Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
Blurb
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing.
Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts’ quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, in defiance of Artemis’s warning, she begins to question the goddess’s true intentions. Can Atalanta carve out her own legendary place in a world of men, while staying true to her heart?
Full of joy, passion, and adventure, Atalanta is the story of a woman who refuses to be contained. Jennifer Saint places Atalanta in the pantheon of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, where she belongs.
Review
I am a huge Jennifer Saint fan and she is now an auto buy author for me. I just wish I was faster at reading the books so they don’t sit on my TBR pile for so long!
Atalanta is not a very well known hero in the ancient myths and she is definitely not a main character in the myths so I was excited to read a story where she is the main character and not some woman at the sidelines like all the females in the ancient myths.
Atalanta was left exposed on a hillside as a baby because her father wanted a son. However, a mother bear took her in and protected her so she didn’t succumb to the elements. Once she is older Artemis herself takes charge of Atalanta. Atalanta grows up wild and free and a skilled hunter but she longs for more and so Artemis offers her the chance of adventure and fame by letting her join Jason and the Argonauts.
The story of Atalanta is told in the first person and I think this works brilliantly with how the storyline moves along because we get all of Atalanta’s feelings and opinions and we also get the adventure and interactions with the Argonauts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the Argonauts and their hunt for the Fleece and the Caledonian boar hunt told from Atalanta’s perspective and how she proved herself worthy to be among them time and time again.
However, I did find that a bulk of Atalanta’s narrative was dominated by the exploits of men and her feelings for these men. I also felt let down at times because Atalanta was also quite passive in the story and although she had physical strength and power, mentally she was not that strong and relied on certain men in her company. For me Atalanta lacked the strength of character that Saint’s Ariadne had and that is why the book only gets 4 out of 5 Dragons from me.
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About the author
Jennifer Saint grew up reading Greek mythology and was always drawn to the untold stories hidden within the myths. After thirteen years as a high school English teacher, she wrote ARIADNE which tells the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur from the perspective of Ariadne – the woman who made it happen. Jennifer Saint is now a full-time author, living in Yorkshire, England, with her husband and two children.
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