The ancient Greek goddess of love tells her story over the course of several mortal lifetimes in the ardent, spellbinding mythic fantasy This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint (Hera; Ariadne).
Aphrodite can hear the secrets of mortal hearts, "every tentative hope, every forbidden want, every fragmented gasp of passion, and to [her] they are poetry." Her role on Mount Olympus is to grant the prayers of lovers, and she takes her duties and followers seriously. Life on Olympus is a political minefield of feuds and alliances presided over by egomaniacal Zeus, who schemes against his enemies and demands absolute loyalty. Aphrodite treads carefully, but events pull her into the orbit of Ares, the proud, unyielding war god. The realms of love and war seem irreconcilable to her, but their undeniable passion erupts into an all-consuming affair. Then Aphrodite becomes ensnared in a power struggle on Olympus and must choose between her honor or her love, her loyalty or herself.
Saint strings together the stories of Pandora, Galatea and Pygmalion, and many others to form the narrative of a goddess who stands for her values and wants to leave her mark on the world. While other retellings have leaned heavily into the "Beauty and the Beast"-esque aspect of Aphrodite's marriage to Hephaestus, Saint takes a more nuanced approach to that relationship while giving Ares his full due as the goddess's truest love. Plenty of luxuriant poetic imagery winds through this respectful and thought-provoking portrayal of one of mythology's most famous and captivating figures. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads