‘This Immortal Heart’ Review: A Romantasy-infused Retelling

For her novels, author Jennifer Saint takes the approach of reclaiming feminine voices from Greek myth. Each of her books has taken a female figure from mythology, whether mortal or goddess, and recenters their story. Her latest book, This Immortal Heart, is Saint’s first foray into the romantasy genre, with plenty of mythological elements still to savor.

Here, Saint presents the story of the Aphrodite and Ares — the goddess of love and the god of war. In tales of old, these two are lovers. In This Immortal Heart, Saint details how their love affair began, presenting the two Greek deities as enemies-to-lovers.

This novel starts out with Aphrodite granting favor to a mortal man, Phaon. An old man, she turns him young again so he may have love in his life once more, after losing it in his youth.

When Phaon, reunited with his former love, to whom the goddess also granted a reversal of age, decides to go to war, Aphrodite panics. She travels to the battlefield to dissuade Phaon and convince him to return home. Yet this is Ares’ realm.

Aphrodite oversteps, Ares is angry with her interference, and in the end, Phaon, who refuses to remove himself from the fight, is slain.

The goddess blames Ares, and an enmity grows between them.

Ultimately, the two are inexplicably drawn to one another again and again. When they finally act on their feelings, a love affair blooms.

But these two gods who have opposing natures — war and love — should never be together in the first place. They function differently on Olympus too, with Aphrodite playing a central role and Ares only spending time there when summoned.

It should never work between them. And yet it does.

Their love story is one highlight of this book. The tenderness that she can bring out in Ares and the confidence he can inspire in her are enjoyable to read.

Unfortunately, the gods of Olympus — Zeus especially — have no time for this. It is high time Aphrodite be married, Zeus claims, and one major conflict running through this book is the issue of her marriage. After centuries of Olympian rule, she still has not chosen a husband.

As goddess of love and desire — but not marriage, as she views these elements as oftentimes incongruous — Aphrodite does not want to dim her power. She does not want to be bound to one man. At least, one man who isn’t Ares, she later realizes.

When circumstances arise on Olympus and the only way out of it is for Aphrodite to vow to marry, it explodes between her and Ares. With a clever plan by Zeus, Aphrodite is collateral damage, her feelings hardly considered. It’s a trap — one that Ares cannot be sure he can save her from.

This Immortal Heart deals with the aftermath of their affair and the possibility that it is not over, after all.

Decades pass when Aphrodite answers the far-away call of a lovelorn couple, and a series of events unexpectedly leads her back to Ares. When it is his turn to go through trials, what happens on the other side will define their relationship for centuries to come.

These two will always find their way to one another. Their chemistry and feelings are undeniable, and they must learn they can conquer whatever may stand in their way. Love and war may not be so different, after all.

Aphrodite can often be misunderstood by us today. In This Immortal Heart, Saint seeks to show readers a different side to this goddess, though her origins as one of the oldest gods of Greek myth are glossed over.

Aphrodite is born of violence, of the mutilation of her father Ouranos, the primordial god of the sky. She rises from the sea before any of the Olympian gods come into being.

What a powerful goddess she is — something that ultimately feels missing from this book. As much as the author tries, Aphrodite does not come across as powerful or mighty as someone like Zeus or even Ares.

Instead, without love in her life, her power drains and she is weakened, not able to bestow love upon others. There are plenty of instances in this novel where she uses her power to benefit, or so she thinks, the love lives of immortals and humans — and learns from her mistakes. Many famous myths are included, from Pygmalion and Galatea to the tragic tale of Adonis.

Undoubtedly, the heart of this novel is Aphrodite’s tumultuous love affair with Ares. Other highlights include the infamous Amazon women making an appearance and the lush descriptions of Mount Olympus and the ancient Greek world, most notably Cyprus, the sacred isle home of Aphrodite.

The supporting characters also do a lot of the heavy lifting; many of them are so well-written and perhaps shine more than Ares and even Aphrodite herself. Hephaestus, for example, is full of depth and easy to like, even when he experiences major change. His growth throughout the story is impressive and on par with our narrator, Aphrodite.

Another standout is the god Dionysus. His character introduction is a fun scene, and he’s an entertaining character who befriends Aphrodite. Not all of the gods of Olympus are likeable and some, like Hera, feel like caricatures from the old myths.

Going in, one might not help but wonder how similar this might be to Saint’s previous novel, Hera, which brilliantly reclaims and reshapes the story of the queen of the Olympian pantheon. After all, Hera as a character features in this novel, and Aphrodite in Hera.

This book does not really do justice to Hera. Instead, it tends to take away from it.

Of course, reading Hera as a prerequisite is not necessary here. Saint herself has said her books are meant to work as standalones, but for those who have read Hera first, This Immortal Heart feels like it undoes much of the work in that novel, as in this book, Hera is depicted as vengeful, angry, and quite frankly, petty.

However, Saint also has said she used different sources for This Immortal Heart than she focused on for Hera; there are always more than one version of any myth, after all. It just seems she didn’t have to tear Hera down or make her nearly unlikeable here after spending another entire novel building up the same figure for the purposes of building up another female character who differs from Hera.

Overall, This Immortal Heart is solid, entertaining, and engaging, with plenty of bright spots throughout.

This Immortal Heart is available now wherever books are sold.

 

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