The Bibliophile Doctor's Reviews > The Heir of Venus

Narrated by Frances Butt

Thank you dreamscape media and Netgalley for the audiobook ARC in exchange of an honest review.

The narration by Frances Butt was good.

I would like to start this review with the mention that I'm huge mythology fan, I was looking forward to listening to it. It was good but the book could have been better as well as the narration

The heir of Venus is Greek mythological retelling of lesser known characters. The part of it is set after the famous (or infamous) Trojan war with flashbacks of what led to Trojan war in brief..the story says feminist take on Lavinia, but frankly there wasn't much scope in the story for that.

In Roman mythology, Lavinia is the daughter of King Latinus, the king of Latium in Italy, and the ultimate destination of Aeneas and the Aeneid's narrative. Aeneas, son of Goddess Aphrodite has always been in love of Creusa, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and the first wife of Aeneas dies in Trojan war leaving behind Ascenius, their son. Even when Aeneas has an affair with Dido he never promises her any future. Because according to a prophecy, he is supposed to create another Troy from trojan people who survived war.

Lavinia finds herself amidst the war which is waged by Tartus, her supposed betrothed from childhood and her father's promise to marry her to Aeneas.

Overall the story was good but there were parts where I just wished that it will move on faster. I also did not like the ending. It felt abrupt and haphazard. And as the title said I was expecting it to be more of feminist tone but that wasn't the case as to be honest, women never had that kind of power even in mythology.

Audiobook rating : 4 stars
Book rating : 2.5 stars
Average : 3 stars