Spurned by a king. Raised by bears. Blessed by a goddess. This is her story. You would be wise to listen, and listen well. When a daughter is born to the mighty King of Arcadia, you may think it would be cause for celebration for what could be better than a healthy daughter who will grow to be a legend in her own right!

But sadly this is not something the King foresees as he is nothing but a mortal and it is only the birth of a son which would be welcome, and thus Atalanta is nothing but a disappointment and is swiftly dispatched of and left exposed on a mountainside at the mercy of both the elements and the fates themselves to ponder on what should happen to her…

The defenceless Atalanta draws the attention of a passing mother bear and like something that demands the birth of such a strong character, she is raised alongside the cubs under the aegis shield of protection cast by the eye of Artemis, however, Atalanta would do well to remember that should she ever let her devotion to such a great goddess wain, the consequences would be beyond her comprehension or thought.

Artemis tasks Atalanta to prove her worth, casting a grand shadow over the great heroes of Greece and to do this she must join the crew of the famed Argonauts who all have things to fight for from the mighty Heracles, to the stubborn Jason himself.

Atalanta may be determined and headstrong, but she forgets that even she is not impenetrable when it comes to realising that unlike the goddess she so effortlessly devotes herself to, she herself is still mortal. Devastating, epic, terrifying, and tender, this absorbing retelling is one worthy of the very legends described within its pages.

I liked the book but it was too YA for me. I didn’t know what I was getting into and when I started reading about Artemis, the nymphs, princes and princesses, I started realising I was reading a new story like The Oddisey. Hey, it even had Jason and the Argonauts in it! But unline The Oddisey, it featured a young girl, brought up by beasts and then the Nymphs, who decides to take on the world and go on an adventure.

Class A adventure, just not my style.