Thursday, February 19, 2015

4 STARS | Eros by Helen Harper

Title: Eros
Series: Olympiana #1
Author: Helen Harper
Age Group: New Adult
Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Mythology, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Helen Harper
Format: Kindle Edition
ASIN: B00IF5K1P6
Published: February 12th, 2014
Source: Amazon
Rating: 4/5 STARS
Purchase: Amazon




William Shakespeare once wrote that, “Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make poor females mad.” The trouble is that Cupid himself would probably agree…

As probably the last person in the world who’d appreciate hearts, flowers and romance, Coop is convinced that true love doesn’t exist – which is rather unfortunate considering he’s also known as Cupid, the God of Love. He’d rather spend his days drinking, womanising and generally having as much fun as he possible can. As far as he’s concerned, shooting people with bolts of pure love is a waste of his time…but then his path crosses with that of shy and retiring Skye Sawyer and nothing will ever be quite the same again.

A sexy romance fantasy, Eros is a seductive re-telling of the classic Greek myth, Cupid and Psyche.
Eros is a modern re-telling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. Cupid, or Coop as he prefers to be called, has become disillusioned with love and believes that true love doesn't exist if he has to make it happen. Skye unknowingly ends up in the middle of a fight between Coop and Apollo, and suddenly she's thrown into a world of epic proportions and finds true love in the most unexpected way. But Aphrodite won't let just anyone have her son's heart. Only someone she deems worthy will Aphrodite allow to be with Coop, so she puts Skye to the test.

I love reading re-tellings of my favorite tales and the Greek myths are among some of my most favorites. So when I started reading Eros I was really looking forward to seeing how Helen Harper would tell her version of the Cupid and Psyche tale. While I think that there are a few things that could be tweaked here and there, such as the pacing of the story and making sure it's edited a little better, the story at it's heart really drew me in. I thought that it would take me a while to read the book considering it's over 300 pages, but I really flew through it. My favorite part of the story has to be when Skye is given the 4 tasks by Aphrodite to prove that she's worthy of being with Coop. That is the point when the story really felt real - it was the all or nothing point.

Skye was a character that I could really relate to personality wise. She's shy and has trouble reaching out to new people, but once she's comfortable with someone Skye is an outspoken and assertive person. Coop, the god of Love, is apathetic to love and just doesn't believe in it anymore, much to his mother's chagrin. I liked how Coop had this kind of mischievous, playful side to him - that was a different characteristic from other re-tellings I've read. One character, besides the two main characters, that I really liked was Coop's best friend Hermes. That poor dude was caught in the middle of all the drama. It's amazing that he remains sane.

One bigger thing that I didn't really like was the progression of Coop's love for Skye. I can understand Skye realizing her feelings for Coop after he saves her, but I didn't like how it seemed like Coop didn't come to love Skye until after they had sex. I know that the exact time he fell in love with her is explained later in the book, but the way it was written up to that point made it look like he didn't love her until after he had sex with her. So maybe that could have been changed a little, maybe with a bit more emotion added between the points of saving Skye and them having sex. 

But other than that, I think that Eros is a great read for anyone who loves story retellings and/or the Greek myths.

Helen Harper is an English teacher currently living abroad in Malaysia. As a long time reader of urban fantasy, she finally bit the bullet and began to develop her own series of novels.

Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland. "I always loved the escapism provided by those genres," states Helen. "No matter how bad life gets, you can always find a route out, even if only temporarily, in the pages of a good book."

The growth of urban fantasy fascinated her - the mix of reality and fantasy along with strong heroic female characters appealed from the very beginning, and inspired her to write her own.


Disclaimer: This review was originally posted in 2015 to my book blog, Once Untold.

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