Compared to other retellings of Greek mythology that I have read this very much feels as though written to appeal to younger readers in its style. Nothing wrong with that, at all, especially if it stirs an interest in learning more about ancient civilisations! Each chapter is written as a POV of different characters, Aphrodite’s footnotes are particularly hilarious, and there is much humour throughout. Some liberties are taken with source material (acknowledged by the author) to make this a light, enjoyable take on the stories of the goddess of love. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read a pre-publication for an honest review.

I don't know what it is about this one I cannot get into. Aphrodite seems interesting enough as a character and I like seeing all these other gods from her perspective but I found it hard to be invested in Aphrodite/the book as a whole.

Absolutely amazing read this was an Aphrodite retelling that’s full of love, betrayal and more! The footnotes are written in Aphrodite’s POV which was totally sassy and was one of many things I adored.

Firstly, thank you to Netgalley and HQ Stories for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

As someone who is obsessed with greek mythology and its retellings, I was really excited for this one. however, for me, this fell flat.

Something I really don’t like in retellings is the use of modern slang, personal preference but i want to feel like the setting is ancient Greece, not the modern day world where Aphrodite probably has a TikTok account. for me the constant use of ‘humour’ and slang became very old, very quickly

As I was reading I felt like the flips between pov’s didn’t really work and made for a confusing read, due to all of the characters having the same tone of voice. it feels like the author was trying to cram in as many stories about aphrodite as possible, but it ended up being a very choppy read

Absolutely amazing read this was an Aphrodite retelling that’s full of love, betrayal and more! The footnotes are written in Aphrodite’s POV which was totally sassy and was one of many things I adored.

There were POV changes from the other Gods. which I would have found jarring but they were all so differently written and hilarious which made me love it! I also felt like there was almost a reality TV vibe to it with the povs feeling like confessionals, which is totally valid for all the chaos that would happen on Olympus.

Overall an absolutely brilliant read and I will be snagging a copy on release day!

Omg! Where do I begin? I absolutely loved this book! There was so much I didn’t know about Aphrodite. This story is full of love and betrayal, how she fights for everything she wants. Expect multiple POV, humour (obviously), war, strong female energy. Phoenicia has made another Greek myth comeback to life! If I could I would give it more than 5 stars!

I love a book about the Greek gods and goddesses, and this was up there with the best I've read. Mixing traditional legends and myths, Aphrodite is given a chance to tell her story about the most dysfunctional immortal family that ever existed! In doing so, she rattles through all the well-loved myths and legends with a wry and insightful commentary into the chaotic world to which she has made herself belong through sheer force of will. Her story is funny, sad, tragic, hopeful and above all interesting, and makes the readers look at the gods and goddesses of legend in a whole new light.
As Aphrodite is the goddess of love , she has done her job well selling her family to the reader. They're angry, vengeful, sulky, lusting, vulgar and badly behaved, but you can't help loving them all. I admit to a particularly soft spot for Prometheus now - what a legend he is!
This is a definite five-star read - in telling Aphrodite's story, Phoenicia Rogerson has aimed for the sky and caught the sun, moon and stars of the ancient Greek world.
Loved it!

4.75 stars

I loved this retelling! While it appeared at first that I was in for another standard “feminist” myth retelling, this book ends up going in a completely different direction with Aphrodite taking matters into her own hands (sometimes literally) and asking: how does one take down the seemingly omnipotent king of the gods?

Phoenicia Rogerson maintains the humour and sarcasm that I loved in Herc, as well as the different narration styles for each POV, so that every major character has a distinct narrative voice. I loved how she writes the dynamics between the gods - they bicker like the messed-up family they are, it’s almost like watching reality TV. She strikes the perfect balance between laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreakingly introspective, and I absolutely loved the character arc Aphrodite has throughout the book. Bonus points for including both Diomedes (my underrated fav) and references to the Aeneid, aka my favourite epic poem.

