I've been a mythology junkie since I was a child. Weave that in with historical fiction?!?!?!? Also, men are bad no matter the timeline, and it was nice to see the bad guy not win for a change, as they often do in real life.

I was thrilled to receive an ARC of *Those Fatal Flowers*, especially since I’ve made a name for myself on Goodreads and NetGalley by diving into all the Greek/Roman mythology retellings that have flooded the market in recent years. I'll admit, though, that I initially requested it without fully reading the synopsis. Once I did, I was a bit apprehensive about how the book would merge two distinct time periods and stories.

Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. The storytelling was incredibly engaging—it hooked me so much that I finished the entire book in just a few hours. Despite the jumping timelines, I never felt disconnected from the plot. While I would have liked to see more character development with Cora and a stronger emphasis on the women coming together, I really enjoyed the overall storyline. Thelia's growth, especially her understanding of the idea that "monsters are not born, they are made," was a standout theme, and her pursuit of revenge against those who deserved it added depth.

I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of mythological retellings, especially those looking for a fresh twist on the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell Publishing for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book combines a classic mythic with American mythology, and more specifically what happened in Roanoke Virginia. The story is told by alternating between the past and present to explore what happens to Thelia, a handmaiden to Proserpina, after Proserpina is kidnapped by Hades. We see how the handmaidens fared in banishment in the alternating timeline and how Thelia is determined to bring her mistress back after arriving in America. There are also sapphic elements. Overall this is a slower-paced read that takes a bit of time to fully come together. I appreciated the author taking a risk with adding in American mythology. It added a twist to this retelling that made it stand out, however I can see that element being what makes or breaks this story for some readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great book full of sweeping emotion. I really enjoyed this story and the romance within.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
The first couple of chapters didn't really pull me into the story despite all of the action. I got more interested once the sisters are alone on the island. It makes you think about what all species are going through just to survive even if society paints them as the villains.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

This book is like the harpies it describes; beauty and horror combined into something powerful. It was not an easy read, but very worthwhile, A retelling of the classic Greek myth that it combines with our American mythology: of pilgrims and refugees, making a better life for themselves, a myth that this book shatters. Abusers abuse, and those who feed off the powerlessness and fear of others are indelibly tainted by their actions. Definitely a heavier read, but a story worth knowing.

For sensitive readers, this book contains depictions of historic racism, homophobia, and misogyny; violence, torture, death, grief, body horror, sexual assault, rape, kidnapping, abuse, ritual sacrifice, religious trauma, starvation, pregnancy and miscarriage.

Unfortunately, this story is not for me and decided to DNF shortly into reading.

I've chosen not to post a review on BookBub, Goodreads, and Instagram as I feel it will negatively impact the author's visibility and promotability.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review "Those Fatal Flowers" in advance. I look forward to seeing what Shannon Ives will release next.

Disclaimer: Based on the above, I rated this book three stars.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I was super excited to receive an ARC of Those Fatal Flowers, as I'm constantly branding myself on Goodreads and NetGalley as having read all of the Greek/Roman mythology retellings that have exploded on the market over the last few years. I'll admit, though, that I just saw that this was a mythological retelling and requested it-- so when I read the synopsis before reading, I had a moment where I was a little wary about how these two extremely distinct time periods/stories could possibly intertwine.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by the results. I thought that the storytelling here was extremely engaging (and clearly kept me captivated, as I read the entire thing within a few hours), and the jumping timeline didn't disconnect me from the plot whatsoever. I wish I had seen a little more development with Cora in general and the women banding together, but I liked the overall plot line (and Thelia's character development in learning) of enacting revenge on those who truly deserve it-- "monsters are not born, they are made."
I would certainly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the mythological retelling genre, and especially those who might want a new twist on the possibilities within that genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell Publishing for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"Those Fatal Flowers" had a fascinating premise, interweaving Greco-Roman mythology with the historical events of Roanoke, Virgina, which is what lured me into this novele in the first place. We follow Thelia, who serves as a handmaiden to Proserpina (aka Persephone), and when Dis (Hades) kidnaps her mistress to the underworld, Thelia and her two sisters are transformed into winged beings to find her. When all of them fail, they are banished to the island of Scopuli, forced to live as sirens who lure sailors unknowingly to their deaths, as punishment. Centuries pass and when Thelia learns of a possibility of lifting the curse she and her sisters are under, they look to the colony of Roanoke as the basis for their cure...

