🐉 Book Tour with Guest Post & Author Interview 🐉 Hera: Kingdom of Lies a Greek Historical Fantasy Novel by Betsy Ellor
Rich with betrayal, desire, and divine intrigue, this origin story of Greek mythology told from the point of view of its chief villain weaves gods, nymphs, dragons, sex, lies, and strategy into a fierce new legend.
Hera: Kingdom of Lies combines the social and political maneuvers of Scandal with the mythic, villain redemption of Circe.
Before the gods came to be.
Before humankind was imagined.
Before Olympus was more than mist on a desolate mountain — Hera reigned.
When the war hero, Zeus, takes power and moves Hera’s statues aside to make room for his own, the queen of heaven must find her place in a new order. At first, drawn in by Zeus’ charm, she quickly realizes she wants no part of life with this petty, egocentric dictator. When she refuses to marry him, what began as seduction becomes a snare. Trapped into marriage, Hera learns that power can still be forged through cunning, seduction, and unexpected alliances. But after she gives birth to the God of War, her influence begins to crumble — and his lust threatens to tear the kingdom apart.
Who is the Goddess of Marriage, if she’s bound to a husband who defiles every vow?
Who is the Goddess of Motherhood, if she’s raising a child, the world misunderstands?
What kind of goddess is she willing to become to protect her people and her child?
Here's what readers are saying:
"Rooted in myth yet pulsing with modern fire, Hera: Kingdom of Lies is a reimagining of a classical tale, one that honors a woman’s rage, her love, and the power she claims for herself. A retelling made for contemporary women." — Bobbi Lerman, founder and editor, Scribblers Ink
“A classical tale beautifully told, ringing out modern, universal, and feminist chimes.” — Jim DeFilippi, author of Duck Alley, Busting Stones, and host of the podcast Blue Ink and Black Smoke
"Jealous, vengeful ....these are the characteristics traditionally assigned to Hera, wife of Zeus. In Hera: Kingdom of Lies, Betsy Ellor turns tradition on its head, revealing a woman who, facing heartache and betrayal, discovers the power she holds within." - Susanna Baird, editor Five Minutes
Availability:
Hera: Kingdom of Lies
Amazon: https://a.co/d/0ctl6NTF
WordsUnboundStudio.com for a list of independent bookstores
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Instagram: @betsyellor
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Substack: betsyellor.substack.com
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Interview with author Betsy Ellor
I stumbled across academic work about the Heraion of Samos, one of the earliest monumental Greek temples. It revealed Hera as an independent fertility goddess long before the Olympian marriage. That changed everything for me. Once I started asking, Who was she before Zeus? the entire narrative world opened up.
Myths often evolve with the storyteller. What did you want your version of Hera
to embody?
important to explore him?
The word drákōn in Greek is related to “clear-sightedness, ” so I became fascinated with the idea of a ‘monster’ who is kinder and sees things more clearly than those considered to be heroes. I wrote a short story about Hera and Ladon, which was terrible, but one scene - a quiet conversation on a beach - stayed with me and eventually became the emotional heart of the novel.
Becoming a mother—and especially navigating my son’s neurodiversity—made me rethink all the cultural myths we absorb about motherhood: that there’s a “right” way to do it, that it’s instinctual, joyful, effortless. Hera is literally the goddess of mothers. She is supposed to be an example of what motherhood should be, but her first child was Ares, the god of war. That can’t have been easy. It raised a fascinating question: What is it like to raise a child the world misunderstands? Writing this book helped me work through the tension between being a gentle hearth-keeper and a fire-breathing advocate for my child. Exploring this helped me make Hera’s journey mythic, but also deeply human.
I love research but the Research for this was both exhilarating and maddening. Ancient sources contradict each other constantly—Homer says one thing, Hesiod another, and timelines are impossible when gods never age, and mortals pop in and out of stories centuries apart. But that inconsistency endedup liberating. I realized, if even the ancients disagreed, it gave me permission to shape the myth in my own way.
I wrote the first 130,000-word draft in three or four months during a time when my marriage was ending, and I was beginning to understand my son’s neurodiversity. It required me to be both soft and fierce—to build a safe home while fighting hard battles. That dual energy shaped Hera in profound ways. She became a companion during a difficult transition, and writing her story gave me strength.
Guest Post:
The real history of Hera as a great queen predates the Olympians. They silenced her voice, but not her wits, and with them she fights her way back to power for the realm.
expectedherto be flawless.
Exploring Hera as a mother, especially to Ares, is a mirror for modern myths of what motherhood should be and my own parenting journey. The story of the goddess who started the myths now gives us a framework to question them.
4) There was a time before Olympus existed. Who built it?
The novel unfolds against the backdrop of the famous citadel as it rises. Its architect, Prometheus, is a dark, brooding genius whose eyes hold a secret Hera needs to unlock.
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