A VEIL OF GODS AND KINGS

Zeus orders Apollo to live with a mortal prince, Hyacinth, for a year to teach him a lesson on how to be a good deity, but things don’t turn out as expected in Bailey’s fantasy series starter.

Apollo’s mortal sister, Temi, has been protected so that no god can kill or hurt her. However, Zeus isn’t beneath using her as a negotiating chip against Apollo to ensure that the latter eventually takes up his godly responsibilities. Apollo agrees to spend a year with Hyacinth, a mortal prince who “knows how to obey his father and take up the mantle of leadership.” Unfortunately, Apollo doesn’t have fond memories of past times with Hyacinth and dwells on how “every time I did something my father disapproved of, Hyacinth would be there, and he would act perfectly, showing me up.” Hyacinth also has unpleasant recollections of Apollo since, in their last interaction, Apollo acted like a “selfish bastard.” But when Apollo and Hyacinth are forced to spend more time together, they start to realize that there might be more to each other than they initially thought. Readers may find some aspects of this novel to be a bit hard to grasp; for example, there are multiple references to “decade dedications,” which are never clearly defined, and neither is the ascension that the currently human Apollo needs to go through to become a deity. Nonetheless, Bailey creates solid characters with relatable problems, which makes the plot consistently engaging. Although Hyacinth is a prince and Apollo is a soon-to-be-god, they both struggle with making “correct” decisions and with the idea of putting themselves first—both of which are very human problems. Similarly, Epiphany, Hyacinth’s sister, is effectively shown to have difficulty deciding between love and family responsibility, and Temi must come to terms with inevitably losing her brother.

A sometimes-confusing but compelling story of loyalty and personal decision-making.