As a whole, I found the writing to be engaging and descriptive, and the plot pulled me in with the partial basis in mythology. The author also interwove some sapphic elements I wasn't entirely prepared for (such is the case with ARCs) which I thought was tastefully done, although I questioned some of Thelia's actions and decisions in the latter parts of the story. The depiction of colonial America however was poorly done and researched, leaving out entire populations and events, and certainly embellished on how the behavior of the inhabitants of Roanoke.

Overall an enjoyable read but with room for improvement.

Those Fatal Flowers is definitely a unique somewhat mythic retelling. The focus of the book is Thelia, who along with her sisters, becomes the sirens that doom sailors to their deaths with their song. The book doesn’t delve into much detail of the myth though, wrapping up the taking of Porsepina (more familiar to many as Persephone) and Thelia and her sisters being cursed by Porsepina’s mother. Then there’s lots of years of them being stuck on an island, eating the men (yes, really) who wash ashore after the sisters cause the boats to sink, and sacrificing the leftovers to Ceres in hopes she’ll forgive them. Spoiler alert, that isn’t working out too well for them because after eons Thelia washes ashore herself as a human in the Roanoke colony in very colonial America. She falls in love with a woman that looks very much her first love Porsepina, and quickly discovers that most men in this time are just as big of jerks as they were in her time. So why not convince them she’s a princess and then take them to her home as sacrifices to free her sisters once and for all? The book gets better later on in the story but the reader is going to have to spend a decent part of the book being moony and whiny about Thelia’s undying love for Porsepina and her seething hatred of all men. Both elements tend to be tedious before Thelia’s world widens a little bit. The idea of combining ancient mythology and the disappearance of an English settlement in early European America is interesting, but it also feels like a weird mashup to me. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for this ARC. Unfortunately I cannot recommend this book due to the way indigenous characters are treated in this story. If the author had not involved the Roanoke colony perhaps it could have been less racist.

Much like Clytemnestra, I like reading the rush of new Greek and Roman retellings. I find them fascinating! But I always forget how dark they are. Much like my experience with both Clytemnestra and now Wolf Den, I like the story, but the characters and the plot are so dark. I know this going in; I know how it ends. It still cuts like a knife.

This one, though, has the added benefit of movement through time and place. It is different, in a good way.

"The night before Ceres' palace becomes a tomb, its halls are filled with music."

"That's the danger of dreaming - it's the same danger as our song. It tantalizes with a glimpse of the forbidden, assures you it's possible. ... The promise of such a future would drive anyone into the sea."

This book failed to meet my 100 page test - if I am not engaged in the first 100 pages, I give up. The writing of this book is actually quite good; however the intertwining stories - of the Sirens of Greek mythology and the mysterious disappearing Roanoke colony - took way too long to come together. The Sirens' story expended many pages for the amount of pertinant information. Maybe the second part of the book is better. I don't know, because I lost interest.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I always like a good Greek mythology story! Thelia and her sisters have been banished to an island, forced to live their lives as sirens, because they lost the goddess Proserpina. Now Thelia is given a chance to change things by traveling to Roanoke. Things are what they seem there in terms of how women are treated. Could a sacrifice like this town be what’s needed to save her and her sisters? This book had a little bit of everything Greek mythology, mystery, violence, and even some romance as well! It’s told from two perspectives, Thelia on the island and Thelia in Roanoke, each providing their own engage aspects that kept me turning the pages!

This book was incredible. I love stories like this that dig deeper into mythology. This was a truly unique take for me on the sirens. The way the author goes back and forth between the "then" and "now" kept my interest and I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I felt invested in Thelia's character right from the start. I felt her pain and hoped for her redemption. Amazing read!!

I wanted more sapphic stories, but this ain’t it.
I do not like the flipping back and forth to past and present.
I did enjoy the premise of sirens being responsible for Roanoke. Did not like that Indigenous people were excluded from the story, even if the author added a note at the end as to why. feels a little too white feminist savior complex to me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for sending me this e-arc!

This book was an interesting concept but I don’t like how they incorporated the early colonizers of America into it, thought it was a bit weird. Also the fact that native Americans were mentioned at all??

