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The King of Spring by Collette Carmon

Series:
The Homeric Retellings #1

Genre:
Gender Swapping, Romance, Ancient Greek Literature, Ancient Roman Literature, Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology, Grumpy/Sunshine, BookSirens ARC, Marriage of Convenience, Fantasy, Hades and Persephone, Retellings, Mythological Retellings, Homeric Retellings, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary, Book Series, Dual Points of View

Publication Date:
July 1, 2023

Pages Numbers:
251

Read Date:
June 27th, 2023

Date Finished:
June 27th, 2023

Rating:
5 /5

Blurb:

What if everything you knew of the gods was wrong? Homer’s story ends the way all do—in death.

In the Land of the Dead, Homer makes his way to Hades’s obsidian throne room. Upon a glassy throne, Homer finds a queen wrapped in darkness with eyes as white as mist. She asks if he wants to hear the real story of Hades and his queen. Beginning Homer’s new purpose—rectifying, in death, the stories he got wrong in life.

Hades doesn’t want a consort, but Zeus is determined to bend Hades to his will. To keep the peace, Hades agrees to Zeus’s demands. Telling the King of the Gods that Hades will allow the farce if Zeus allows Hades to give up after a year. Kore moves amongst the gods and goddess of Olympus as all other “nameless” gods do.

Demeter hates her only child and is content to keep Kore hidden in the shadows of society while heaping praises upon her perfect daughter , the Goddess of Spring. Kore wants more than Olympus and Demeter’s overbearing hold. The decree from Zeus, posted in the courtyard of the university, gives Kore the perfect opportunity to leave the suffocating world of Olympus. At the ball, no one dares step forward as consort for the Ruler of the Dead. Only Kore. Kneeling before Hades, Kore says, “I will be your consort…” All hell breaks loose, and the newlyweds who chose each other out of convenience have to decide if their love is one worth waging war for.

The King of Spring is the first of The Homeric Retellings , a series of retellings based on Collette Carmon’s favorite Greek Myths. Come fall in love with the Hades and Persephone you’ve never met!

Review:

I have always loved mythology retellings especially those of Hades and Persephone. This one takes the myth to a whole new and unique level. In stories and myths, Hades has always been male and Persephone has always been his female queen, but what if the tales had been wrong? What if the myths you have learned of them had been false? What if Hades was the Queen of the Underworld and Persephone or Kore, as she has been called, the male consort to the Underworld?

Hades is the Queen of the Underworld. She has been ruling for centuries, taking the dead to their destinations, taking unwanted children of the gods and raising them as her own, and keeping the Underworld running like a well-oiled machine. She has never had a consort nor has there been any need of one.

That is until Zeus steps in and decrees that Hades must take a consort or war will break out. Reluctantly, Hades agrees but she is not prepared for Kore to step forward with a desire to fill those shoes.

Kore, the God of Spring, has always been a disappointment to his mother. He was never the girl she wanted and thus he has been neglected for most of his life. When he catches sight of Hades for the first time, he feels like she is the one and when it comes time to be the one to step forward, he does and proposes to her.

For Hades, this is to be a marriage of convenience but to Kore, he wants it to be much more.

I did not know this book was needed in my life until I came across it on BookSirens. I am completely in love not only with this retelling of the myth but the gender swap of the characters. Kore, having come from a mother who despises him for not being a girl, found his other half in Hades just as she did with him. I loved how they were even at the beginning with Homer. The tale spun and weaved for Homer to hear and acknowledge that everything he had taught was wrong.

I really felt sorry for Kore. Demeter was cruel to him simply because he was not the girl she wanted. She treated him as if he was nothing more than part of the greenhouse scenery. She treated him horribly, but it never diminished his character. Even through this, he wanted something more and he saw that in Hades. He saw the woman, not the dark goddess. Not the goddess that they whispered horrible things about.

And Hades. She was right when she told Zeus that he would be forgotten as his temples crumbled but she would be remembered always. Hades is still the name we call the Underworld or Hell. It is still a name spoken. Zeus' name is remembered here and there and often not in the best ways.

I am really looking forward to seeing the next book in this series.


*Disclaimer: Thank you to the author, her publishers, and BookSirens for allowing me to read and review this book. The opinions of this review are mine and mine alone.