Review: Girl, Goddess, Queen (Girl, Goddess, Queen #1)

Girl, Goddess, Queen, Book 1 in the Girl, Goddess, Queen Series by Bea Fitzgerald

Published By: Penguin Books
Publication Date: July 20, 2023
Date Read: September 15, 2025
Genre: YA – Retelling
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 496

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To hell with love, this goddess has other plans…

Thousands of years ago, the gods told a lie: how Persephone was a pawn in the politics of other gods. How Hades kidnapped Persephone to be his bride. How her mother, Demeter, was so distraught she caused the Earth to start dying.

The real story is much more interesting.

Persephone wasn’t taken to hell: she jumped. There was no way she was going to be married off to some smug god more in love with himself than her.

Now all she has to do is convince the Underworld’s annoyingly sexy, arrogant and frankly rude ruler, Hades, to fall in line with her plan. A plan that will shake Mount Olympus to its very core.

But consequences can be deadly, especially when you’re already in hell . . .

“This is just the beginning. I have gods to dethrone. I have chaos to bring.”

Girl, Goddess, Queen is a book that has been on my radar for a number of years. I have so many friends who have read and loved this book, and while it has sat on my TBR for a while, there was just something that was putting me off picking it up. After getting ready to head to YALC this year (2025) and with Bea being an attending author, I decided to finally pick this one up. As I’ve read many, many retellings of the Hades and Persephone myth in the past, I think a part of me was thinking that there was nothing new and fresh that could be told with this one as it’s been done so many times. I am very pleased to tell you that I was 100% categorically wrong in this assumption. This is such a new and fresh take on the Hades and Persephone myth and I really loved every single moment.

One thing I loved about this book is that it follows the twist of ‘what if Hades didn’t steal Persephone into the underworld, but that she went there looking for a sanctuary’. I absolutely loved this take! Our Persephone in this book, originally names Kore is a goddess who has been hidden away, and then Zeus and her mother decide it is time to marry her off to another god and they will choose her suitor. In Kore’s eyes marriage is the end of life! She never wants to get married or tie herself to another man, and so while her mother is away interviewing suitors, she jumps into the underworld and asks for help from the one and only Hades. Hades accepts, and while everyone else thinks that he has stolen Kore away, he is really just doing anything he can to help her. Even if it means a fake dating situation to keep everyone fooled. But as they are pretending to fall in love, real sparks fly.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was so fresh and unique. I really loved seeing a softer Hades. I feel like Hades is usually depicted as this harsh and hard willed god, but in this one he was very soft and caring. He was a very artsy person and was happy for Persephone to take on all the courtly goings-on so he could paint and create. I thought this was such a unique take on this character and I truly loved every moment of it. In addition to this amazing unique take, I really liked the LGBTQ+ representation we have going on in this book. Hades was bisexual and although unconfirmed Persephone gave asexual/demisexual vibes. I honestly really loved this about her. To see her feeling like being with a man is the worst thing possible… and then gradually changing her mind as she started to fall for Hades. I just loved this aspect of the book and it made me love this retelling all the more.

I listened to the audiobook of Girl, Goddess, Queen, and I am so glad that I did. It is narrated by the one one and only Jenny Walser (Tori from Heartstopper) and she really did such a fantastic job of bringing all the characters to life. She made me feel every emotion that Kori and Hades were going through. I sped through this audiobook as I was listening every moment I had spare.  I’m so glad that I was wrong in my assumptions about Girl, Goddess, Queen. I really enjoyed every moment of it, and I can’t wait to see what Bea does in her other myth retellings. I will definitely be diving into them soon. If you’re a Greek Mythology fan and you love a fresh new twist on these tales, I highly recommend picking this one up. It really was such a fun ride.

“I’ll promise you no battlegrounds. But there are other ways to fight a war, and I refuse to promise to ever stop fighting for you.”