Greek Women

The great city of Troy is under siege as Greek heroes Achilles and Agamemnon wage bloody war over a stolen woman. In the Greek camp, another woman is watching and waiting: Briseis. She was a queen of this land until Achilles sacked her city and murdered her husband and sons. Now she is Achilles' concubine: a prize of battle. Briseis is just one among thousands of women backstage in this war - the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead - all of them voiceless in history.

The Greek myths are among the world's most important cultural building blocks, and they have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories. Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, from the Trojan War to Jason and the Argonauts. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost 3,000 years ago.

It starts as a sensual game, but can Lily stick to Nik's rules? And, what's more, can he? Idealistic archaeologist Lily Rose craves a fairy-tale love, but in her experience it always ends in heartbreak. So now Lily's trying a different approach - a fling with infamous Greek playboy Nik Zervakis. Antilove and antifamily, Nik lives by his own set of rules. There's no one better to teach Lily how to separate sex from deep emotions! But whilst Nik may have the world at his feet, he has shadows in his heart.

When a daughter is born to the King of Arcadia, she brings only disappointment. Left exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside the cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis. Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason's band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place in the legends in a world made for men?

When Ruby arrives in Corfu, she’s greeted by a sparkling sea, hot sand and a new future. She’s ready to learn the trade at her Aunt Hazel’s taverna and she’s certainly not going to be distracted by Yianni, her handsome colleague, no matter how much they are drawn to each other. Because getting close to someone again means facing up to her past—and the reason she was so desperate to get away from home in the first place.

On the beautiful beaches of Crete, an old woman is handing out scraps of paper. Sofia, eighty-five years old, unable to speak, is desperate to find a daughter she has never known. After a tragic childhood in Athens and a soaring career as a singer, the brutal treatment of the man she loved by a tyrannical regime forced her to give up her daughter mere days after her birth. Now she longs to be reunited with her child before it's too late. Meanwhile in London, Zoe is searching too. In the months since the disappearance of her teenage daughter, Zoe's life has crumbled apart.

With her last pennies in her pocket, Elizabeth Wareham arrived in Greece to fight for what was hers. But her adversary, Ilios Manos, was like a man carved from mythology. Ilios would take her body if he had to - he was in that kind of mood. But the flicker behind her eyes belied an innocence he couldn't ruin. So he'd take the next best thing - he was a man in need of a wife.... He would show her mercy, and she would take his name!

Ella Palmer has neither the money nor the connections to warrant the interest of Nikolai Drakos's archenemy. Yet the unassuming beauty has done just that - and claiming her will be Nikolai's ultimate satisfaction! The ruthless tycoon will use any means necessary to ensure Ella's compliance, so he buys out her family's debts. Debts he'll forgive if Ella becomes his mistress. But when he discovers the true extent of her innocence, Nikolai is forced to consider something new: It appears the indomitable Greek is about to take a bride!

Ellen and her two best friends share a mid-life crisis by hatching a plan to renovate an 1860s Greek revival in the nearby historic district of San Antonio. Although Ellen isn't one to believe in ghosts, she comes face to face with something inexplicable in the attic. Her ghost-enthusiast friends convince her that they must help the spirit find closure, and as they dig deeper into the past, they uncover a shocking history that someone in the neighborhood doesn't want exposed. But Ellen and her friends don't give up easily.

Athena Spencer's entire family has been put to work when a big fat Greek wedding rehearsal is booked at the Parthenon. All hands are needed for rolling grape leaves, layering moussaka, and keeping the bride calm. But then the groom goes MIA and there's far more to worry about then just whether Yiayia's lemon rice soup has gone cold. No matter how tangy the tzatziki, everyone's appetite is ruined when the groom is found dead, a pair of scissors planted in his back. Then the bride accuses Athena's sister Selene, a hairstylist, of seducing and stabbing her fiance.

Athena has invited Case Donnelly, recently relocated from Pittsburgh and awaiting his PI license, to accompany her to a Save Our Dunes fundraiser and art festival. And her date proves helpful when the body of a disgraced photographer turns up during a nature walk. The crime - and the photos taken by the dead man - raise a lot of questions about local politics, environmental battles, and the victim's womanizing ways.

Calliope Adham—young, strong-willed, and recently widowed—is schoolmistress in the village of Molyvos when Hitler's army invades Greece in 1941. Well-read and linguistically gifted, she is recruited by the Germans to act as their liaison officer. It is the beginning of a personal and national saga that will last for several decades. Calliope's wartime duties bring her into close contact with Lieutenant Lorenz Umbreit, the Wehrmacht commander. The schoolmistress is an active member of the Greek Resistance, yet her friendship with the German blossoms against all odds.

After a work party gone disastrously wrong, Samantha suddenly finds herself jobless and jilted. So when her sister invites Sam to stay at her little whitewashed farmhouse on a Greek island, Sam leaps at the chance to escape. Before long, she’s trundling up the cobbled driveway, almost colliding with sexy neighbour Spyros. It isn’t all sunshine and smiles though. For every afternoon spent lounging by the pool, cocktail in hand, there is a morning spent adjusting to life with boisterous six-year-old nieces.

Four old university friends, Dora, Penny, Nell and Moira, reunite to relive that first hippy-dippy trip together to a beautiful, unspoilt, romantic Greek island looking for sun, sand and sea. But it’s not just about going back to when they were young. Maybe they do have dreams like Shirley Valentine because ultimately they’re all looking for something to help them through some difficult times in their lives - whether it’s with their career, family or relationships.

Rebecca Neumanner's marriage is on the brink of collapse as her desire to be a mother becomes an obsession. Then she receives news from her estranged family in Rhodes. Called back to the beautiful Greek island of her birth, she realises how little she knows of the grandmother she has eluded for over a decade. Bubba has never spoken of the Nazi occupation during her youth, but there have always been whispers. What desperate measures did she take that terrible day in 1944 when her family was ripped apart? Can the rumour she had blood on her own hands really be true? But Bubba intends to take her secrets to the grave.

Eve has her own story, and she's been waiting millennia for Barbara McBride-Smith to tell it. It's the same for Mrs. Noah. Talk about misunderstood or under-appreciated women! McBride-Smith singles them out for her trademark feminist humor. And following Eve and Mrs. Noah's stories are four of McBride-Smith's retellings of Greek myths from her West Texas good-ole-girl perspective.

On the lush green island of Corfu, Melodie's new husband, Anton, is missing. With no clues to his whereabouts, Melodie and her step daughter Gaia are broken from the fear that they may never see him again. When Anton's car is found by the side of the road, Gaia fixates on the idea that Melodie's malicious half-sister is somehow involved.

Greek billionaire Leo Christakis is convinced the prim and proper suits worn by Natasha are simply a cover for the gold-digger that lies beneath. Suspecting Natasha to be stealing from his company, Leo insists she remain at his beck and call. Natasha is then thrown into his world of unimaginable luxury until Leo discovers she's innocent - in every sense. Now she must become the Christakis bride....

Among the women of Greek mythology, the witch Medea may be the most despised. Known for the brutal act of killing her own children to exact vengeance on her deceitful husband, Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, Medea has carved out a singularly infamous niche in our histories.

From the moment Ellie Brooks met mogul Alek Sarantos, her life went off the rails. Now she's pregnant. It was only supposed to be one wild, passionate night. Yet when Ellie shows up demanding Alek legitimise their unborn child, he shocks himself...and agrees. Catapulted into a world she wasn't meant for, Ellie's resolve wavers until a tiny kick reminds her why she made a deal with this handsome devil.