Update. Changed my review due to what was going on good reads.

Thank you for the ARC.

The Greek retelling of Ariadne and Dionysus retold as a slow burn space opera.
I was a little unsure of how taking this Greek story to space would work but it did.

Ariadne’s life on Crete, helping Theseus in the labyrinth and her meeting Dionysus on Naxos.

The story build up was a bit slow in the beginning and had me put the book down a few times but picked up once on Naxos and had a hard time putting down afterwards.

I enjoyed Ariadne inner monologue and her interaction with Dionysus and her character growth. Dionysus was a good time all around.



Ready for the next book!!!!

I'm grateful to Random House for the opportunity to review this ARC and I hope that I can review for them in the future. But I cannot in good conscience recommend this book after learning about the alleged unethical behavior of the author.

I thought this story looked very promising, but due to the recent controversy surrounding Goodreads and the author, I do not feel comfortable reviewing this title. Such a shame that an author would have such a scarcity mindset and tear down her contemporaries; there is plenty to go around. Should information come out that the allegations are false, I will be happy to update my feedback. Thank you!

Was very excited to read this but due to the recent controversy surrounding Goodreads and the author, I do not feel comfortable honestly reviewing this title. Should information come out that the allegations are false, I will definitely review this upcoming title. Thank you!

Given the situation that happened, I cannot in good conscience review and/or promote this book. What a shame because I was so excited about this book and its concept.

I will not be recommending this book at this time. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity for this review and hope that I can continue to review for Random House in the future. However, due to the current allegations against the author I can not in good faith recommend their work. If the allegations prove false I will gladly update my feedback accordingly as the story did show promise.

Thank you again for your time.

After hearing what this author did to other authors on Goodreads, I will not be reading or recommending to anyone.

I was barely stating this book I was at 15% and so far what I had read I had like the world and the plot seem interesting. But then yesterday my tiktok feed and instagram story was full or videos talking about this author’s behavior.

Due to the allegations that recently have been circulating around all social media, about her sabotaging other authors by creating fake accounts and rating other books low, I will not be reviewing or rating this book. Even if I wanted to goodreads is not letting any reviews or ratings been posted on this book.

It’s a pity why would someone sabotage themselves is beyond me this book was really doing pretty good. By itself. There was not need to do certain allegations.

I was excited to read this, but after the author's current review drama that has a lot of racist overtones is something that can't be ignored, and I don't want to give this book a platform or support this behavior.

All that aside, I don't feel like I can give a review without reading a book so I did (since I didn't monetarily support her or her actions). I read a large portion of this and I just can't get into it. The writing feels a bit too young adult than what I was expecting, there is not enough worldbuilding to really pull me in, the main character is naive bordering on holier than thou, and the story just didn't have the overall tone I was hoping for. I read some other reviews that said it picks up at the 50% and again in the last 60 or so pages and that is just too much to commit to in the hopes it improves.

I hope that there are more Greek sci-fi-esque retellings, especially with Dionysus (a personal favorite god), but I even without all the drama I don't know that this would have been it. All of it is just disappointing.

I will not be reviewing or recommending this book to anyone due to recent allegation made that the author has been purposely rating upcoming debut authors works with low ratings while simultaneously rating her own book higher on fake accounts. A 31 page google document is pretty DAMNING!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__mO1uqIqcmupBAPKwXDzlUbZIwtY6fKf0S1Y0SNz0E/edit

Unless the author or publisher comes out and address the matter at hand and action is taken, I will not be reading or discussing this book!

I will not be promoting or reading this book due to the reported unethical and unacceptable actions taken by the author to undermine the reviews of other debut authors. Faking reviews to bomb author ratings and even more horrifically posing as POCs doing so is unacceptable and wrong.

1 star only because I’m not allowed zero.

I'm not going to support this book due to the review bombing of other debut authors that this author has participated in.

This was a book I was so excited for. When it was dropped in my kindle I squealed out loud. I finished reading it and went to go start writing my review but the realized that this is the author everyone is talking about when it came to review bombing other debut authors. I want to thank Random House and del Rey for allowing me this opportunity.

I will not be reviewing this book on my social media accounts (Goodreads or Instagram), due to the author's recent "review bombing" toward other 2024 debut authors. I appreciate the ARC copy provided to me, but I don't want to platform that kind of behavior.

I was extremely excited for this book, and thought that it was a promising debut (though it fell a little short of my hopes), so the author's behavior is especially disappointing to me. There was a lot in here that I liked; fun and interesting worldbuilding, a cool take on retelling a Greek myth, and a lot of humor. The book was very readable and pacy, and I was very engaged and didn't want to put it down. I loved genderfluid, queer Dionysus and bisexual Ariadne; I thought the romance was largely very compelling.

On the other hand, I felt like the pacing was a bit lopsided, especially with the action at the end, and I wanted a little more from the characters outside of the main couple; the side characters sometimes felt flat. There were also places where I felt the writing could have used a little more development, especially in tone.

But for a debut especially, none of these downsides were deal-breakers for me, and I was ready to give this a solid 3.5-rounded-up rating, and to look forward to the next book in the duology ... the author's behavior toward other authors (especially POC debuts!), however, was.

Thanks to Del Rey and Netgalley for the ARC copy; I wish this story had ended better.

In light of recent events, I cannot bring myself to read and review a book by an author who has done some disgusting things. This book was on my highly-expected list until everything was released and I’m just really disappointed. There was nothing but good reviews and positive talk about this book too! It has an Illumicrate special edition in the works (which readers are now trying to get it canceled for good reasons).
I dont know, it’s just very disappointing to see authors stoop low for whatever reasons claimed- stated and those unstated. Xiran Jay Zhao shared a link on twitter/X with receipts to back up most of these statements for anybody wanting to see proof.

Couldn’t have been more excited to receive this arc and now I’m just left with disappointment. I hope some statements will be made soon or some sort of apology towards the poc authors that were main targets of the low-star review bombing…

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

I went into this a bit blind, but was intrigued by the blurb and the cover.
This story had a huge info dump within the first couple of chapters and honestly, I struggled to get through it. I almost DNF'd just because there was too much information and it was hard to connect with the characters.
Overall, throughout the book it felt like there was a lot of details that was just there to give the book a higher word count and didn't play into the bigger part of the story.

I wasn't rooting for the 2 main characters and found their romance to be a bit boring. I just really didn't connect with the book.

While this might have been a book I loved (queer space opera--yay!), I am unable to recommend or promote it due to the author's horrendous behavior in review bombing her fellow debuts. I want to emphasize, however, that my negative feelings towards this book are only because of this specific author's actions souring my previous enthusiasm (of which there was much!) beyond repair. Please do continue to publish books like this, but not by Cait Corrain.

I was enjoying this book but will now be DNFing it due to the allegations around the author creating fake Goodreads accounts to review bomb other debut authors and POC authors. This is very disappointing because I think the book had potential, but I will not support this authors alleged behavior.

I like the mythology part of this book. It had so much potential. The cover is absolutely gorgeous. I did hear of a scandal after I read this. Something about up-voting her own book or something. I'm not entirely sure. But my review is solely on the book it's self.

And to think I was so excited to get this book...

The author's been review bombing fellow debut authors on Goodreads. Why? What's the point? I can't stand by this behavior. (Can't stand by anyone leaving one-star fake reviews on some of my favorite books.)

Leaving this on the dnf shelf for now.

(There's a review on GR with a link to the receipts. Please check it out.)