I thought the book was only ok. It was easy to lose my attention. However I do not think I was in the ideal demographic for the book

This was a fun mythology inspired story. In this story, we get a love story between the goddess of love, Aphrodite and the god of the forge, Hephaistos. It was creative, involved lots of world building and had great twists and turns that keep the reader involved with the story.

[ARC REVIEW]

This was a damn good book.
Outside of my normal selections but WOW!!!

Carly Spade did a fantastic job of giving us an AMAZING Aphrodite love story that is a little off brand.
I LOVED PHAI AND RO; I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS.

This introduced me to a new author with a new perspective and I love it.
Aphrodite and Hades can get played out after awhile... sorry.

There are several other titles I now want to read!

Thanks to netGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this title.

Oh my gods... 3.5 for me which makes me very very sad...

So far, each book of Carly's I've read was a 4.0 and above but this one... Wasn't? I was really excited for it, too...

While Aphrodite and Heph had lots of chemistry and it was a fun read in a cool setting, it seemed unnecessarily lenghty at times. Further, the time paradoxes where confusing not in regards to the why but to the when in the actual time line. And I think I've found a serious content error regarding the references of the original contemporary Mythos series which just f*cked me up BAD.

But what boggled me most and started to make the rating worse and worse during the last 20% was the insurmountable amount of s*x. It was so much that I got bored. BORED. ME. By s*x scenes. I've never thought I'd see the day but there you have it... While the first 1-4 scenes had me sweating along, I completely checked out after reading for the duzilianth time that she smoked his cahootles or he bamboozled her on the counter. It just majorly distracted from the plot and tying of loose ends, it was like "oh, so they want to do that...s*x...wait, what were they doing again?"... Anyway, I'm sad I didn't liked it more. :<

⭐️⭐️.5
Of Love and Forge by Carly Spade

This one just missed the mark for me.
I liked the set up and the concept so so much however these were my qualms:
- it felt like you needed to have read the authors other works to understand the characters and references OR have a vast understanding of Greek mythology. I have neither so it was a struggle when I kept having to google things like “Tartarus” which is used VERY often
-the space time hops needed better fleshing out, if the characters didn’t understand it then I didn’t either
-It irks me when “siblings” call each other “bro” and “sis” because it is wildly inaccurate
-it’s not a linear story, some chapters jump from time to slightly before/after where you left off (but this has nothing to do with the space/time dimensions, just different POVs)
-it seemed a little crude/crass and not in a good way? At one point Aphrodite is showing Heph a part of her life that’s kinda nerdy and she’s worried he’ll be “freaked out”, his response is to put her hand on his crotch and say “That answer your question, babe?” 🥴…it just seemed so douchey to me

Thank you NetGalley and World Tree Publishing for a copy of this novel.

I adored this book by Carly Spade!! It was witty, and different than most retellings tend to be. The romance was phenomenal, and I was sucked right into the story.

Cyberpunk mashed up with Greek Mythology... What could go wrong?!
The concept worked so well and I loved the author's spin on the gods and the reimagining of their myths.

Heph was hilarious. Aphrodite was likeable, and not annoying, which makes a nice change from how she is usually portrayed. The romance was sweet - mythological friends to lovers - and the sex was hot.
The plot was simple enough but it's obviously building to something bigger in future books.

I enjoyed the futuristic setting, the interactions with other Gods and mythological characters, as well as the banter that flowed throughout the book.
However, I'm not going to lie, the pacing of the book felt off and the plot dragged on way too long.
If the book had been tighter I would have rated it higher as the concept really is like catnip to a cat for me.
I'll definitely read other books from the author featuring other Gods and I'll continue reading this series as I think it's worth reading if mythology, humour and romance, interspersed with action, is your bag (and it definitely is mine!)

Of Love and Forge follows Hephaestus and Aphrodite in a cyberpunk future as they fight to escape a bounty and vengeful gods, and work out their true feelings for each other. It's got all the hallmarks of a great romance - friends to lovers, one bed, spice, and pining but unfortunately, it just didn't quite hit the mark for me.

Of Love and Forge was just a bit too long for me, the build-up took a long time but then some parts were rushed - I still don't quite understand the Eros situation! The main thing that kept me reading was the banter and playfulness between our two leads and without this, I'd be rating a lot lower.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author - all thoughts and feelings are my own and I was not compensated for this review!

I really enjoyed this book!

I loved the characters so much and I loved the way this retelling was done. I've been dying for a retelling of this couple because they honestly are my favorite. The goddess of love and the goddess of the forge are such a wonderfully mythical opposite attract moment and this author made their love story so freaking cute. I love the fact they were friends to lovers and Aphrodite was a closet nerd. Such a unique and cute idea.

Also Heph was a freaking HUNK... but in a subtle and adorable way...

Also... the steam. It was unexpectedly awesome.

However, the only thing I didn't really enjoy the length and I felt like there were some unnecessary lulls in the plot. Also... too many villains! It was just way too many people that these characters had to avoid... they also had very similar names so I had a hard time keeping track of who was who.

Overall, I really liked this series and Aphrodite and Hephaestus are so freaking cute!!

This was my first Carly Spade book. Enjoyable! Some cheesy parts but actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be! Spicy Greek mythology retelling, yes that sounds AWFULLY familiar but Spade really made it her own! The sci fi, time travel, cyberpunk aspect was really cool and unexpected! Time to go back and read the Contemporary Mythos series!

I received an ARC copy from netgallery for an honest review. All the opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone.

