 6 2024.
Thank you to @netgalley and @alcovepress and @laurashepperson for letting me review #theheirofvenus
#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booklover #bookreview #booksbooksbooks #bookworm #booknerd #venus #mythology #readersofinstagram #readersofig #readersofinsta #reader #readallthebooks #readmore

I'm going to be honest here- when I head Laura Shepperson was doing a book based on the story of Aeneas I was skeptical. We really don't need another book singing the prases of male Greek heros... plus, Aeneas makes some pretty morally questinoable desicions. I should have trusted that Shapperson knew what she was doing.

Aeneas might be the Heir of Venus, but this isn't his story. This is the story of the three women whose lives interesct with his: Creusa (his first wife and true love, who dies during the battle for Troy), Dido (the queen of Carthage with whom he has a doomed relationship), and Lavinia (the princess promised to him in order to stengthen her coiuntry).

Lavinia gets the bulk of the story and has the most character growth. She's rather unlikeable at first- spoiled and a bit selfish. Shepperson gives her a great character arc and it's nice to see more meat to her story than the history books give us.

Dido is always going to be a tragic character and this book is no exception. We get to see how strong and resourceful she is, which is why I was a little put off by how blinded by love she ends up.

Creusa is the character I was most excited to see, becausae she's barely a footnote in Virgil's Aeneid. Here we see her from childhood until her death, watching her and Aeneas' love grow. Her chapters were my favorite, partly because they're mostly a bit happier, but mostly because she's a character we've not gotten to know before, who shapes the rest of Aeneas' story.

The Heir of Venus is another solid entry in the collection of feminist Greek retellings. It's well written, well researched, and has three very different female main characters. Overall, it was an enjoyable read that didn't feel as overdone as some of the Greek myths.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Heir of Venus by Laura Shepperson is a third person multi-POV retelling of the story of Aeneas from the perspective of the three women he was romantically connected to: Creusa, Dido, and Lavinia. As the son of Venus, Aeneas is more powerful than other mortals but is involved in the politics of the Earthly realms given his status as a prince and his close relationship with the Trojan royal family. Each of the three women have different goals concerning their relationship with him and each will meet their end without him.

I was somewhat acquainted with Aeneas before this as someone family with Greek and Roman mythology. Of all the characters, the one I was most familiar with (besides the gods and the major players of the Trojan War) was Dido, a queen of Carthage. For her relationship with Aeneas, we get a mix of her own words and the memories of her younger sister Anna, who serves Lavinia.

Creusa’s chapters are the most heartbreaking as we see her POV moving towards the destruction of her home. While the brutality of the Greeks is mentioned, it's not explicitly depicted for the most part. Creusa was in love with Aeneas, would have happily spent the rest of her life with him with their son, but the Fates had other plans for both of them and needed Aeneas flung far into the kingdom of Latium to become the grandfather of Romulus and Remus.

Lavinia has no desire to actually get married, to anyone, but is open to a marriage with Aeneas despite their large age difference. There isn't an attraction there like there is with Dido and Creusa, but there is mutual respect and the potential for the two getting what they want. Unfortunately, Lavinia’s childhood friend is making things difficult as he desires Lavinia for himself and declares war when Lavinia's father continues to choose Aeneas due to a prophecy.

Content warning for mentions of child death, sexual assault, slavery, and suicide

I would recommend this to fans of Greek and Roman mythology, readers of historical fiction with light speculative elements, and those looking for more focus on the Roman interpretations of Greek mythological figures