Joined in 2023 
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Okay,’ I say, not wanting to continue this conversation and cursing myself for even bringing it up. ‘Can I go see my friends now? Before Father gets here?’ I had such a fun time with this book. If you enjoyed Lore Olympus, this would be the perfect read for you! It's equal parts rom-com and fantasy while effortlessly weaving in Greek mythology elements and characters. And I name you... Kore.’ My eyes widened as the meanings of the name ran through my head: Pure, Beautiful Maiden, Little Girl – apparently that was all I would ever be to him. ‘Goddess of the flowers and of beauty –’ Aphrodite made an almost imperceptible noise of discontent and Father continued, ‘In nature.’ Yes, because if I don’t look virginal how will the fine suitors know that the girl whose name literally means chastity and who has lived her entire life alone on an island is pure?’
They made it your name, made it an insult, turned it into something it's not. There's nothing wrong with being a little girl, love. Little girls are fearless." Did I mention this was Bea’s debut? I can't believe it's a debut because it felt like a seasoned pro wrote this, so Bravo Bea and welcome to my instant buy author list. Pure joy and fun in book form. Girl, Goddess, Queen takes Hades and Persephone's tale and creates the ultimate rom-com drama with Persephone's growth and journey at its heart. This is the perfect book for a YA lover like me to share with my teenage daughter. The YA genre has really enabled the parent-child reading crossover and I am so grateful for books such as this one, which spark conversation and create common ground between two utterly different generations! With a title like that, expectations were high, and fortunately, Bea Fitzgerald didn't disappoint. Also, this retelling gives new meaning to the expression : Hot as Hades ;)Too much was happening, honestly would’ve rather it been split into too books cause it felt cramped stars. I have mixed feelings about this book. While I enjoyed the setting and the idea of the reimagining of the greek gods, the execution left me feeling disappointed. I felt frustrated with the storyline itself and its characters. Hades and Persephone just felt too different from what we associate them with, and the main focus of the story revolved around marriage for some ungodly reason. Portrayed as a romance with a sexy love interest, this book was supposed to be romantic with dreamy characters but my god was it slow and none of the characters riveting. Never mind a slow burn, more like trying to coax a fire to life during a rainstorm. Enter Hades who comes across quite intriguing at first - a brooding god of the Underworld who wants this flower-growing girl gone and resents her presence. I really liked Hades to start with but then he just turns into this sort of boring character who just lets Persephone do whatever she wants and doesn't really seem to have an opinion half the time, or any objection to her changing his realm. It's from here where Persephone enters the Underworld, starts changing things and discovers the true Hades that the story started to go downhill for me. Overall, this is one of the few books I've read this year that I can truly say I didn't want it to end and I cannot wait to read whatever Bea Fitzgerald writes next.
Funny how this story has a main romance sub-plot, but good lord was it so DRAGGY AND BORING. I was bored to death. Literally. There were parts where Persephone and Hades was just sweet but the slow-burn that I feel the author was aiming for... didn't work well in this story. It felt anticlimatic, and when they finally got together... I somehow ended up being super annoyed with Persephone when she was with Hades. Like I get it ... but I do want to slap you so there's that. I feel that whilst their friendship was explored well, the pining didn't really work out for me, which really made me dissapointed as I wanted to love it so much but I just couldn't. There needed to be more of a personality to Hades, actual communication, and a more believable development of the romance. Maybe some chapters from Hades's point of view would have worked better than just hearing from Persephone, or having it written in the third person. It didn't work well only hearing Persephone's view all the time. Yes, actually, once. She was two bottles of wine into one of her 'Mother’s evenings' with Selene and Leto. Mother loves inviting the other goddesses over to regale me with horror stories about the men she’s protecting me from. Of course. I’m going to find you a good match, and with an Olympian you’ll still be a part of this court. Besides, I don’t trust anyone under the rule of Poseidon to be the sort of man you marry.’Yes,’ she snaps, mirroring the vitriol in my own voice. ‘By the Fates, Kore, I didn’t design this system, so stop blaming me for it. If I have to arrange a marriage to keep you safe then I will.’ To escape an arranged, and possibly incestuous, marriage, Kore - repressed daughter of Zeus - escapes to the pits of hell. But seeking sanctuary with Hades - God of the Underworld - has unforeseen consequences and Kore discovers not only an unlikely alliance, but becomes the great Persephone, chaos bringer. But in recent years the focus has shifted onto the Greek myths, with books such as Medusa: The Girl Behind the Myth (Jessie Burton) and Greek Myths: A New Retelling (Charlotte Higgins), and defiant female characters who ride roughshod over patriarchal norms. Girl, Goddess, Queen, the debut novel by TikTok star Bea Fitzgerald, is the latest example – and in a crowded market, it reads like a breath of fresh air.
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