In an ancient kingdom, a princess takes inspiration from a visiting young woman to challenge her father’s views and reach for leadership—and then discovers her muse is a man.
The goddess mother of Greek mythology’s most famous warrior, Achilles, will do anything to prevent her son’s fated early death. In a desperate move, she hides Achilles, against his will, on an island—disguised in a girl’s body.
Tormented by inner discord, the miscast “girl” befriends Mia, the eldest daughter of the island’s king, launching a transformation of Mia’s own. Armed with a new vision she believes comes from a girl, Mia contends with family secrets, a controlling father, her destiny to rule, and the wrath of a goddess.
When fate reveals Achilles’s identity, a divine mother’s fury drives Mia and Achilles into marriage. Mia must navigate her love for a man with a divided heart and a dangerous measure of immortality. Balancing governance and motherhood, Mia will face an unbearable choice.
A stand-alone novel in the Trojan Threads Series.
Available on Preorder on Amazon (affiliate), Bookshop.org and Ingram.
Praise for Achilles’s Wife:
“What was it like to be married to Achilles? Deidamia, princess of the small island of Skyros, his wife before he took his fated journey to Troy, was the mother of his only child, his son Neoptolemus. Here at last she tells her own story, speaking of how they met, married, and then parted. She knew Achilles the man rather than the warrior. She lets us see a side of him that Homer doesn’t. Unique, fascinating, and restores a long lost voice to the story the Trojan War.”
—Margaret George, NYT bestselling author of The Memoirs of Cleopatra & The Splendor Before the Dark
In the days of myth and legend, the sea goddess Thetis secreted away her son, the hero Achilles, on the remote Mediterranean Isle of Skyros – a desperate ploy to prevent his death foretold in a war between the Greeks and Trojans. But even a goddess cannot defy fate or change a hero’s true nature. In this vivid reimagining of the tragic love story of Achilles and the Skyrian Princess Deidamia, Judith Starkston brings the beauty, brutality, and glory of the ancient world to life.
—Donis Casey, author of The Alafair Tucker Mysteries
In Achilles’ Wife, Starkston expertly draws the shadowy figure of Princess Deidamia into bright sunshine in this creative retelling of Achilles’ secret sojourn as a woman in King Lycomedes’ court. ‘Mia’ emerges as a strong female character standing proudly beside male Homeric heroes. The pathos of her love affair with Achilles is matched by her heartbreak in dealing with the raging Neoptolemus, her half-divine son, who seeks to match the valour of his famous father. A tale of doomed love, maternal devotion, and inexorable fate. Highly recommended.
—Elisabeth Storrs, author of The Wedding Shroud
“Vivid imagery and a wealth of sensory detail bring Mycenaean Greece spectacularly to life in this riveting retelling of ancient myths. Achilles and the princess Deidamia come across as complex, nuanced human beings, however much they are buffeted about by the imperious Greek gods. . . . Reading this book was an immersive experience, and I highly recommend it.”
–Tinney Sue Heath, author of Lady of the Seven Suns
There’s nothing I love more than diving into the imagined experiences of the silenced women of the Iliad, and this book ranks up there with some of the best. Achilles’s wife, the Princess Deidamia, is barely even mentioned in the epic poem. She is the one who hides the half-mortal warrior among her women to keep him from being recruited for the Trojan War and later gives birth to Achilles’s son. She is a smart, savvy ruler in her own right, and her inner life is rendered believably and with great respect, given the constraints she faces as a princess in a warrior culture. Achilles, in the source texts, is not very likable to me, but in this story, he is fleshed out in a way that makes him sympathetic. He is a young man deeply conflicted about his fate and situation. There is an early twist to this story that I dare not divulge because I don’t want to rob readers of the experience of encountering it for themselves. It adds yet another layer of fascination and complexity to the characters and the story. Even within a tale where you know exactly what is going to happen next, this book managed to surprise me. It also made me think even more about how the women of the era—the daughters, wives, and mothers of the heroes in the Trojan War—likely had greater sway than the Bard ever let on. If I had a hat, I’d tip it to Deidamia, because she certainly earned my respect. This is a fresh take on an old story that is absolutely worth reading.
–Victoria Alvear, author of The Cleansing