Start Date: 03/07/21 End Date: 25/08/21

Genre/Tropes: Greek Mythology, Romance, Retelling

Summary: A retelling of the story of Circe, the daughter of Helios, God of the Sun in greek mythology as she is exiled onto a deserted island where she spends centuries learning and perfecting her potions and witchcraft. As that happens she comes across different mortals who happen upon her island, including the famed Odysseus.

Thoughts: I both really enjoyed and was really disappointed with this book. I really enjoyed the whole retelling of Circe in her POV. Madeleine's writing is *chef's kiss*. And I loved the relationship dynamics with Circe and her father as its portrayed as kind of one sided, as well as the other Greek Gods and mortals that she interacts with. I absolutely loved the first half of the book because it really paints her as kind of naive and way too trusting due to the poor relationship she has with her family seeing as she's viewed of as the butt of the joke.

However the second half of the book when she is exiled on the island it just becomes so slow and boring seeing as though she literally has no one to interact with. And those she does interact with is really one dimensional. I feel like Miller could have really used this as an opportunity to showcase Circe more as a character who was abandoned by her father and how that affects the way she interacts with the mortals that she interacts with. I think that would have been really good, but it was really lackluster in that regard. While Circe is the main character, I feel like the real MVP of the book was Hermes, who I felt stole the show during the little moments that he appeared. He gave off hella Nikolai Lantsov vibes but with more Greek Mythology. He constantly messed with Circe just because it was funny and had nothing better to do, and I completely respect that and am therefore thankful because there was nothing else going for Circe.

Also another thing I was disappointed with was the romance between Circe and Odysseus. Boy was that anti-climatic AF. Like it was written all over the books blurb but when it gets to the scenes between those two, I was still left searching for any chemistry between those two. It would have been better if they had not advertised it as romance so that it hadn't left me with expectations. I shipped Circe with Hermes more than Odysseus because Hermes was seasoning whilst Odysseus was salt.

P.S (SPOILERS) towards the end of the book Circe starts getting it on with her sons half-brother and that hella turned me off. Like I guess its more forgivable because this is ancient greek mythology and everybody slept with everybody but it still leaves an aftertaste.

Reread?: probs not

Recommend?: I'd say yes