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A review by mspilesofpaper
Maiden of Artemis by Eloise Bahr
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this E-Arc.
The book follows the female slave Otrera who escapes her owner after murdering a man since the punishment for the crime would be death. Somehow, she earns Artemis' patronage and starts the quest to find a place of sanctuary where she can live in peace. Along the way, she picks up other women who also seek sanctuary from their lives.
The most interesting parts of the book are certainly the prologue and the epilogue as the gods and goddesses that appear feel more fleshed out than the mortal characters. I found the main character, Otrera, extremely exhausting and her behavioural change from page to page gave me a headache. On average, she's just utterly stupid and reckless as soon as men are involved while urging for caution when she is just with the other women. Her cluelessness behaviour when it comes to sex is baffling because it doesn't really fit into the time; even for someone who was sheltered, she would know something about it. The other characters are very bleak and two-dimensional except for Ares, who is portrayed in a kinder way than he normally is shown. Pamphilos is a prime example of it because I didn't see the point of him as his only character trait is "flee with me".
Overall the story is very flat and dull. Nothing was resolved in terms of the plot and the ending felt unsatisfying because it was sudden and badly rushed, which annoyed me because the rest of the plot is dragged out.
The slow burn is a real slow burn. Like an extreme version of it. There's tension between the characters but well ... aside from one sex dream and a weird version of "touch her and you will die", there's not much. I don't know how many books are supposed to be in the series but if the speed continues, they might get to the romance in book 3 or 4. (And given how involved Ares is with the Amazons, I bet there will be an actual romance at one point.)
Points for actually involving historical people instead of going the 100% fictional/fantasy route that erases all historical characters.
Unfortunately, the book still requires a few rounds of editing because there are plenty of errors. A bunch of grammar errors but also logical ones, e.g. Otrera already knows the name of one character but asks for the character's name on the next page. Also, the marketing/writing style for the book is off. It reads as YA while it gets marketed as adult because of mature themes. While there are a bunch of trigger warnings (e.g., sexual assault, attempted rape, death of children), they weren't too different from what you can read in YA as well. The most adult theme might be the sex jokes.
The book follows the female slave Otrera who escapes her owner after murdering a man since the punishment for the crime would be death. Somehow, she earns Artemis' patronage and starts the quest to find a place of sanctuary where she can live in peace. Along the way, she picks up other women who also seek sanctuary from their lives.
The most interesting parts of the book are certainly the prologue and the epilogue as the gods and goddesses that appear feel more fleshed out than the mortal characters. I found the main character, Otrera, extremely exhausting and her behavioural change from page to page gave me a headache. On average, she's just utterly stupid and reckless as soon as men are involved while urging for caution when she is just with the other women. Her cluelessness behaviour when it comes to sex is baffling because it doesn't really fit into the time; even for someone who was sheltered, she would know something about it. The other characters are very bleak and two-dimensional except for Ares, who is portrayed in a kinder way than he normally is shown. Pamphilos is a prime example of it because I didn't see the point of him as his only character trait is "flee with me".
Overall the story is very flat and dull. Nothing was resolved in terms of the plot and the ending felt unsatisfying because it was sudden and badly rushed, which annoyed me because the rest of the plot is dragged out.
The slow burn is a real slow burn. Like an extreme version of it. There's tension between the characters but well ... aside from one sex dream and a weird version of "touch her and you will die", there's not much. I don't know how many books are supposed to be in the series but if the speed continues, they might get to the romance in book 3 or 4. (And given how involved Ares is with the Amazons, I bet there will be an actual romance at one point.)
Points for actually involving historical people instead of going the 100% fictional/fantasy route that erases all historical characters.
Unfortunately, the book still requires a few rounds of editing because there are plenty of errors. A bunch of grammar errors but also logical ones, e.g. Otrera already knows the name of one character but asks for the character's name on the next page. Also, the marketing/writing style for the book is off. It reads as YA while it gets marketed as adult because of mature themes. While there are a bunch of trigger warnings (e.g., sexual assault, attempted rape, death of children), they weren't too different from what you can read in YA as well. The most adult theme might be the sex jokes.