A review by frauwonka
A Veil of Gods and Kings by Nicole Bailey
4.0
After reading Madeleine Miller's amazing books I thought "A Veil of Gods and Kings" would be another great modern take on Greek mythology - and I'm not disappointed, mostly.
Apollo and Hyacinth are basically your average romance enemies-to-lovers-story, except they aren't. Because in the cause of the book I found, that from all the romance books I read in the past I was so spoiled by HEAs that I didn't think at all that this book here might be different in that department. But suddenly I wasn't so sure anymore since Greek mythology is not incredibly popular for its HEAs. And that's what I really liked - that I couldn't be sure how it ended. That anything was possible with the two of them.
The two of them. If only... But it wasn't only the two of them; there was also the POV of Hyacinth's sister Epiphany and I am not quite sure why. It mostly interupted Apollo's story and didn't contribute much to it. It was a nice kind-of-love story with young adult topics like friendship, self-love, finding your own path etc., but it could (and should) have been a stand-alone story and both stories would have profitted from it. Because than Apollo's and Hyacinth's story (that's what we came here for after all) could have been told in a more even pace, in greater detail (and I am not talking about the vague physical scenes; they were quite good as was the intense tension between the two), so that their relationship could enfold before the reader's eyes. Especially towards the end the whole thing seemed a bit rushed. And a lot happened off page which was a shame since the story telling was really good.
I liked the development of the two main characters, I liked their banter and the atmosphere the author was able to create while using colour and smell. So, all in all I really liked her style and would definitely read another book by her! However, I stumbled over some things; for example the clicking and smacking noises nearly every character's mouth produced at some point and I even started thinking that maybe this was an ancient thing to do since it happened that often.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book - but I would have enjoyed it even more if the main story hadn't continuously been interupted by Epiphany's story.
I got an ARC from GRR and this is my honest review.
Apollo and Hyacinth are basically your average romance enemies-to-lovers-story, except they aren't. Because in the cause of the book I found, that from all the romance books I read in the past I was so spoiled by HEAs that I didn't think at all that this book here might be different in that department. But suddenly I wasn't so sure anymore since Greek mythology is not incredibly popular for its HEAs. And that's what I really liked - that I couldn't be sure how it ended. That anything was possible with the two of them.
The two of them. If only... But it wasn't only the two of them; there was also the POV of Hyacinth's sister Epiphany and I am not quite sure why. It mostly interupted Apollo's story and didn't contribute much to it. It was a nice kind-of-love story with young adult topics like friendship, self-love, finding your own path etc., but it could (and should) have been a stand-alone story and both stories would have profitted from it. Because than Apollo's and Hyacinth's story (that's what we came here for after all) could have been told in a more even pace, in greater detail (and I am not talking about the vague physical scenes; they were quite good as was the intense tension between the two), so that their relationship could enfold before the reader's eyes. Especially towards the end the whole thing seemed a bit rushed. And a lot happened off page which was a shame since the story telling was really good.
I liked the development of the two main characters, I liked their banter and the atmosphere the author was able to create while using colour and smell. So, all in all I really liked her style and would definitely read another book by her! However, I stumbled over some things; for example the clicking and smacking noises nearly every character's mouth produced at some point and I even started thinking that maybe this was an ancient thing to do since it happened that often.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book - but I would have enjoyed it even more if the main story hadn't continuously been interupted by Epiphany's story.
I got an ARC from GRR and this is my honest review.