Psyche and Eros

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara (2023) 352 Pages

A retold story of Psyche and Eros, a budding love between human and a god. Psyche, a princess of Mycenae, who has been prophesied by the Oracle at Delphi to become a great hero in defeating a monster. Aphrodite wants to curse Psyche, who rivals her in beauty and because she does not honor the gods. Aphrodite sets up the curse with one of her Son's (Eros)  arrows. He agrees to use his arrow to curse Psyche. The curse is that whoever gets hit with the arrow will fall DEEPLY in love with the first person they see...but if they make eye contact with that person they will be ripped apart forever, and only left with horrid love-sickness. So Eros goes to hit Psyche with an arrow but grabs it the wrong way and ends up cursing himself and falling for..you guessed it...Psyche. He flees but instantly falls so deeply in love with her he can hardly stand it. Eros' friend Zephyrus, the god of wind, helps him out by whisking Psyche away to the seaside house he has secluded himself in. The catch is that they must not see each other, so Eros visits at night and proclaims that he is Psyche's husband. She is of course, extremely confused but they soon seem to become fond of each other's time nonetheless. If Aphrodite finds out about Psyche and Eros, she has vowed to destroy the thing he loves most. Psyche yearns to see who her husband is after many moons, and lights an oil lamp while Eros is sleeping, waking him up which destroys their house and rips them apart from each other. Eros becomes Aphrodite's prisoner under Mount Olympus. The rest of the tale is a journey of Psyche and Eros attempting to get back to each other...with the Trojan war myths intermixed as well. 

Overall I loved this book, a little slow in the beginning and a weaker ending than I would've liked but a solid read for Greek myth lovers.