The Deep End of the Sea by Heather Lyons

 

This book made waves a while ago when it came out and I somehow never got around to reading it?? All I knew was that it was a romance between Medusa and Hermes and a lot of my friends really liked it. THE DEEP END OF THE SEA starts off with Medusa on her banished little island of sadness. She has a truly tragic backstory: after Poseidon took her against her will in one of Athena's temples, where she served as a handmaiden, Athena cursed her into a hideous monster to live out her days unable to make eye contact with anyone.

The beginning of the book is pretty strong. Medusa is lonely and a bit of a shut-in. She calls her snakes her "Girls" and her only companions are a blind sailor, a blind kitten, and Hermes. Hermes is the only god she's in contact with and it took him centuries to win her trust. He's basically a warm cinnamon roll in humanoid form and when he tells Medusa that there's a way to get her off the island, she thinks it's terrifying and also probably too good to be true.

I don't want to say too much about this book because there are some great twists and I DID enjoy it but I also did a lot of skimming. The romance was a little fluffier than I would like and there's this part where she hides out in Wyoming (lol) that was so tedious that I skimmed basically all those chapters. Hades and Persephone were absolute GOALS though, and I loved them as characters-- in fact, there's a part of their storyline in here that actually made me tear up. Aphrodite and Hephaestus were also fun. Zeus's character, on the other hand, is way toned down, and Poseidon and Athena are portrayed as raging psychos. It was weird how the author picked and chose who was nice and who wasn't, because even though Hades and Persephone were pretty chill, I recall Aphrodite having a LOT of issues lol.

Overall, this is a romance about healing and comfort, so if that's a trope you really like, I think you'll enjoy this a lot. With Greek mythology romances making a comeback in the wake of popular romances like A TOUCH OF DARKNESS and NEON GODS, it felt like a great time to revisit this one. I can definitely see why it struck a chord with so many of my friends but I also agree with some of my darker romance-loving friends who said that too much of this romance just felt like fluff.

I would read more from this author, though! I hope SHE writes a Hades/Persephone romance! 10/10 would read.

3 out of 5 stars