As a lover of Greek Myth (especially Hades and Persephone) I was excited to read this. While the book had a great concept, I don't believe it was executed quite well. I'm not usually one to nitpick on grammatical errors either but there were quite a few and it was difficult for me to overlook. Perhaps with a rewrite, this could be a better read but it fell flat at the moment.

The Tale of Kore
Amanda L. Rautio
2 stars

Well. I absolutely adore a Greek retelling, and I have read every possible one out there, so I was super excited to jump into this one. But, unfortunately I just could not get on with it.

Firstly, the errors in this were a mess. Did this go through Beta readers at all? Secondly, there was no structure to this at all. It was all just thrown in together and that was that.

This was a quick DNF after 17%. I can deal with some errors here and there, especially in ARCs but this was just unreadable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm a sucker for a Greek mythology retelling, especially with Hades and Persephone. I thought the story went at a very strong pace, and I loved how all the characters interacted with each other. The main character, Corey, was very well-written, and I thought her evolution throughout the story made a lot of sense. I can't wait to get my hands on the next one.

The Tale of Kore by Amanda L. Rautio

The concept of The Tale of Kore immediately caught my attention—a fresh spin on Greek mythology? That’s right up my alley! Unfortunately, this book didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

The premise of Master’s students diving deep into Greek mythology and guiding readers along their academic journey was compelling in theory. However, the execution felt disjointed. While the scenes featuring conversations between classmates were loaded with an impressive amount of knowledge and detail, these were often followed by completely unrelated moments, like the FMC vividly describing her male classmates playing chicken at the beach. The abrupt shifts between dense intellectual discussions and arbitrary, superficial scenes gave me literary whiplash.

It’s clear the author is deeply passionate about Greek mythology and brings a wealth of expertise to the table, which I truly respect. Unfortunately, the story itself felt scattered, making it hard to fully immerse myself in the narrative.

That said, I can see this book finding its niche among readers ready to embrace its unique structure and deep dive into mythology. It wasn’t the right fit for me, but I hope it resonates with others who can appreciate its ambition.

Thank you, NetGally, for allowing me the opportunity to read this title.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

A deeply engaging take on the tale of Persephone and Hades, Amanda L. Rautio breathes new life into this often adapted story with fantastic characters, an intriguing mystery, and a modern flair! Highly recommended to any lovers of Greek mythology! Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was provided a free copy of this book from NetGalley.

This was a DNF for me. I usually give a book about 10% before I decide if I’m going to continue. The writing just seemed off. The story did not catch my attention at all. It kind of just seemed like an info dump. The premise had my attention, but it just didn’t deliver. If I hear otherwise, I could always jump back in. I’ll keep an eye on the reviews, and update my review if I dive back in.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you very much for the ARC!

This book has a fantastic premise, and was one of the ARC's I was most excited to receive this year. Greek myth retellings have been big for the last couple of years for good reason, and bringing in a modern element to tell an entirely new myth is a very creative way to innovate and introduce something new in the genre.

I think this could be an incredible book, but it needs several more rounds of editing first.

There are many grammatical and line level edits that need to be made, with several instances of typos, missing commas, tense changes, and places where a sentence was clearly changed halfway through but the first half wasn't corrected to match the end throughout the book. There also seem to be many places in which there are two to three sentences which all convey the exact same thing, which need to be pared down to a single sentence.

There are also developmental edits that need to be made. Some themes and ideas are inconsistent For example: Hades doesn't know what a telephone is, but he knows enough about the Lord of the Rings to name Cirith Ungol when Corey says something reminds her of LOTR; does he know about the modern world or not? It says Gods don't need to sleep, but they're often sleeping despite that. Corey is an MA student in Classics, but from time to time needs things explained to her that one would think she would know. There is no acknowledgement of the fact that the main conflict is not solved during the climax until the last page, which results in a bit of a strange wrap up, in which it seems like everyone is treating it as though everything has been fixed despite the fact that it hasn't until one sentence at the very end. Quite a bit of the exposition throughout the book is rather info-dumpy, and needs to be pared down.

