This was one book that I came across by accident and I was intrigued by the fact that it offered to give what could have been a female point-of-view for a time of history where women didn't have point-of-views. And when I read it I did fall in love with the story of the book more than the accuracy or the timeframe that it is represents.

The characters were given more personality than we actually meet in the actual Greek mythoi but although Helen started off to being someone that you wanted to know more about it was in the second part of the book, Cassandra's point-of-view, where Helen actually ended up as she did in the tales of the mythoi - almost with no personality, bland and hard to really get a hold of. Instead I am pleased with the way that Cassandra turned out for she was always the one that seemed to have need of her story being told but in the original tales she was the one that just like any other outcast of society gets shoved to the side even as she struggles to make her presence known.

The author also did a good job to go into some of the particulars and customs of the timeframe but since it isn't a historical book I wouldn't use it as a basis of research for the study. Furthermore she gave a general idea of the beliefs while I loved how she wove the stories of what the Ancients thought about their deities into the story without the actual deities entering and taking over the story thus leaving the story human.

All in all this is a beautiful book to read about what may have been for the lesser known gender in an event of time where the world didn't think twice about them and the powerful force that love can lead to. It is also a story of how women have had to gather as friends and allies so that they may survive in a world where a choice wasn't given them but a demand that they conform. ( )

Meh. Not as well-written as some of the other Trojan War books, though much closer to the Iliad for most of it. Boring. I couldn't wait for it to be over. It had no new insights into any character, and I kept wondering why the author had written it when there are already so many "Troy from the women's perspectives" books that do it better. Half from Helen's perspective, half from Cassandra's. Boring. ( )