A review by anntharai
A Veil of Gods and Kings by Nicole Bailey

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

  
With thanks to NetGally, Victory Editing, and the Author Nicole Bailey for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

3.75 overall 

When you take two gorgeous and powerful men with secrets, each repressed in their own way, and force them together for a year … you get sparks. 

This is a fun story and the writing is easy to read, additionally the plot is an interesting take and you really do start caring about the characters quickly. 

The relationship between Cyn and Apollo is remarkable, Bailey has managed to fold doomed romance/real love/destinies aligned tropes into a multifaceted relationship that genuinely pulls at your heart strings. 

I’d have loved to spend more time with Temi. I adore her. And I want to be her. And the whole *spoiler* thing? Yes. Love it. I am hoping that she is the primary focus of forthcoming books. 

Great and accurate inclusion of content warnings by Nicole Bailey, major respect for them there. Low level spicy scenes, they’re on page but I wouldn’t call them graphic. 

 

Overall A Veil of Gods and Kings is a great New Adult read, I will be excited to read the series as it unfolds. 

My only two issues: 

The authors note references the fact that while this is a Greek myth retelling the world building is new, and to expect unrealistic and unhistorical aspects like ancient Greeks saddling up their horses. Which is fine. I like that they gave you a heads up, but it wasn’t the saddles that got me it was the acutely modern turns of phrase like “grab a shower” and the king wearing ‘shorts’. I don’t expect accuracy from mythological retellings but I would like consistency within the confines of itself. The things that broke my immersion were subtle, and I genuinely believe would be easy to change (‘grab a shower’ to ‘bathe quickly’ for example), wouldn’t change the story, and would elevate the reading experience. 

I did find the time bleeding a little, and the character chapters were sometimes difficult to tell apart especially at the beginnings of chapters. Eg, occasionally “few months’ would be used to reference the time left together, then reference spending a year there. Or when swapping from Apollo to Cyn, I’d have to check the chapter title to make sure I was attributing the actions to the right character. 

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