Aphrodite’s Tears by Hannah Fielding

The Synopsis:

In ancient Greece, one of the twelve labours of Hercules was to bring back a golden apple from the Garden of Hesperides. To archaeologist Oriel Anderson, joining a team of Greek divers on the island of Helios seems like the golden apple of her dreams.
Yet the dream becomes a nightmare when she meets the devilish owner of the island, Damian Theodorakis. In shocked recognition, she is flooded with the memory of a romantic night in a stranger’s arms, six summers ago. A very different man stands before her now, and Oriel senses that the sardonic Greek autocrat is hell-bent on playing a cat and mouse game with her.
Will Oriel find the hidden treasures she seeks? Or will Damian’s tragic past catch up with them, threatening to engulf them both?

I received this book from the author for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

Fielding is an author who illustrates stories with flawless words rather than simply telling a story.

I recently read and reviewed another of Hannah Fielding’s novels, Legacy, and my appreciation of Aphrodite’s Tears stems from Hannah’s writing much as it did with Legacy. Breathtaking writing is a gift of Hannah’s and it was easy to be swept away to the mysterious private island in Greece.

I enjoyed the character development, the mysterious plot, and of course trying to stay one step ahead of what was going on. However, being someone who isn’t very knowledgeable of the Greek culture, this book did seem to almost slap me in the face mercilessly with all things Greece.

Legacy is a book that is set in Spain and deeply delves off into that culture, however I never felt like I was drowning in the Spanish culture in that book. I very much felt like I was drowning in the Greek culture with Aphrodite’s Tears. There were so many names that I couldn’t pronounce, story references that I was lost in, and Greek myths that just clouded my vision. Aphrodite’s Tears also seemed to lean into the “steamy romance” category much more than Legacy had so I was skipping pages altogether because of the sexual content.

So even though I am a fan of Hannah Fielding and her beautiful writing, Aphrodite’s Tears was just not for me and I would only recommend it to lovers of Greek culture and high romance. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.