Published By: Mantle
Pages: 384
Released On: 11/09/2025
This is what no one tells you, in the songs sung about Jason and the Argo. This part of his quest has been forgotten, by everyone but me . . .
Jason and his Argonauts set sail to find the Golden Fleece. The journey is filled with danger, for him and everyone he meets. But if he ever reaches the distant land he seeks, he faces almost certain death.
Medea – priestess, witch, and daughter of a brutal king – has the power to save the life of a stranger. Will she betray her family and her home, and what will she demand in return?
Medea and Jason seize their one chance of a life together, as the gods intend. But their love is steeped in vengeance from the beginning, and no one – not even those closest to them – will be safe.
Based on the classic tragedy by Euripides, this is Medea as you’ve never seen her before . . .
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Mantel for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I have been a bit hot and cold with mythological retellings over the years, and I have tried to read some of Natalie’s books before but I’ve never really gelled with them. I have really got into them recently though, what with Bea Fitzgerald’s publications. I have also read one Medea/Jason book by Rosie Hewlett, which was fabulous, so I had mixed expectations here.
To begin with, there’s about 4 pages of character names, which was a lot to remember and a bit overwhelming. And then there’s lots of chapters (some only a paragraph long) in different POVs of the characters, so it took me a while to get on top of everything and everyone.
I struggled with it. I admit that. I felt it was very…passive. Saying what had already happened as if retelling it to someone, rather than the reader getting to go on the journey with the characters. It also felt very fast, like Natalie was glossing over everything and flitting from one person to another and one scene to another, and so I struggled to get a foothold in it, to really care about anyone.
One positive is that she has focussed mostly on the background characters and how the whole Jason and the Argonauts story affected those secondary characters, which was a nice angle.
It did get better, by about 40% or so, once we really get involved with Medea and Jason. It’s a nicer read then, but I think that’s too late. I normally give myself 25% of a book before I give up, and I could quite easily have done so with this but I did stick with it. I had originally pre-ordered this but I cancelled it when I was sent this early copy, and I’m glad I did, because I think I’d have been disappointed if I’d bought it.
It’s not bad per se, I’m not sure Natalie can write anything that could be called bad. But it was disappointing. It was flat, long-winded, slow but also too wide and general and flitting too quickly. I didn’t connect with anyone, I wasn’t really fussed about their journey or their quest. Sadly, it’s not for me. But I have seen lots of other reviews that give it 5 stars, and others who hover around the 2 or 3 star zone, so it’s clearly going to be a divisive book but we can’t all love every single book we read.
Books By Your Bedside 