Much like Clytemnestra, I like reading the rush of new Greek and Roman retellings. I find them fascinating! But I always forget how dark they are. Much like my experience with both Clytemnestra and now Wolf Den, I like the story, but the characters and the plot are so dark. I know this going in; I know how it ends. It still cuts like a knife.

This one, though, has the added benefit of movement through time and place. It is different, in a good way.

"The night before Ceres' palace becomes a tomb, its halls are filled with music."

"That's the danger of dreaming - it's the same danger as our song. It tantalizes with a glimpse of the forbidden, assures you it's possible. ... The promise of such a future would drive anyone into the sea."

This book failed to meet my 100 page test - if I am not engaged in the first 100 pages, I give up. The writing of this book is actually quite good; however the intertwining stories - of the Sirens of Greek mythology and the mysterious disappearing Roanoke colony - took way too long to come together. The Sirens' story expended many pages for the amount of pertinant information. Maybe the second part of the book is better. I don't know, because I lost interest.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I always like a good Greek mythology story! Thelia and her sisters have been banished to an island, forced to live their lives as sirens, because they lost the goddess Proserpina. Now Thelia is given a chance to change things by traveling to Roanoke. Things are what they seem there in terms of how women are treated. Could a sacrifice like this town be what’s needed to save her and her sisters? This book had a little bit of everything Greek mythology, mystery, violence, and even some romance as well! It’s told from two perspectives, Thelia on the island and Thelia in Roanoke, each providing their own engage aspects that kept me turning the pages!

This book was incredible. I love stories like this that dig deeper into mythology. This was a truly unique take for me on the sirens. The way the author goes back and forth between the "then" and "now" kept my interest and I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I felt invested in Thelia's character right from the start. I felt her pain and hoped for her redemption. Amazing read!!

I wanted more sapphic stories, but this ain’t it.
I do not like the flipping back and forth to past and present.
I did enjoy the premise of sirens being responsible for Roanoke. Did not like that Indigenous people were excluded from the story, even if the author added a note at the end as to why. feels a little too white feminist savior complex to me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for sending me this e-arc!

This book was an interesting concept but I don’t like how they incorporated the early colonizers of America into it, thought it was a bit weird. Also the fact that native Americans were mentioned at all??

Cursed to live as a siren and separated from the goddess she loves, a handmaiden’s unrelenting devotion drives her to atone for her actions and attempt to free them all in Those Fatal Flowers by Shannon Ives.
As a handmaiden tasked with serving the goddess of spring, Proserpina, Thelia has grown close to the goddess and the pair have formed a loving bond, but when Thelia’s fear-fueled actions lead Proserpina to be taken by Dis, Thelia and her sisters are banished and cursed to live as sirens on the island of Scopuli, where they lure men to their deaths to gain favor with the gods and sustain the vitality of their immortal half-woman, half-bird forms. Spending centuries searching for Proserpina, Thelia hasn’t given up hope of being able to free them all; just as time begins to run out she hears Proserpina’s voice and sets forth on a dangerous quest to obtain the materials needed for freedom. In human form, Thelia travels to Roanoke, Virginia where she comes ashore, near death, and is taken in by the colonists there who are eager for the riches that filled her small boat. As Thelia infiltrates the colony so that she can put them to use for her own means to fulfill her mission, she quickly learns that the colonists are dangerous for women, but it’s not just the men who are. What Thelia could not have anticipated was meeting a woman, Cora, who closely resembles Proserpina and an attraction draws the pair together to form a bond, which drives Thelia to create a plan aiming to save both her sisters and the innocent of the colony from further violence and horrors as they venture back to the shores of Scopuli.
Weaving together narratives of Before of the sirens’ lives before and on Scopuli and Thelia’s life Now in the Virginia colony, the story’s events get closer together until the Now fully overtakes the narrative to drive the tale toward its conclusion in this ambitious concept of a reimagined siren story that incorporates and combines familiar elements of mythology and historical legend. With scheming afoot from various parties throughout the tale the motivations of characters are made evident with some driven by affection and simmering rage, primarily for the women, while others are driven by greed and power, primarily for the men, which is a demonstrative measure for depicting their characters in broad strokes in the manner that Thelia tends to regard women and men as general categories of either entirely good or bad, respectively; however, as she spends more time with the colonists she learns that there’s variation to this idea, underpinned by the sentiment that “monsters are made, not born,” through the interactions she has with others and the actions she takes as a result demonstrate her growth. Though oppression and structural violence are explored briefly through the perspective of the women in the colony, the setting of Roanoke should reasonably also include Indigenous people as characters to help provide commentary on this topic but this opportunity isn’t taken, which makes this particular setting inconsequential in the grand scheme of the story if not fully utilized.
Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As one who loves to read Greek mythology and stories based off such, this was an interesting read. I think there are parts I would tweak but worth the read.