The book remains relatively canon compliant, yes there are a few creative liberties taken with the timeline - which is usually a bit wibbly-wobbly in Greek myth anyway - and inserting Aphrodite into a few stories she doesn’t originally appear in, but these creative liberties I can forgive. (What I can’t forgive is the fact that The Song of Achilles was clearly used as a reference for both Achilles and Patroclus. Madeline Miller you will answer for your crimes of character assassination.) I do also wish that the other female characters were a little less one-dimensional and annoying, for example Hestia who is pretty much reduced to a clingy people-pleaser. They massacred my girl :(

The book is relatively accessible, with family trees and footnotes explaining the many, many characters mentioned (the footnotes are written from Aphrodite’s POV and as such are characteristically sassy), but because the book covers so much content I wouldn’t recommend it to complete newbies to the genre. That said, if you have a little knowledge of Greek mythology and you want a fun and unique retelling, definitely give this a read!

I found Aphrodite a fun easy lighthearted read, but with a YA vibe. The pacing, formatting (some conversations read like text messages), and language used seemed to me to be written to appeal to a younger audience. I definitely had a fun time reading this book, but I wouldnt describe it as a serious retelling - more a quirky, lighthearted approach to Greek Myth. I think if you are a fan of Herc (same author) or perhpaps Bea Fitzgeralds YA myths this might be your sort of story.
Sprinkled with humour but some of the language and especially the nicknames made me cringe (though I was glad to see atleast one other character criticised one of Aphrodite's nicknames). I still found it engaging and read it in 3 days, but not something I would rush to read again. The Trojan war featured a lot more heavily than I expected and although it was fun to get different perspectives on Aphrodite's relationships with those around her (particularly Prometheus, Ares and Hephaestus) there were a lot more POVs other than Aphrodite than I was expecting.

All in all: Enjoyable entertaining read

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. I hate to give bad reviews but I didn’t enjoy the way this was written.

Well that was brilliant fun!

Aphrodite is maybe one of the most known / popular Greek goddesses and I loved this retelling of her life from her birth to her days at Mount Olympus. I can't emphasise enough how much I adored this version of Aphrodite - wickedly funny, caustic, fierce, playful and cheeky yet with a soft centre.

It's totally unique and very different from any Greek Mythology retelling I've ever read and I appreciated the research whilst loving the spin and interpretation.

The characterisation is simply brilliant and the God's and Godesses leap from the pages and it's really engaging. Each has their own distinct personality. Told in first person it's like being a fly on the wall in the Palace of Olympus. I enjoyed the dialogue and interaction between the characters and the way it felt like watching a reality TV show.

The writing is really vibrant, wry and witty. It's very contemporary which I think adds a whole other dimension to a market which some say has become over saturated. An absolute breath of fresh air which shows history is anything but stuffy and boring.

Throughout there are Aphrodites footnotes - I absolutely loved them and they really made me laugh. They are a delightul addition and help the story flow. I'd happily read a full book of these observations!

This is a book not to be missed. I don't think you have to be an expert on the Greek Myths to enjoy this. Phoenicia explains what's happening but it doesn't feel like a lesson at all. I highly recommend and give it all the 5 stars it deserves!

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for the advanced digital copy.

“Aphrodite” the novel was at times gossipy and young. That is not a criticism, being gossipy and young can be very enjoyable!

At the beginning, I kept comparing it to the strength of voice and retelling of Aphrodite’s perspective in Claire North’s “House of Odysseus”, but the characterisation was more like Bea Fitzgerald’s YA “Girl, Goddess, Queen”.

It’s a fine retelling, in that it successfully attempts to weave in a great many myths and still keep a fresh, adolescent style.

I didn’t always love the fourth wall breaks in the footnotes, but I did like the family trees throughout.

As an intro to Greek myth retellings, this novel is a good jumping off point. The characters are recognisable and react to their world in a Kardashian/soap opera way.

I would recommend this to a younger audience, 17-21 for example. And certainly, if Aphrodite is one of your favourites in the Greek pantheon, this is not one to miss.

A retelling of the Greek goddess Aphrodite from the award-winning author of Herc. A fun, pacy novel backed by a lot of research. However it's considerably less about Aphrodite than the title suggests, with the entire pantheon of Greek gods and Titans weighing in on their story. It's hard to differentiate their voices and really connect with any of the characters. An interesting read but not a standout in the genre.

