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A review by tashasbooks
Crown of Starlight by Cait Corrain
4.5
Crown of Starlight is a captivating and steamy Greek retelling of Ariadne and Dionysus set in space!
Ariadne is the Crown Princess of Crete, an oppressive empire led with by her father Minos with cruelty and violence. She abhors her role in the family and the treatment of her half-bull brother, Astarion, who is locked under the palace in the Labyrinth. Each year, Crete requires sacrifices to be sent from Athens to be fed to Ariadne's brother. This year, her father is making her responsible and in charge for watching over the sacrifices. Ariadne decides she will help Theseus to fight back and leave the oppressive society she lives in. Everything doesn't go according to plan, and Ariadne is lost, injured, and alone when Dionysus finds her. She is introduced to his debauchery and shies away from it, but he offers her a way to stay safe in Olympus if she marries him.
What an interesting world to revive greek mythology in! I was curious how loose the retelling would be considering this all takes place in space and there are communication tablets, starships, and blaster guns. Honestly, the first couple pages were an info-dump and it took me a second to truly feel immersed in the world because you learn it all at once instead of over time. It was an interesting world (solar system??) for the actual greek myths but they merged the ancient setting with the space setting well. I do think it wasn't essential to the plot, like I felt like this story could be told really in any setting and the space part of it wouldn't really have an effect on the plot.
The language is very modern, which took me a second to also get used to. I guess it almost makes sense in this context since it is technically farther in the future and they would have adopted a more modern language. There's definitely some modern parts of it here and there like them watching holodramas titled, "The Housewives of Troy."
I loved Ariadne as a character, she heals and grows so much in this novel. In Crete, it's a very puritanical and patriarchal society, so she feels pushed into a mold and that she must maintain her innocent status. Dionysus really helps her to be who she wants to be, do what she wants to do, and to disregard people's expectations of her. Honestly, my favorite part of this book was him and the romance. He is one of the best romantic interests I have read in a book. He is very Cardan coded (Cruel Prince) and just loves to have fun and is anything but serious most of the time. Dionysus is also extremely sweet and perceptive of Ariadne's needs and truly has just his own vibrant and confident persona. One of my FAVORITE love interests in a book!
Their romance is sweet and Dionysus is so tender and respectful of Ariadne. It's very much a slow-burn romance as Ariadne has to get past her anxiety and previous trauma and accept the love that Dionysus offers her. The anticipation pays off when they finally get together and just thinking of them makes me smile. It was a beautiful romance and the highlight of this book.
Surprisingly, the greek mythology feels very accurate (at least to my understanding of the myths). The author really did a good job of incorporating all of the different facets of the myths that are well-known and genuine to the original story. There are obviously some changes here and there, but the author note at the end was really impactful. This author wanted to portray Dionysus as more than just the God of Wine and Parties, but closer to the original myths as patron to marginalized people and how he took both genders as lovers with his gender never exactly labeled.
This book was truly such a delight. I am so excited for when this releases and I can get a physical copy on my shelves. Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine/Del Rey and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Ariadne is the Crown Princess of Crete, an oppressive empire led with by her father Minos with cruelty and violence. She abhors her role in the family and the treatment of her half-bull brother, Astarion, who is locked under the palace in the Labyrinth. Each year, Crete requires sacrifices to be sent from Athens to be fed to Ariadne's brother. This year, her father is making her responsible and in charge for watching over the sacrifices. Ariadne decides she will help Theseus to fight back and leave the oppressive society she lives in. Everything doesn't go according to plan, and Ariadne is lost, injured, and alone when Dionysus finds her. She is introduced to his debauchery and shies away from it, but he offers her a way to stay safe in Olympus if she marries him.
What an interesting world to revive greek mythology in! I was curious how loose the retelling would be considering this all takes place in space and there are communication tablets, starships, and blaster guns. Honestly, the first couple pages were an info-dump and it took me a second to truly feel immersed in the world because you learn it all at once instead of over time. It was an interesting world (solar system??) for the actual greek myths but they merged the ancient setting with the space setting well. I do think it wasn't essential to the plot, like I felt like this story could be told really in any setting and the space part of it wouldn't really have an effect on the plot.
The language is very modern, which took me a second to also get used to. I guess it almost makes sense in this context since it is technically farther in the future and they would have adopted a more modern language. There's definitely some modern parts of it here and there like them watching holodramas titled, "The Housewives of Troy."
I loved Ariadne as a character, she heals and grows so much in this novel. In Crete, it's a very puritanical and patriarchal society, so she feels pushed into a mold and that she must maintain her innocent status. Dionysus really helps her to be who she wants to be, do what she wants to do, and to disregard people's expectations of her. Honestly, my favorite part of this book was him and the romance. He is one of the best romantic interests I have read in a book. He is very Cardan coded (Cruel Prince) and just loves to have fun and is anything but serious most of the time. Dionysus is also extremely sweet and perceptive of Ariadne's needs and truly has just his own vibrant and confident persona. One of my FAVORITE love interests in a book!
Their romance is sweet and Dionysus is so tender and respectful of Ariadne. It's very much a slow-burn romance as Ariadne has to get past her anxiety and previous trauma and accept the love that Dionysus offers her. The anticipation pays off when they finally get together and just thinking of them makes me smile. It was a beautiful romance and the highlight of this book.
Surprisingly, the greek mythology feels very accurate (at least to my understanding of the myths). The author really did a good job of incorporating all of the different facets of the myths that are well-known and genuine to the original story. There are obviously some changes here and there, but the author note at the end was really impactful. This author wanted to portray Dionysus as more than just the God of Wine and Parties, but closer to the original myths as patron to marginalized people and how he took both genders as lovers with his gender never exactly labeled.
This book was truly such a delight. I am so excited for when this releases and I can get a physical copy on my shelves. Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine/Del Rey and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!