Title: Blood of Hercules
Author: Jasmine Mas
Publication: April 8, 2025
Publisher: Canary Street Press
Genre: Romantasy
Pages: 512

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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

Step into the Coliseum at the Spartan War Academy where monsters are made, immortality is won, and even a god can die…

Alexis Hert isn’t a hero, and she certainly isn’t a god. All she’s ever been is a survivor.

But the Fates disagree.

When a blood test leads to her admittance at the Spartan War Academy, she’ll have to do more than merely survive.

Alexis will have to claim her birthright: immortality.

But immortality is a privilege, one earned in the crucible of the academy, where the heroes are villains and classrooms battlegrounds. While gladiators Achilles and Patro, her demanding mentors, hone her into a warrior, Augustus and Kharon, her professors and the brooding heirs to the underworld, haunt her steps and her thoughts.

Because where there are gods, there are bound to be monsters, and there is more than one hunting Alexis…

REVIEW:

I cannot for the life of me decide on what books I should read next.  I have a house full of them and I waffle over what one to read next.  I even have an excel spreadsheet full of TBR books.  I will say never keep the books after I have read them.  I am not a book rereader unless I absolutely want to.  I know what will happen after reading it one time so it’s no longer a surprise for me.  So what I have taken to doing is picking 4 books out, generally not in the same genre and taking a picture and sending it to my significant other and having him choose the book for me.  This time he chose one that my sister and I were discussing one weekend.  It was so sweet that he remembered and decided that is the one to choose.  I was excited to read it because of the review my sister gave me, “read it in one day” good.  While I would not be doing that I did feel good about reading it. 

Alexis unfortunately is a product of the foster care system and for her that system is broke. She is living in absolute squalor and filth.  Cared for by two vile people.  She lives in a world of Spartans.  Where Greek Gods rule.  She is a loaner at school but  smart as a whip. She has no friends but that changes when Charlie is also dropped off at the trailer to live with her.  She becomes his protector.  That comes to a screeching halt when taking a test for the Spartan War Academy her blood sets off alarm bells and she is whisked away to a world that she can only dream of. Holy smokes this book.  While I didn’t read it in a day like my sister I did find myself sneak reading it whenever I could find the time.  This book kept me guessing and based off the back of the book I was waiting on the edge of my seat for when the bombshell would be dropped.

I liked the idea of Hercules being a woman for some reason.  It seemed to fit her scrappy personality.  It gave me a different view into the Greek Gods that we all should have learned about at some point in school.  I learned about some that I hadn’t even heard of before.  I was a little iffy about the whole ending of the story. I wasn’t exactly sold on that whole threesome situation that the author wrote.  While I get why it worked in the storyline, in my mind it did not work for me.  I have already asked my sister if I would be able to borrow the second book from her and read it.  It was good enough and left me with enough breadcrumbs that I want to find out what happens next.  I need to know where her foster brother Charlie works into the equation because in my mind he does at some point.  He needs to have a storyline other than the small one that he does.  This book ranks up there for me in my list of Greek God retellings.  I have read several and this one is pretty good.  I highly recommend checking it out.  I think that it would make an amazing TV series or movie to be honest. It has it all, romance, action, and hits on major issues that we have in this day and age. Read it, you won’t regret it.