Cursed to live as a siren and separated from the goddess she loves, a handmaiden’s unrelenting devotion drives her to atone for her actions and attempt to free them all in Those Fatal Flowers by Shannon Ives.
As a handmaiden tasked with serving the goddess of spring, Proserpina, Thelia has grown close to the goddess and the pair have formed a loving bond, but when Thelia’s fear-fueled actions lead Proserpina to be taken by Dis, Thelia and her sisters are banished and cursed to live as sirens on the island of Scopuli, where they lure men to their deaths to gain favor with the gods and sustain the vitality of their immortal half-woman, half-bird forms. Spending centuries searching for Proserpina, Thelia hasn’t given up hope of being able to free them all; just as time begins to run out she hears Proserpina’s voice and sets forth on a dangerous quest to obtain the materials needed for freedom. In human form, Thelia travels to Roanoke, Virginia where she comes ashore, near death, and is taken in by the colonists there who are eager for the riches that filled her small boat. As Thelia infiltrates the colony so that she can put them to use for her own means to fulfill her mission, she quickly learns that the colonists are dangerous for women, but it’s not just the men who are. What Thelia could not have anticipated was meeting a woman, Cora, who closely resembles Proserpina and an attraction draws the pair together to form a bond, which drives Thelia to create a plan aiming to save both her sisters and the innocent of the colony from further violence and horrors as they venture back to the shores of Scopuli.
Weaving together narratives of Before of the sirens’ lives before and on Scopuli and Thelia’s life Now in the Virginia colony, the story’s events get closer together until the Now fully overtakes the narrative to drive the tale toward its conclusion in this ambitious concept of a reimagined siren story that incorporates and combines familiar elements of mythology and historical legend. With scheming afoot from various parties throughout the tale the motivations of characters are made evident with some driven by affection and simmering rage, primarily for the women, while others are driven by greed and power, primarily for the men, which is a demonstrative measure for depicting their characters in broad strokes in the manner that Thelia tends to regard women and men as general categories of either entirely good or bad, respectively; however, as she spends more time with the colonists she learns that there’s variation to this idea, underpinned by the sentiment that “monsters are made, not born,” through the interactions she has with others and the actions she takes as a result demonstrate her growth. Though oppression and structural violence are explored briefly through the perspective of the women in the colony, the setting of Roanoke should reasonably also include Indigenous people as characters to help provide commentary on this topic but this opportunity isn’t taken, which makes this particular setting inconsequential in the grand scheme of the story if not fully utilized.
Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As one who loves to read Greek mythology and stories based off such, this was an interesting read. I think there are parts I would tweak but worth the read.

What happens when you mix a mystery from America’s history with mythology, feminist rage, and romance?

This book right here.

It presents an interesting case: what if sirens from Greco-Roman mythology were responsible for the disappearance of the inhabitants of the lost colony of Roanoke The author explains that her aim with this story was to explore the effects of loss and guilt on the psyche while also examining structural violence. It does a fair job in this endeavor, while also including a sapphic romance story.

Our main character is Thelia, one of three sisters who acted as handmaidens to Proserpina (Persephone), and who were transformed into winged creatures to assist in the search for their charge when she gets abducted by Dis (Hades). When they fail to find and rescue the goddess, they are imprisoned on an island as punishment. There, they lure sailors with their singing. (This book alternately refers to them as harpies and sirens, but I think the singing and luring part indicates they were just sirens, not harpies?)

After centuries have gone by, Thelia learns there may be a way to lift the curse she and her sisters are under, but it requires the sacrifice of many treacherous men…something the English colony of Roanoke in the Americas has more then a few of.

I liked the unique premise of the story and the bits detailing the lives of Thelia and her sister sirens on the island of Scopuli, and the writing on the sentence level was good.

On the other hand, I questioned the reliability of the behavior and speech of the Puritans depicted here. The men and women of Raleigh drank an awful lot of alcohol in this book, and said things like, “Fun little secret for you, my lady” before revealing some bit of gossip. I’m no scholar of history, but these things didn’t seem right to me. And I just wasn’t much feeling the romance — it was a bit of instalove on Thelia’s side (although in part because the object of her affections apparently looks so much like her long lost love that for a time she is trying to determine if it might actually BE her), and also if you are on a timed mission for redemption, shouldn’t a centuries old divinity be able to keep it in her skirts?

All the hate for anything male really bothered me, BUT this does get addressed later on in the book, as Thelia finally learns that “monsters are made, not born”.

So while this book wasn’t a home run for me, it was decent and presents some intriguing concepts. If I were allowed half or even quarter star ratings, I’d say this was a 3.25 or 3.5 read for me.

Thank you the NetGalley and Dell/Penguin Random House for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!