Alcestis by Katharine Beutner
The ancient Greeks held up Alcestis as a model of wifely devotion. Her husband, Admetus, was spared from death on the condition that someone else die in his place. When Admetus’ relatives and friends refused, Alcestis volunteered herself and made the journey to the underworld, but was later rescued by Heracles. In her debut novel, a poignant literary fantasy, Katharine Beutner fleshes out the figure of Alcestis, and gives her a backstory that helps explain her willingness to sacrifice herself… I recommend it to readers who enjoy retellings of myth from the female perspective, and readers who are looking for a blend of fantasy and literary fiction… Read the rest.
Ooo. This sounds like something I’ll want to look into. I often don’t like historical fantasy, but I find that I do enjoy the ones blended with mythology.
[...] This review, by Kelly Lasiter of Fantasy Literature, makes me VERY happy. (I found it on GoodReads. Did you know that it’s really hard to resist checking your book’s stats, even when you log on to add yet another book to your own TBR list? It’s an amazing feeling to see, for example, that people are reading the book at that very moment.) [...]