BLOOD OF TROY

Directed to become personal guard to Sparta’s Queen Helen, Daphne searches for the deities’ lethal hidden agenda.

Bonding with strong-willed, courageous Helen, Daphne experiences Menelaus’ cruelty firsthand. Realizing the conclave of Achaean leaders he’s hosting is seeking an excuse to go to war with Troy and fearing for the safety of Troy’s emissaries, Daphne and Helen slip away to warn them and flee to Troy, where they’re warmly welcomed. Unlike Sparta, vibrant Troy, protected by Apollo’s wall, values arts and culture over warfare, but when 1,000 Achaean ships suddenly arrive, everyone recognizes that the gods have intervened on the Achaeans’ behalf. Fighting off their onslaught alongside Amazons and Trojans, Daphne struggles to learn why the Olympians are invested in this war—and in her. Although she loves Apollo, she despises gods who demand much but give little, ensuring that humans pay the price. Free of vanity, indifferent to the male gaze, and portrayed without objectification, Daphne’s the compelling hero of an epic that is closer in tone to its Homeric source than to many pop-culture iterations. Abandoning the traditional casus belli—Helen’s beauty and abduction—Andrews grants her agency, too. Greek myths describe a world ruled by flawed gods, their inhumanly vast powers accompanied by petty desires; yet many other retellings soft-pedal the costs of living there. Daphne’s choices exact a high price, but for true heroes, winning isn’t everything; it’s not even the point. Characters are diverse in appearance.

A vivid, riveting sequel.