Ariadne: the mesmerising sunday times bestselling retelling of ancient greek myth

I’m only a third in and I’m not sure I'm engaged sufficiently to finish it - Mills and Boon meets Ancient Greece. The characters are undeveloped, the description of ‘feminist’ is a misnomer and I was disappointed to spot the anachronism ‘electric’. It’s a very easy read, if a bit stilted (Saint is over-fond of the word 'viscous') and the language is somewhat clichéd in places. At the beginning it's more like YA fiction than the literary work I was expecting, though I feel I’ve reached a shift in tone now. It’s not awful, but it didn’t live up to the hype.

I absolutely adored this book and am encouraging everyone I know to buy a copy. It is richly detailed, lyrical and immersive. From the very first page, you are transported to Ancient Greece. You can smell the sea and feel the heat. It is one of my all time favourites and I can’t wait for Electra to come out.

I anticipated with glee this re-creation of a Greek myth treading in the footsteps of Pat Barker's intense "The Silence of the Girls" and Madeline Miller and her beautiful novel "Circe".Sadly the characterization was very poor and none of the protagonists had any depth to them so it was very difficult to engage in their joys and sorrows. But wow! The cover is fabulous. For all that, it was an excellent concept, the story of two sisters and the different ways that life dealt with them and they dealt with half gods, human men and  the activities of the gods. The story could have been really exciting, desperate and full of love, betrayals, joys and sorrows.Too much was spent at the beginning of the book trying to establish what it must have felt like to believe and live within a sphere of powerful gods.And Ariadne dancing by herself with no music (?) for what reason?   The only aspect that came across strongly was the relationship with and love of one of the sisters Ariadne for her children when they were babies and little children. Does a writer have to experience the deep emotions they write about in order to portray them adequately? I don’t know. Well.... it was a first novel and maybe Jennifer Saint’s writing will improve.

Recommended if you like:* Greek Myths* Female POV* Adventure* Gods & Monsters* Light romanceAriadne was a wonderful read, it was so nice to be in the head of one of the women involved in the story of Theseus, to see what was going on around the whole minotaur situation.I enjoyed the writing style and found it an easy read, which only took me three days to read. You can also tell that the author has some kind of background in Greek literature, rather than one who has only researched it for a book.My only negatives were that there were some aspects that seemed as if they could have done with some more story time, such as Minos' quest and his ending. I would also have liked more of an interaction with Hera & Dionysus as that aspect of the story just came on suddenly near the end of the book.I think the book would have been better if the author had proceeded it with the story of Medusa & Perseus.All in all, I definitely recommend reading it and I will be buying the next book the author will be releasing.

Absolutely loved this book! I’ve never read anything around Greek mythology and to be honest it’s not a genre I would usually pick up. My 12 year old really wanted to read it though so I bought it and read it first to see how suitable it was. Stunning writing, fabulous storytelling and surprisingly real characters who you could empathise with - not what I expected from a book about gods! Loved it.