OMG this book gave me everything!!!! Mythology, romance, suspense and an amazing story. This is something you have never read before! The world and the characters are so amazing that I didn't want it to end. I laughed, I cried and I enjoyed every minute of this book! This is one read you don't want to miss!

Greek mythology retellings are my absolute favorite and this one was AMAZING!! Such a fun spin on all the ideas and concepts. I KNEW Ro would be bad from the start, I loved her character and development so much. The tension build-up was wonderfully frustrating. I couldn’t get enough!

Greek Gods and a Cyberpunk Futuristic world?!? Sign me up!

Hephaestus, is a well known bounty hunter and was offered a new bounty to take Aphrodite, an old friend of his, and deliver her. Seems easy enough, but when old feelings for Aphrodite come back and the meet up goes south. They end up fighting for their life! And maybe feelings they have been ignoring for centuries can’t be ignored any longer.

This was an interesting take of the greek gods, had lots of funny moments, and the spice was pretty great!

I just lost interest at the halfway point!

This does not follow the story of these two myths whatsoever! Which was definitely fun!

Thank you Net Galley and Carly Spade for the ARC!

This book was very different than the original Contemporary Mythos series, but it complimented it very well.
I was a little confused by some of the timelines but it didn’t make the storyline less enjoyable. Phai and Aph are a great pair and I’m so glad the Ms. Spade brought them together in this love adventure.
I’m super excited to start this journey with new yet familiar characters. I can’t wait to see what comes of this series.

Greek Mythology, cyberpunk, futuristic, Netgalley, ARC for honest review, friends to lovers, action

Thanks #NetGalley for the advanced copy of #OfLoveandForge by Carly Spade in exchange for an honest review.

This book really started out strong and had some great elements. I loved the Greek mythology aspect of it all and it was fun seeing the Greek gods and goddesses interact like all of us. A couple of things that bothered me about the story though. 1) Everyone had about 5 different nicknames. At first I thought it was cute but it became just too much. Aphrodite was called Ro, Aph, and Dite. Not to mention that she had her cover name for modern times. Oh and Heph also called her Princess, love-y goddess, Peach, and baby. It would have been better if the nicknames had been limited to 1 per person or maybe everyone else called her Aph but Heph called her Ro and sometimes he called her Peach (or pick any number of nickname combinations). The other thing that bothered me was almost everything was wrapped up by the 60ish% mark and then it dragged a bit talking about how their places were decorated for far too long until finally we had the finale. This book could have easily been 20% shorter. Lastly, the final thing that bothered me was all the references to pop culture which is fun when the book is newly published but won't last long before future generations will be confused by some of the things mentioned in the book. I really like Ro and Heph and want to see what happens with Orion and Daphne and Ares and whoever is his fated mate.

Such a unique take on the Hephaestus/Aphrodite myth! Greek myth and cyberpunk, who woulda thought?! It works so well. The relationships between the gods were one of my favorite parts, with the clashing family dynamics and relationships. The romance was really fun and sexy. The humor overall felt natural. In every iteration of Hephaestus/Aphrodite the conflict centers the story, and while it did in this one as well, there was so much more to it than just why they hated each other. I really enjoyed it! I look forward to reading more Carly Spade.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carly Spade, World Tree Publishing, LLC for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

For all the Greek mythology retellings floating around out there, I've never seen one in a cyberpunk setting before. This high-action romance imagines Hephaistos and Aphrodite finding love in a lawless neon megalopolis. Someone has taken out a bounty on the goddess of love, and Hephaistos has accepted it, just for a chance to get close to her again.

The writing style wasn't really my jam, and the time travel elements made even less sense than such things usually do. That said, I enjoyed the nerdy references that appear throughout and found the characters to be a truly fresh reimagining of the classic mythical figures.

I'd recommend this book to fans of chaotic sci fi romances like An American Werewolf in Space

(4.5 Stars)

I want to thank NetGalley, World Tree Publishing, and Carly Spade for the opportunity to read this Arc of 'Of Love and Forge', in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to start of by saying I absolutely loved this book! I was hooked right from the beginning, and read it all in one sitting. I am a lover of all things mythology retellings, and this did not disappoint! The characters were interesting, great characters with great banter - genuinely made me laugh and smile throughout the book,

Overall, great book - I am excited to recommend this to others!

Thank you to NetGalley and World Tree Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Of Love and Forge is a loose retelling of the relationship between Aphrodite and Hephaistos but make it modern/cyberpunk and without all the incest of the original Greek myths. There is time travel, bounty hunting, fashion, and sexual tension out of this world.

I loved this book. It's got so much of what I love and one of my favorite things was that the author made Ro and Heph so real. That's such a big part of what the original Greek myths did: all of the gods were flawed because really the myths were telling stories about humans and humans are flawed. This book gives our main characters believable flaws that are straight out of the original myths but modernizes them for today's audience. If you like retellings, and especially of greek myths, do not pass on this!

This is going to the the first in a series and I cannot wait for book 2!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
🌶 🌶 🌶 🌶

Tropes: best-friends-to-lovers, who did this to you

CW: extremely graphic violence, mentions of non-consenting sex, forced sex work

#OLAF #NetGalley

This book was such a fun read! I have read the rest of the Contemporary Mythos series (including the novellas), so was really excited to see where the journey continues.

This book focuses on Aphrodite and Hephaestus and Heph is a time-traveling bounty hunter.

One of the things that Carly does so well with this is yes, she has the romantasy element, but she integrates cyberpunk so effortlessly that for someone like me who is unfamiliar with cyberpunk, doesn’t feel overwhelmed in this introduction of a new genre and is excited to discover more and not feel so intimidated.