“Lies We Sing To The Sea” - Book Review
Image by His and Hers Book Club. All rights reserved.
“Her life to appease a god. His life to save a kingdom. Her lies to destroy them all.”
One unnecessarily long intro…
On the off chance that you actually caught our previous blog post, where we announced some major changes coming up for His and Hers Book Club, you likely know that I (Alex) have been having a pretty epic reading streak this year, and have completely crushed my target of 30 books by end of 2025 (currently on book 42!).
As part of my reading journey, I’ve decided to start a review series for our blog, giving my unfiltered, honest, and totally biased opinion on everything I’ve read so far. The simple reason behind it? I grew tired of seeing bland and generic AI content dominate all my feeds (yes, I know, we’re also guilty of that to some extent, no need to rub it in, jeez…). The honest reason behind it? I want to see how many fandoms we can piss off at the same time.
Jokes aside, most readers nowadays seem to be divided in three camps: 1) The “TikTok made me buy it” crowd who swear by the latest “empowering story of a 16 year old girl, wise beyond her years, whose relentless spirit melt the frozen heart of her 500 year old love interest”; 2) The classicist, for whom anything written after 1980 is considered “fan fiction of the poorest kind”; and 3) The average Joe that has about 30 minutes a day for themselves, and wants to spend it relaxing with a good book, but generally ends up wasting most of his free time trying to sort through the noise made by groups 1 and 2.
Average Joe is who this series is for. I have made it my mission to take on as many and as varied literary works as possible this year, having already gone through multiple fantasy, classic, romantasy, thriller, satirical, children’s, and even philosophical books, in order to answer one simple question - is this book worth the hype?
As Gandalf famously said to Bilbo on a sunny Shire morning: “It will be very good for you, and most amusing for me.”
So now that we’ve gotten this unneccsarily long intro out of the way, let’s jump into…
… The Actual Book Review
I began my reading journey this year with a rather unexpected (for me at least) choice - “Lies We Sing To The Sea”, by Sarah Underwood. Why did I pick this one out of my mountain-sized TBR pile?
It’s not because I knew anything about Sarah Underwood. In fact, at first I thought I read Carrie Underwood and I was kind of wondering what made her branch out into literature. It certainly wasn’t because I had read any reviews, or knew anything about the story. Although, that’s not entirely true - I saw from the cover that it had to do with ships and Greek mythology, and that definitely played a part in the decision making process.
The reason I chose this book as my first read of 2025 was because of Illumicrate. Now if you guys don’t know who Illumicrate are you’ve been sleeping on an absolute gem of a publishing house. For you see, Illumicrate’s books often comed signed by the author, with unique forewards by the author, sprayed edges, and cover art that is out of this world (FYI, this is not a sponsored post, but Illumicrate Team, if you’re reading this… HINT, HINT!).
Image by His and Hers Book Club. All rights reserved.
The book looked stunning, but what truly sold me on grabbing it immediately was the quote on the back cover, which you can (hopefully) see on the image above: “Her life to appease a god. His life to save a kingdom. Her lies to destroy them all.” Now imagine this narrated by James Earl Jones, for example. Goosebumps… literal goosebumps.
Not sure if Illumicrate still offer this edition of “Lies We Sing To The Sea”, but if they don’t you can always get the hardcover version from Amazon, which is a decent alternative (and yes, this is an affiliate link, that we might make money on, because these books ain’t cheap y’all!).
Lies We Sing To The Sea - Let’s Talk About The Plot
As I said above, I had absolutely zero expectations going into this book. I knew it was loosely based on Greek mythology, which is one of my favourite genres period, but I also had the rather unpleasant suspicion that it was a “woke” retelling, focusing on telling the story through the prism of today’s hot cultural and generational issues, rather than creating a compelling narrative (told you we were going to piss some fandoms off, didn’t I?).
Thankfully, I can honestly admit that my suspicion couldn’t have been further away from the truth. The story is brilliant and I found the narrative so compelling that I almost finished the entire book in one go. To be honest, I would have probably been able to finish it in one go, but Stani was kind enough to remind me that we have children to look after, and if I did not immediately proceed with the aforementioned “looking after”, I would presently find myself with the subject matter of this article lodged firmly in a place that would make even ancient Greeks wince.
But I digress. Back to the plot. Needless to say, while I will try to not spoil and major details, this is a book review after all, so I’m officially issuing a SPOILER ALERT from this point onwards.
The story follows three main viewpoints - Leto, a maiden from the kingdom of Ithaca. The immortal Melantho, who holds more secrets than there are fish in the sea. And Prince Mathias, torn between love and duty.
The action centres on the kingdom of Ithaca, birthplace of cunning Odysseus. Even in the mighty ruler’s time, Ithaca had it’s fair share of bad luck, but things have only taken a turn for the worst many generations later, as Poseidon, who was not exactly ecstatic over some of the events told in the Odyssey, decided it would be grand if he put a curse on the entire kingdom.
Each summer, instead of busying themselves with inventing ouzo or eating olives by the beach, the citizens of Ithaca sent silent prayers to avoid the worst raffle in human history - being one of the twelve maidens that need to be sacrificed to appease the god of the sea. For seventeen dreadful years Leto has managed to escape being marked as an offering. Until now.
Personally, if I was a 17 year old maiden, and I knew that there was a chance I was about to be hanged by religious fanatics to pacify a god with the emotional intelligence of a toddler, I’d have lost my maidenhood with the first farm boy I laid my eyes on… But kudos, Leto, for being a better person than me. You kept your morals. But lost your life.