As a history and historical fiction lover, I really enjoyed the mix of Greek mythology and the lost colony of Roanoke. I loved the authors take on what might’ve or could’ve happened. The epic love Thelia has for Proserpina spans history. I love the reminder of the power that women have. That WE are enough. That men don’t own us and can’t control us, no matter how much they’d like to. Especially important today in the US and throughout the world.

This is a book that has love, betrayal, and mythology. While I didn’t love parts of the book, I definitely enjoyed it!

I enjoyed this! This is a book for you if you're a lover of books that are character driven. Lots of interesting bits of dialogue, side characters, character history, etc. I'm not usually the biggest fan of shifting perspectives or time periods in a book but actually enjoyed the switch from past to present in this one. It made Thelia feel a lot more real to me, as well as her sisters. There were also lots of beautiful or unique descriptions of people, places, or things in this book. For some the descriptions might be a bit too long-winded, but I found them intriguing. While I found the pairing of Greek/Roman mythology with a U.S. colony to be a bit odd, it ended up working for me. Something about a story centered on sirens and their fates was just very mysterious and compelling to me. Also, if you like sapphic stories, there is a sweet couple in this that I loved rooting for.

Note to publishers: I will post the review to Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Tiktok, and my Goodreads on the publish date.

An interesting take on greek myths. Makes the goddesses seem real almost human. Makes me understand the the inhumanity of man and hoe vengeance does not correct wrongs.

A very interesting combination of history - Greco-Roman mythology and the Roanoke colony. As others have mentioned, however, I did notice the lack of Indigenous people within the story. While I can understand the author saying that it isn't her story to tell, that is still a rather major group of people to leave out of a colony that was known to have been part of North American colonialism.

As well, the mix of Greek and Roman names is very off putting, as someone who loves mythology. The Romans took the stories from the Greeks and changed many of the names - it honestly would have been better to stick to one set of name usage instead of trying to combine them.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Thelia has not made the best choices. She is hoping she can return with very little consequences. A nice read.

This book was surprisingly better than expected. Mythology, strong women and dumb men all packed into a short 380 page book. I do wish there was a bit more context to the Greek mythology characters. There were many obscure names used that I had to stop and look up because they just are not the "popular" names. I was so confused about a quarter through it made me want put it down and never come back. Since its an ARC, I pushed through it!

This book was not moving, did not change the way I feel, and was (speaking as a woman) TOO "man-hater" that I think that the author will lose an entire audience... the men.. I guarantee, no man is going to pick up this book and feel warm and fuzzy after reading it.

All in all, 2.5 stars rounded up to 3. The author does have a lot of time to re-work, which I think she should. The author is a beautiful writer, I just wish the context were better.

I would like to thank the Random House for approving me for this ARC, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Thelia made a mistake centuries ago that cause her the woman she loved. The goddess of spring, Proserphina, was everything to her. She was one of the handmaidens charged with protecting the goddess when Proserphina was kidnapped. Thelia and her sisters are banished to the island of Scopuli and cursed into the forms of sirens - winged half-woman, half-bird creatures who use their irresistible song to lure sailors to their deaths. This is Thelia’s story of passion and redemption.