Though it's clear that the author spent a lot of time reviewing the mythological basis for the book, it seems she didn't spend as much time researching the setting. Corey is a second year MA student, yet she doesn't know which professor is the Greek expert in the classics department, not only does it seem like she would have found that out instantly upon starting classes, most graduate programs require you to state which faculty members you would like as advisors in your applications. She also talks about a class with a M/W/F schedule, though virtually all graduate classes meet once a week, rarely twice a week. The book also takes place in Athens, GA, which I think could have been researched slightly more. For example, when deciding to go camping they go to "the national forest" which is just over an hour away, despite the fact that there are several national parks (i.e. it seems like when discussing it they would specify which one) only around half an hour away from Athens. There is also a bizarre moment in which Hermes indicates that the invention and use of birth control is causing casual sex to become a societal problem, despite the fact that the ancient greeks used forms of birth control.

Lastly, the prose could use refinement. There is a fine line between the flowery prose that has come to be expected from Greek mythological fiction and stilted overly formal prose. There is something to be said for simplicity, and at times the prose gives the impression that most of the words were looked up in a thesaurus to make them sound more formal rather than sounding like natural speech. This causes some passages to come off as awkward, and is highlighted by the way it seems to swing wildly between very casual modern speaking and extremely formal.

Again, the premise is spectacular. The plot is engaging and is a really cool innovation on the current state of the genre. I really think that with more editing this could be a book that could land Amanda Rautio's name among Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint as a pillar of modern greek mythological fiction. It has a LOT of promise as a story and series concept, but it needs quite a bit more editing.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the e-ARC of The Tale of Kore!

2.5/5 ⭐
I’m normally a huge fan of mythology retellings, and I was very excited to read The Tale of Kore. Most of the book earned around 2 stars for me; the writing was not up to my standards and I feel like more time could have been spent on the editing process. Despite that, Tale of Kore was obviously a well researched passion project. There were a few twists near the end that I did like that brought this up to a reluctant 3 stars for the purpose of rating on sites, but I could not necessarily recommend this book without a thorough writing and editing overhaul, and I’m not sure if I would read the implied upcoming sequel unless the writing improved. I’m still grateful for the opportunity and wish Rautio the best with this novel and future ones.

Unfortunately I couldn’t continue with this book so had to give up at 20% in.

We follow Corey, a classics student in University as she researches Greek legends and gods.

The writing was a bit too simplistic and the plot didn’t seem to have any major direction to go as, in the little I read, we were only following the day to day classes and assignments that Corey attends.

There was a bud of the supernatural growing in the background but it didn’t engage me enough to continue.

I also don’t think I’m the target audience for this as I’m probably too mature a reader for it. Having said that, I think I would have loved it 15 years ago so there will be a younger generation out there for the book.

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Amanda L. Rautio, Netgalley and Books Go Social for this free ARC in exchange for a review.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get too far before I quit. Life is too short for mediocre books, and the clumsy info-dumps and needless, sudden violence at the beginning of this made it obvious that I wouldn't enjoy reading the whole thing. Info-dumps and intense things happening without any characterization to explain them are both common things among authors who don't seem to care much about what they're writing, because they're not putting much into it.

As I always do with novels like this, I recommend the author take a class, seminar or find free info. online about how to write compelling novels.

I was excited for a book about Greek gods but ended up disappointed. I DNF’D this 60 pages in after reading five chapters. The story follows Corey, a college student studying classics and Greek mythology. While I expected a fantasy, it’s mostly focused on Corey’s classes and campus life with a bit of magic thrown in. There are lots of details about what she does in each class, which made it feel more like a story about college than one with gods and magic. If you like books with a lot of academic focus, this might work for you, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this anyways.

I truly loved to read this book. So cool!!! Loved everything about it. The Tale of Kore was fenomenal! 5 stars from me.

This is a unique take on an old tale. I absolutely loved it! A dark academia Greek retelling!! Spice free but loaded with great tension! This read like Percy Jackson for adults (in the best way). This book was clearly carefully researched. I was nervous to dive back into more academic focused books (I’ve been reading a lot of unserious romantasy lately) but this was so approachable. The balance between Greek myths, character development and romantic tension was perfection! I fell in love with Hades in this and I’m not even sorry about it. I cannot wait for book two!!