Novel from Jennifer Saint about one of the most powerful Goddesses from the great Olymp takes us through the victory of the Olympians over their creators the Titans, their impressive and glorious lives and tells us how the mighty have fallen.
To many known as the sister and wife of Zeus, the King of the Gods, God of Thunder, Héra daughter of Kronos and not just the Queen of the Gods, but also a powerful Goddess of Marriage, who stood next to her siblings in the war against the Titans, tells us the story of her life and those who called themselves the divine.
The author created a clear and great novel about Héra and other gods and goddesses. Do not confuse it with a love story, it was more a short lecture on Greek mythology concentrating on the life of the Queen set into a novel. I appreciate the family tree in the beginning, if you know a bit about Greek mythology, then you know they had relationships and children with siblings and family, not to mention that some where just a creation, as was Typhon in this case. It helped a lot to navigate throughout the enormous number of characters. Also, the explanation of the Olympian history, how they were created, from where they are coming, was a good start and introduction. It was great, that relationships between characters mentioned in this book where always shortly explained, so I as a reader did not get that lost in the plot. Already in the beginning we see the usual description of Héra, an arrogant, conceited, vengeful and hard to forget and forgive woman. The writer did not take just the name and figure to insert her into a new story; it was a lecture and description of the events you meet with in Greek mythology.
Hera is in my opinion an example of a powerful woman, who is able to stand straight and equivalent next to a man, her husband or her king, but she is a prisoner of her own rage and impulsive decissions. Her sisters were able to get better guaranties for their lives from Zeus, but she was not. The way how she became the wife of Zeus and how he crowned her as the Goddess of Marriage was just cruelty and mockery from his side. She let herself in my opinion too easy manipulate by Zeus, who tried to humiliate her with every breath she took. She took revenges on too many women, who had children with her husband, but she forgets, that she too was a victim of him. She became self-centred, embittered and arrogant, where all others where beneath her. Half of the book was just about her feud with the children of Zeus. I guess, when you are immortal, you need also some hobbies. The irony of her life, she is described as the Goddess of Marriage, Women, Family and Childbirth, but had almost no feelings towards her children, Ares, Hephaestus or Hebe. They were just weapons against the king to get her revenge, that in my opinion never came. At least never from her. One thing that I am not quite sure with, was her son Typhon, or the fact that he was not her son in Greek mythology, but the son of Gaia. In multiple sources you meet with the fact, that he was the son of Gaia, but some also mention, he could be the son of Héra. An unusually powerful giant created to overthrow the Olympians. Why unusual? In most books every generation is inheriting less power than the previous one but at some point an outburst of power comes to fight the existing kings and queens, so the balance is restored. As it was with Kronos and his father Uranus, and then Zeus and Kronos. He had potential, not to mention, that he is the father of Cerberus. Let´s be honest, Cerberus is quite cool.
After that we come closer to the fall of the divine. People are losing faith and so are the Gods losing their power. Humanity became independent to their creators, and the Gods walk between them to stay alive. In the end Héra achieves what she dreamed about for a very long time, the defeat of Zeus. Sadly, not by her hand or her wit. The novel was good written and easy to read. I finished it within two days. I would read another book from this author.