I will admit that I picked this book up because it was marketed as a sapphic romance involving the Roman goddess Proserphina and I am a sucker for anything involving the Greek version of this particular goddess. That being said, the book was only so-so. The book was a completely different take than I’ve read before, and I’ve read so many books about Persephone/Hades and their Roman counterparts, but the book itself took me a bit to get into. The timeline flows back and forth as the story spreads out, and the story unfolds slowly between the past and the present in the small English colony Roanoke.

The biggest flaw in this book is that it does not take into account the fact that the only bodies of color in the story are dead. Nor does it make any apology for trying to minimize the role the white women in the book played in the consequences of colonization. The colony of Roanoke was a real place, and had real consequences within colonization. To shift focus from this, when writing a “historical fiction” piece is to ignore responsibility in spreading the truth. Yes, the Romans were also colonizers regardless of how much they were praised for their progress.

It is also frustrating for someone like me, who has a very clear picture of who and what Dis and Prosperina are supposed to be. They are not exact copies of Hades and Persephone. To mix the Greek and Roman mythos in ways in such a cherry-picking method pulled me out of the story multiple times. The sirens are Greek as well, coming from the epic Odyssey, and are somewhat different from the Romans who saw them as more of a warning against excess and temptation. Setting this aside, the combination of historical mythos with colonial American thoughts and beliefs was done much better.

There are some good things in this book as well. The love Thelia feels for her sisters, and for Proserphina, is well written. The sapphic elements may have been a bit heavy handed but worth it. It is heavy on the prose, but that never bothers me, and it’s well edited. I really wanted to love this book, but with all the emersion problems I had while reading I can only give this a 3 star rating.

Content Warnings:
Moderate - Violence, Misogyny, Classism

I really loved the concept of this book. A siren from Roman mythology winding up in the mysterious colony of Roanoke that is doomed to disappear. These are both stories that I love reading and learning about. The historical accuracy was on point for the most part with some creative liberties of course. There are some deep concepts discussed throughout the book, including gender inequality. The main character, Thelia, was such a well-developed character. She suffers loss and is able to work through it, as well as learn that her pre-conceived ideas are not always correct. This book was fantastic! If you enjoy fantasy, mythology, and/or history, then you will very much enjoy this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC of this book.

Those fatal flowers
4⭐️This book took me a while to get through but I really enjoyed it all the same. The writing is beautiful and feels very fitting for the time period. At times it was so descriptive and raw, it was beautiful. The incorporation of Greco-Roman mythology of sirens combined to the history of Roanoke, North Carolina was such a cool approach to historical fiction. I felt that characters were all very well developed. The plot is slow moving and I think that’s why it took me so long to read but it’s essential as Thelia gains the trust of the townspeople and more of her history is revealed. I like that women independence and empowerment was a prevalent theme within the book and enjoyed reading about Thelia’s the dilemma of determining good vs. evil found within the men and women of the town as she grows closer to them.

I would recommend reviewing trigger warnings as some of the content could pose to be difficult to read.

This was such a great read. Character and scene development was amazing. I could see every scene in my minds eye. Just blew me away.

The emotions that this book brought up in me were feelings I rarely have while reading a boon.

Thank you NetGalley and Randome House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

I was genuinely surprised by this book, and I'm really glad I read it. I found it difficult to relate to the stories and characters at first, but by the halfway point, I was engrossed. It touched on the universal experiences that women have shared throughout time and space and was masterfully written. Although I didn't particularly enjoy the timeline jumping, I do believe that in this instance it was essential to the telling of the story. The writing was a little dense at points, but I think that's part of the appeal of reading a retelling of a myth. Although laborious at times, the attention to detail was incredibly stunning and exquisite at other moments.