That’s right, didn’t expect the main character dying in the beginning, did you? And it’s not a romantic “I drank a poison vial to join my lover in the afterlife” kind of death either. Nope, it’s a brutally detailed hanging with just a sprinkle of drowning for flavour.
But as well all know, death is literature is not always final. So I’m fairly certain Leto was more surprised than any of the readers would be that she wakes up on a mysterious island, greeted by what can only be described as the Little Mermaid’s ugly sister Gretchen… I mean, Melantho.
After spending some time coming to terms that she’s evidently been brough back from the dead, acquired some new powers along the way, and is currently speaking with an immortal mermaid on the island from Lost, Leto learns the origin of the sacrifice ritual she felt victim to from Melantho.
The ritual is courtesy of the great and cunning Odysseus, of course, as payment for the lives of Queen Penelope’s 12 maids, cast into the ocean centuries ago when the famous hero finally installed Google Maps properly and found his way back to his palace.
Twelve maidens sacrificed each year to appease the wrath of a wronged god. But every once in a while, one of them would be returned from the sea, given the chance to end the curse forever. It wouldn’t be a good story if we didn’t up the ante at this point, so Melantho also reveals that 11 other maidens were resurected by the sea before Leto. They all failed to break the curse. And now, Leto is the only one left. And the last chance for both of them, and the for the people of Ithaca, for freedom.
No pressure at all, Leto, right? So what does our heroine have to do to break a centuries old curse? Simple - kill a prince. And not just any random prince, but the prince of Ithaca, coming from the royal line of Odysseus himself.
This quest alone would have made for a good story, because much like Mordor, one does not simply walk into the royal palace… and murder a prince! But we’ve got to make it harder on Leto, of course, because the prince is a genuinely nice guy. Like, the type of Disney-bred member of the royal family, who actually cares about his people, his morals, and his dashing good looks.
Prince Mathias is also aware of the toll the curse takes on his people and is actively working on finding a way to stop it. Naturally, all three find a way towards each other, and as all good looking people in close quarters do, naturally develop feelings for each other.
I’ve got to say, I’m usually not a huge fan of love triangles, but ho-ho, was this one done right! Just absolute…chef’s kiss. Spoiler alert - it ain’t 2 gals fighting over the guy either.
So now Leto finds herself torn between her love for Mathias and her love for Melantho. And also between saving the ones she loves, or saving an entire kingdom. For the sea god always has his due…
The story culminates in one of the most touching endings I’ve read in a while, and I have to say that even as a man I felt a deep emotional pit growing in my stomach when those last few pages came around.
I read this book without any expectations whatsoever, and I can say with utmost pleasure that it was a fantastic read - not too heavy, and not simple. It was just ideal to set the tone for an entire year of reading and remind me why I fell in love with Greek mythology in the first place.
Is “Lies We Sing To The Sea” worth reading?
For me, absolutely. I will definitely be re-reading it in a couple of years once the details start to fade away.
If I had to provide my honest recommendation to the average reader, it would go like this:
Who is this book perfect for?
Readers who enjoy the more humane aspects of Greek Mythology, such as cursed heroes, escaping fate, and defying the gods
Readers who enjoy high stake plots, and dramatic tensions throughout the story
Readers who enjoy the “love triangle” thrope
Readers that want a familiar fantasy setting, without having to commit to an entire series of novels
Who is this book NOT ideal for?
Readers expecting Zack Snyder type of battles between Greek gods, Amazons, and mythological creatures
Readers expecting a book series
Readers that are looking for more action and less romance
Final Thoughts and Some More Info about Sarah Underwood
I’m genuinely quite happy that I chose “Lies We Sing To The Sea” as the first book to kick off my 30 books in 2025 personal reading challenge. It really helped set the tone for everything that followed afterwards, and, boy-oh-boy, were there a lot of books that followed afterwards! But we’ll get to those in all due time.
Before we wrap this up, I wanted to share some additional info about the author, Sarah Underwood, because I feel that she deserves some extra recognition for all the fantastic work she’s done on this book.
Sarah is actually a data scientist by training, and she grew up by the seaside in Devon (that’s the southwest of England, for anyone outside of the UK). She graduated the Imperial College of London and Cambridge, officially making me feel inadequate on so many levels and questioning so many life choices. But this is not about me (oh, who are we kidding?), so let’s get back to Sarah.
She is an avid writer ever since childhood, and an even more dedicated reader. “Lies We Sing To The Sea” was created as her love letter to all those stories about fantastical hero and mythologies that shaped her into the brilliant author she is today.
For those of you wanting some more personal details - besides books, her favourite things are board games, fresh apricots, and her flock of geriatric chickens. Just don’t ask me how I know about the last one… Fine, I got it off the back of the book, are you happy now? Couldn’t let me gloat for a moment, jeez…
If you enjoyed this review let us know and leave a comment below. Share it with a friend. Donate to charity. Vote for your congressmen…
What was I talking about? Oh yes, if you liked what you read here and I didn’t bore you to death with my rambling, then check out the next post in our series on book reviews of everything I’ve read so far in 2025, where I will be giving my honest and unfiltered take on non-other than the one, the only, the legendary Terry Pratchett, and his book “Snuff”, part of one of my all-time favourite imaginary settings - the Discworld!
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I began my reading journey this year with a rather unexpected (for me at least) choice - “Lies We Sing To The Sea”, by Sarah Underwood. So why did I pick this one out of my mountain-sized TBR pile?