I wasnt th biggest fan of this narration, though the story wasnt bad. I just didnt vibe as hard woth the book.

Book Title: The Heir of Venus

Author: Laura Shepperson

Narrator: Frances Butt

Genre: Mythological Retelling, Historical Fiction

Publication Date: 6 August 2024

Rating: ★★★★☆

I received a free audiobook copy from Dreamscape Media and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction

💖 The Heir of Venus by Laura Shepperson is a masterful feminist retelling of the myth of Aeneas, told from the perspectives of the multiple women who are often relegated to the background of his legend, yet here they are the main characters, vocally sharing their side of the story. With its lyrical prose and thoughtful exploration of love, sacrifice, and fate, it offers a fresh and impactful take on a classic story.

Source: NetGalley

Plot Summary (Spoiler-Free)

⚔️ The novel mainly involves Lavinia, a princess whose life is thrown into turmoil when her father promises her hand to the legendary Aeneas, an act that ignites a war with her childhood sweetheart. As Lavinia navigates the conflict, a mysterious stranger arrives with stories of Aeneas's past that challenge his heroic reputation. The narrative is non-linear, weaving together the stories of three key women in Aeneas's life: his first wife Creusa, the powerful Queen Dido, and Lavinia herself. Through their eyes, we see a new side of the famous hero and a compelling look at the women who were integral to his journey.

Narration and Performance

✨ The narration provided by Frances Butt is nothing short of fantastic! Her voice is clear, easy to listen to, and does a brilliant job of voicing each of the distinct characters, giving them a unique identity. Frances’ performance truly breathes life into the story and adds an immense amount of emotional depth. She handles the non-linear narrative and shifting perspectives with expert skill, ensuring the listener is never lost. Her narration elevates the already strong prose, making the emotional beats even more impactful and the story all the more immersive. For this reason alone, the audiobook is highly recommended and a fantastic way to experience this novel.

Overall Thoughts

🌹 What makes The Heir of Venus so compelling is its focus on the female perspective. The author successfully turns the traditional narrative on its head, giving voice to women who were historically silenced until now. This approach provides a rich and nuanced look at love and ambition from a refreshing point of view. While the story is firmly rooted in mythology, its themes of taking control of one's future and fighting for the truth feel incredibly relatable. Though some might find the non-linear style takes a moment to get into, the payoff is a beautifully woven and rewarding story that leaves a lasting impression. For fans of the genre, this audiobook is a wonderful follow-up story for fans of authors such as Madeline Miller or Natalie Haynes.

Conclusion & Final Rating

📖 The Heir of Venus is a beautifully written and expertly narrated retelling that gives new life to ancient myths. The focus on the emotional depth of the women in Aeneas's life makes for a memorable and impactful reading experience. It is a must-read for any mythology enthusiast.

Final Rating: ★★★★☆

Books Tropes:

Feminist Retelling

Mythological Retelling

Multiple Perspectives / Multiple POVs

Non-Linear Narrative

Reclaiming One's Voice

Found Family

Historical Fiction

The Heir of Venus by Laura Shepperson is a fresh, feminist take on the myth of Aeneas, told through the voices of Creusa, Dido, and Lavinia. With lyrical writing and a non-linear style, the book explores love, sacrifice, and fate from the perspectives of the women often left out of legend. It’s a thoughtful and imaginative retelling that gives new life to old myths. Great audio quality and narration.

Lavinia is a dutiful daughter whose life in thrown into war upon the arrival of Aeneas. Her betrothed goes to war to fight for her hand and Lavinia finds herself battling her old friends. As Livinia looks towards the future, she finds her self looking towards the past. A beautiful look at the mother of Rome.

I’ve always loved retellings of Greek and Roman myths, and this was such a good one! I feel like the women of these stories don’t get to have much time in the spotlight unless it is directly tied into the story of the men. This book really turned that all on it’s head by instead focusing on the women- how they felt, what they thought, and what was important to them. I thought that was such a refreshing take on a tale as old as this one. It was a perspective that I haven’t heard these stories from before. This book was also a quick read. It is very well-written which made it easy to get lost in the story, and before I knew it I had read the whole book. The characters are engaging, and well developed. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys retellings of myth, historical fiction, or fans of authors like Natalie Haynes and Madeline Miller.

The Heir of Venus by Laura Shepperson (***.5)
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I found this book interesting, but perhaps a little disjointed at times. And it definitely frustrated me that the plot seemed to revolve around several different women’s relationships with this one man.
I learned a lot about Roman and Greek mythology and history, and parts of the retelling were very well-told on their own, but at times the narrative was frustrating because of the way the women all told their stories around the men’s.
Unfortunately it didn’t quite hook me, and most of my interest was in the mythology alone, but it was still a worthwhile reading experience.

The spark was missing in this story for me. Lavinia was the best part for me. She is a very strong, rational and relatable, if emotionally distant character. But she did not really have a goal in mind, so there was nothing to look forward to or get invested in. The other characters, Anneas most of all, seemed very flat to me, which also made me feel disconnected to the story. While I did appreciate the focus on the women, it could not make up for the emotionally distant characters, so I was glad when I finally finished this one.

