Ariadne

I finished reading Ariadne by Jennifer Saint.

I liked the first line:

"Let me tell you the story of a righteous man." 

Who?

"The righteous man of the story is King Minos of Crete, who set out to wage a great war on Athens."

The Prologue was full of foreshadowing.

"She had betrayed her father and her kingdom, he told me, still glowing with the flush of victory on his return from the defeat of Athens. And what possible use could my father, King Minos of Crete, ever have for a treacherous daughter?"

I also liked the first line of Chapter One:

"I am Ariadne, princess of Crete, though my story takes us a long way from the rocky shores of my home."

I loved this bit about constellations:

"There were many such stories. It seemed the night skies were littered with mortals who had encountered the gods and now stood as blazing examples to the world below of what the immortals could do."

I loved this part about the magical miracle grapes:

"I must have been driven to madness; I must be hallucinating. Or perhaps I had died already and this was my existence as a wraith, condemned to wander this land for eternity. But why would there be grapes in the afterlife of a wandering spirit? The absurdity of the thought struck me as funny, and I almost laughed, but the horror that I might be completely mad stopped me. I could not think clearly and I realized with a jolt that the noise preventing me from thinking was that of running water. I turned so quickly I stumbled. The statue -- the little stone statue of the laughing gold that must be Dionysus -- it stood now in a bubbling spring, and from the cup held aloft by the smiling deity poured a stream of crystal clear water. 

Prickles were racing up and down my spine. There was no explanation for what was happening. It was a miracle -- only miracles, surely, should not be so terrifying? Maybe they were; maybe coming this close to true magic, before your own eyes, would be enough to rip the veil of sanity from anyone's mind and leave the stark, staring chaos of madness behind."