3⭐️

This book is pretty much just a bunch of Greek myths shoved into a book and made to link to Aphrodite and not doing very well at any of them


I wasn’t a big fan of the way this was written, this was suppose to be set at the beginning of time so why was it written with a lot of modern slang/sayings it felt very out of place

Some of the dialogue was very cringe aswell and took away from the plot of the book

I feel like this book portrayed the gods in too human of a way they are gods they would not think or behave in ways that human’s would be expected to and I don’t think this book explored that enough it felt like it was written to much from the human experience

A lot less serious than a lot of Greek mythology books it also doesn’t really follow Greek mythology too closely which did annoy me in parts

I didn’t like that they made Eros so childlike it was creepy

It was overall a fun book in places but nothing else it wasn’t written particularly well nor was the plot overly interesting everything about it just kind of was okay except for the ending the ending was underwhelming and overall just kind of shit

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ for the digital arc

Thank you to Phoenicia Roberson, HQ, and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for honest review.

Some people will love it, some people will hate it. Aphro-marmite.

I loved the comedic writing to a certain point, and then it felt overdone and cheap. The characters felt one-dimensional and the flipping between multiple POV was jarring, especially because they were all in first person.

The nicknames pushed me over the edge and telling “Prom” something is a “you problem”… sorry, it’s a dnf.

A big thank you Netgalley and HQ stories for the EARC and the chance to read and review this book!

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up.

I am a big Greek Mythology nerd and love finding new spins and perspectives, especially about the Goddesses!

As the title suggests this is about Aphrodite, Phoenicia is clearly very knowledgeable but to me it just didn’t hit it, it felt choppy and flat at times for me.
The use of pet names really grated on me, which spoilt the experience.

A very clever retelling, but just not for me.

I’ve found myself drawn to Greek mythology this year and I have to say I loved this retelling of Aphrodite. I felt it flowed really well and I was finishing the book wanting more. I enjoyed the pov of the other gods. Brilliant book

Thank you netgalley and HQ publishing for allowing me to read this ARC.
I absolutely loved this book, the multiple POV, but mainly focusing on Aphrodite was amazing. Her sarcasm, her little anecdotes through the book was just so fun. I love how we got to see the history of the titans and gods through her perspective, it just made fun and enjoyable. The different gods were hilarious, Zeus was accurately portrayed I have to admit 🤭.
Overall it was a fun book to read and I’ll be 100% buying a physical copy when it publishes!

I have always had an interest in greek mythology, but I've never actually read a retelling as there is so much choice, and quite often texts are a tough read. With Aphrodite, the author makes it so so easy. Easy, and fun.

The author's note at the beginning of the book (stylised as if it were a chapter from her pov) states "enjoy the book how you want to, not how you think I was you to". I love this - somehow it relieved some of the pressure I felt about starting a greek myth retelling, and set a nice tone for how the rest of the book and my reading was going to go!

The author has successfully given each god/goddess their own voice and personality. I loved the way she used these characters' different versions of events to showcase the contradicting stories often found within greek mythology.

Thanks for the ARC! I have never read anything by this author before, and I'm glad I've now been introduced to her. I will definitely be purchasing her previous book Herc in the near future.

Aphrodite – fate, goddess, fraud? Phoenicia Rogerson’s version of Aphrodite’s immortal life tracks her triumphant ascendance to Mount Olympus only to suffer at the hands of Zeus and his highly dysfunctional family. Fighting to survive in this toxic environment where power is valued above everything, it is little wonder that Aphrodite’s scheming and complicated machinations swell to a point where even she cannot quite remember what has really happened over the millennia.

In telling Aphrodite’s story from the points of view of different characters, Rogerson showcases her skill and flair in writing distinctive voices and personalities. Zeus’ short, sharp sentences and tone of voice perfectly conveyed his self-absorption and insecurity.

This novel had all the humour that I was hoping for after reading Rogerson’s brilliant debut novel, Herc. I was constantly amused by the novel’s wonderful imagery – Aphrodite flying her goose and Prometheus’ flat hair day. The chapter entitled The Trojan War: a Primer read like the who’s who of key players in a football team line-up.

This is a deftly woven tale about Aphrodite. As Rogerson mentioned in her author’s note, no hero or god lives in a vacuum and I loved being able to immerse myself in who was related to whom in Greek myth, while being thoroughly entertained.

I’m a huge fan of Rogerson’s previous novel, Herc, and was thrilled to be given the opportunity to read the Aphrodite eARC. Thank you so much to HQ Stories and NetGalley for sharing this copy with me in exchange for an honest review.