Ithaca by Claire North
I have loved everything I've read by Claire North, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to pick up Ithaca. Maybe the mythology/ Ancient Greece setting just didn't grab my attention and seemed so different from the others I've read by North. But I ended up loving it.
It has been seventeen years since Odysseus left to fight in the Trojan War, leaving Penelope and their son, Telemachus, behind in Ithaca. Penelope is left to fend for herself and her son and to run the kingdom with the help of her advisors, men who of course think they are both more competent and powerful than Penelope. They're wrong. Penelope is intelligent and cunning and she and her maids wield their power subtly and behind the scenes.
Hera, goddess of women, marriage and childbirth, is our narrator and is perfect for the part. She's sarcastic and funny and allows us to see all that's going on, but from her own...