Review – The Iron Queen (Daughters of Zeus, Book 3) by Kaitlin Bevis (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: ImaJinn Books
Release Date: June 26, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1611946369
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Daughter of Zeus series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com for review
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the third book in the Daughters of Zeus series. I have enjoyed the YA mythology in this series, but this was the weakest book of the series yet. There are spoilers ahead if you haven’t read the previous two books in this series.

Persephone has been captured by Zeus. Zeus wants Persephone to swear fealty to him so that he can have access to all the worlds. Zeus is torturing Persephone mercilessly and Persephone hopes that she can withstand the torture and not give in. Meanwhile Hades would do anything to find and save Persephone; even if it means breaking the whole world to do it.

The story switches POV a lot and is a bit scattered. We spends a lot more time reading from Aphrodite’s point of view and honestly I just don’t like her much. You can tell that Bevis is trying to wrap up Persephone’s story and endear Aphrodite to the reader. I am guessing the next book will feature Aphrodite and the three guys that she is interested in right now.

There’s a ton of new characters in here as the Gods and Goddesses try to band together to nullify Zeus. However, none of them stood out all that much. We meet Athena and Artemis and Ares, and they are pretty stereotypical for what you would expect based on traditional Greek mythology.

The fact that Persephone is tortured the majority of the story (just like in the 2nd book) made me a bit queasy. It wasn’t fun to read about and additionally it was pretty boring because it felt like the same plot device that was used in the 2nd book was being used again. And I mean…come on…how much torture does one poor teenage girl need to go through!

The chemistry and heat between Persephone and Hades was lacking in this book and not nearly as compelling as in the first two books. They acted more like an older married couple despite the fact that they were just starting to fall for each other in book 2. I found it a bit unsatisfying.

As mentioned above this book seems to wrap up Persephone’s story. Towards the end of the book Aphrodite was getting a lot more page space. The main storyline regarding Zeus was also wrapped up, but then a little twist was thrown in that will most likely carry on to the next book.

Overall this book was okay but not as good as the first two books in this series. I think my main issue was reading so much of the story from Aphrodite’s point of view…I don’t like her and I don’t want to read about her. I also felt like the plot was more scattered and the new Gods and Goddesses introduced were kind of blah. I probably won’t keep reading this series; especially if the next book follows Aphrodite.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mythology Reading Challenge