Oath of Fire

As promised, I have now read the first book in K Arsenault Rivera’s sapphic Greek myth books. I have solved some of the conundrums that Daughter of the Hunt left me with, but some still remain.

Oath of Fire is a Cupid and Psyche re-telling, and that is a ‘god falls in love with a mortal’ story. If first appears in books 4 to 6 of The Golden Ass by Apuleius, so it happens after Lucius is transformed into a donkey, but before he gets sold to the troop of Galli. The basic plot is that Psyche’s royal parents are guilty of hubris with regard to their daughter’s beauty, thus angering Aphrodite. Cupid/Eros is sent to punish the poor girl, but falls in love with her instead. Aphrodite is even more angry, but thanks to Psyche’s courage and persistence, and with a little help from some friendly gods, love conquers all. There are not many stories in Greek myth that have a happy ending, but this is one. (Dionysius and Ariadne is another, which is one reason I am so sad about KAOS having been cancelled.)

In the world of Rivera’s books, the Greek gods have somehow been melded with the Fae. This makes them even more inscrutable and unpredictable than ever. And possibly more dangerous, because they are obsessed with bargains in a very Fae-like manner.

Also, because this is Rivera, and the story has to be Sapphic, Eros has to be female. Well, female-presenting anyway. Gender doesn’t appear to be a thing with the gods, except in that they use it when communicating with mortals. Or at least they do when it suits then. Zeus presents as male, and is called Father by the gods he is supposed to have fathered in the myths, but he uses female pronouns. Whether this is some strange tradition amongst the gods, or just Zeus messing with people’s heads, is not clear to me.

Rivera follows the plot of the original fairly closely, though her Eros is much more a god of fiery passion than the cute arrow-of-love wielding kid that we are used to today. Her Psyche is a human woman, living in New York who, in a fit of nominative determinism, works as a therapist. She’s not very good at it, and early on in the book she’s fired from her job.

I should do an out-take at this point. Specifically Psyche is fired for a breach of client confidentiality. The client in question is a young trans woman, and Psyche is accused of outing her to her parents. This is not a good introduction for a character we are supposed to be sympathizing with. However, what appears to have happened is that Psyche knows that the parents are aware of their child’s gender issues, and seem supportive. She’s trying to get them to tell the girl that, but the client comes across an email and jumps to the wrong conclusion. Knowing how sensitive and frightened trans people can be, this seems entirely plausible to me. Your mileage may differ.

Anyway, the newly unemployed Psyche comes to the attention of Eros, and love ensues, albeit with a lot of trials to overcome before Psyche can ascend to godhood and marry her beloved. She is helped along the way by an online friend known as Bondi, who lives in Australia, and this is Iphigenia from Daughter of the Hunt.

This book does not go full-on BDSM the way Iphigenia’s story does, but it is still very much a tale about a lesbian couple, one of whom very much enjoys the tall, strong and dominant nature of her partner. The nature of the pairing is important in romance novels, so you need to be aware of this in case you are squicked by that sort of relationship.

Overall it was a fun book, if highly unlikely in many parts. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I recently read the original, or at least a summary thereof, before diving in, because then I would have been much better placed to appreciate how Rivera has adapted the source material.

I can’t find any evidence of any more sequels being planned, but I’m sure that there are plenty of suitable myths left to be mined for this sort of treatment. I want a Medusa story.

Title: Oath of Fire
By: K Arsenault Rivera
Publisher: Forever
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Bookshop.org UK
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