I listened to the audiobook and Frances Butt did a fantastic job. If I had not listened to the audiobook, I would have probably DNF’d this one due to the before mentioned issues. I am bumping my 2* rating up to 3* because of the audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for gifting me this ALC of the audiobook to review. All opinions are my own. I was not paid to leave this review.

A brilliant rethinking of the consorts of Aeneas and how their impact on classic tales. Anyone who loved Clytemnestra or Circe will love this book!

I adore Greek mythology! This was a fun ride. I'm glad I was able to read it. It went by quickly and the audiobook was well done. The voice was nice and added to make the story even more entertaining.

The Heir of Venus by Laura Shepperson is a captivating blend of sci-fi and fantasy, with rich world-building and a compelling protagonist. The story follows a young heir navigating political intrigue and personal discovery, all set in a vividly imagined universe. Shepperson’s writing is immersive, drawing readers into a fast-paced narrative filled with twists, action, and emotional depth.

A must-read for fans of complex world-building and strong, relatable characters.

Mythological retellings can be a hit and miss, as they tend to get restricted to original source material. But the same thing worked in favour for this one. It focuses on less known (atleast for me) characters of Roman mythology and hence could enjoy this as a fresh story.

By the way, let's not get confused by the book cover and blurb, this is not about a women hero. Instead, its story of Aeneas (the heir of Venus), a demigod who is prophesied to establish a new city, Troy after the events of the infamous Trojan war. What makes it interesting is that his story is shown to us through eyes of women in his life. Its rightly said, 'emotional depth that women bring is irreplaceable' and thats what they bring to this larger than life, (demi)god story. Its a story of love, loss and choices and only women's perspective could have done the best justice to narrate it.

Its a non linear narrative fluctuating between various stages of Aeneas's life. Its meshed well and never gets confusing, credit to audio narrator too on that front.

While it was good at the beginning, the characters just became confusing to me. While I do enjoy Greek mythology stories or retelling this want what I thought it would be. I would rec it if people like retellings and multiple Povs.

I felt like the summary focused on Aeneas' secret too much when there wasn't much of a secret.

I love that, although the book is about Aeneas, it's told by the women in his life. I liked Creusa's POV the best as she's the most fleshed out and her part was more engaging.

As an audiobook, it was difficult to keep track of the POVs. The narrator, Frances Butt, was lovely and easy to listen to.

The audio book of The Heir of Venus has a good speaker that is clear and easy to listen to. I liked the switch between each of the characters and I found that it was clear what was happening to each woman and how they relate to each other. I was surprised by how well the story flowed. I think that this story has lessons that anyone could learn from. I think that it is a universally good book that anyone could enjoy.

"The Heir of Venus" tells the story of Aeneas through the eyes of the three women he's connected to in mythology: Cresus, Dido, and Lavinnia. I was slightly confused at first when the perspectives switched, but I caught on quickly how they were connected. I loved that we got the voices of the women, and it was interesting to see how Aeneas differed for each of them. This story was very human and emotional.

Narrated by Frances Butt

Thank you dreamscape media and Netgalley for the audiobook ARC in exchange of an honest review.

The narration by Frances Butt was good.

I would like to start this review with the mention that I'm huge mythology fan, I was looking forward to listening to it. It was good but the book could have been better as well as the narration

The heir of Venus is Greek mythological retelling of lesser known characters. The part of it is set after the famous (or infamous) Trojan war with flashbacks of what led to Trojan war in brief..the story says feminist take on Lavinia, but frankly there wasn't much scope in the story for that.

In Roman mythology, Lavinia is the daughter of King Latinus, the king of Latium in Italy, and the ultimate destination of Aeneas and the Aeneid's narrative. Aeneas, son of Goddess Aphrodite has always been in love of Creusa, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and the first wife of Aeneas dies in Trojan war leaving behind Ascenius, their son. Even when Aeneas has an affair with Dido he never promises her any future. Because according to a prophecy, he is supposed to create another Troy from trojan people who survived war.

Lavinia finds herself amidst the war which is waged by Tartus, her supposed betrothed from childhood and her father's promise to marry her to Aeneas.

Overall the story was good but there were parts where I just wished that it will move on faster. I also did not like the ending. It felt abrupt and haphazard. And as the title said I was expecting it to be more of feminist tone but that wasn't the case as to be honest, women never had that kind of power even in mythology.

Audiobook rating : 4 stars
Book rating : 2.5 stars
Average : 3 stars

Really enjoyed this book I haven't really read many Greek myths and I didn't really like circe so I was worried but it kept me engaged and gripped it was romantic and devastating the plot was so good and the ending was incredible

The story telling was very beautiful I loved how it began and I loved learning and seeing how the family was but idk why once I got to the half way mark I just lost interest in the story how ever I do think of u love Greek myth you’d love this book

Taken from the well-known story of Troy and the Trojan horse, this is a new take on the Greek myth. I found the story to be interesting and kept my interest throughout. I would recommend to anyone that is interested in new takes of the greek myths, and seeing parallels in the stories.

I found the audio quality to be good, but the narrator's voice became taxing at times, and caused my mind to focus on the voice more than the story at times.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this audiobook. I would add this one to the list of great myth retellings with more of a focus on the women who often went overlooked in previous tellings of the stories. I'm excited to read more from Laura Shepperson.