Before I begin this review, let me give a quick disclaimer. Worthy of Love is not a YA book. It includes adult content of the sexual variety. So, if you are not an adult or do not read adult books, read no further until you’re older.

We good?

Good.

Worthy of love is an adult Greek mythology retelling that focuses on Hephaestus’s life. We see his birth, his tragic fall from the mountain, his childhood, and his love life. Other mythological figures like Aphrodite, Hera, and Kabeiro play major roles, and still more like Hades, Persephone, Ares, Hermes, and Zeus have brief cameos.

One thing that I love about reading other Greek mythology retellings is that we authors have all looked at basically the same source material. We’ve studied the same myths, read the same stories, and we all came away with completely different characters and stories. A side note in my research (Heph and Kabeiro) is a major plot point for hers and vice versa. In her story, Heph, Hera, and even Zeus (sometimes) can be viewed through a sympathetic lens, but Aphrodite and Ares can most certainly not. My take is almost the exact opposite, I’ve read other stories that meet somewhere in the middle, and we’re all looking at the same myths. There’s so much room in Greek mythology for creative takes that are all completely accurate.

I finished this book fairly fast and really enjoyed seeing another interpretation of the marriage of Hephaestus and Aphrodite. I do wish Aphrodite had been a bit more multi-dimensional since she’s such a focal point in this book. Kin does acknowledge the double standard in the way Zeus is viewed for being promiscuous and the way Aphrodite is viewed, but Zeus was fleshed out enough that it wasn’t his only character trait. Aphrodite was just a shallow, petty, whore, and apparently a terrible mother. But I also recognize I have a bias when it comes to Aphrodite.

One thing I really appreciated was Kin setting this in ancient Greece but not doing the whole ‘my characters are going to randomly speak in stilted, Victorian English thing. I know the modern dialect puts off some readers because it’s not historically accurate, but if Kin was going for complete accuracy in her dialogue, the characters would in fact be speaking ancient Greek, not stilted, old English. If a reader can assume the characters are speaking Greek, but the story has been translated to English for our sakes, then can’t we also assume the idioms have been translated as well?

Thank you Kin for the review copy. It is always a pleasure to read another take on the Greek myths.