This book is the first in a trilogy unveiling the love story between Cupid and Psyche. In her trilogy, the author uses the mythological love-story as her basis, but adapts it for a modern teenage audience. Her Eros, and especially Psyche, are not cardboard characters, but have complex relations with one another and with their surroundings, especially their families. The Olympian gods may be mighty, but they also share very human feelings and concerns. In this book we meet Psyche and learn of her family and background and how she met her true love (who happens to be Cupid). We also meet Cupid, who is so used to playing with people’s hearts that he is heedless of their effect, until he is struck by his own arrow.

The author chose to name the first book of the trilogy, Struck which is very fitting. Many characters will be struck during the tale, some by Eros’ arrows, some as a result of their own emotions. They may be love-struck, awe-struck or even stricken by hate. The ominous tone of the title hints to the sudden infatuation that will have an enormous power, and will forever change the lives of our main protagonists, who are struck with sudden and unexpected love, which they now they will have to cope with.

By choosing to write a trilogy, the author is able to expand the story and focus more on the different characters, as well as the mythological background. While using Apuleius as a basis, she at the same time tries to modernize the characters, giving a new spin on their motives, feelings and actions. There is a recurring theme in all three books, in that the Trojan wars looms in the background. While the war is still raging in the first book, it had already ended by the third, and so the life and death struggles of the main protagonists are set against the devastation of the great epic war. The author also pays homage to other mythological tales, which are also woven into the main story. One such myth is the abduction of Persephone by Hades and the acts of Prometheus for the human race.

The length of the trilogy also gives the author the freedom to expand the dramatis personae. While in the original mythical tale few characters other than Aphrodite, Cupid, Psyche, and her family feature, in this trilogy we encounter several Olympians, Hermes and Athena being the most prominent. The gods interact freely with each other, like a group of friends/rivals, and do not behave in a lordly or stately manner at all. Perhaps, like Homer, the author presents the gods as having basic human emotions: they get angry, jealous, worried, have friends whom they cherish, and hopes and dreams of their own. Their super powers are a great bonus, yet they are not all-powerful, and, in the second book of the series, for example, they rely on the human Lucius for help.

Tryst thus deviates from the more familiar post-classical tropes of the gods and the known myth in order to create more rounded characters, with feelings, emotions and thoughts. We become acquainted with Eros before he meets Psyche so that we can better understand his actions and motives. The first meeting of Eros and Psyche is also prolonged. Eros gets to know her first (disguising himself as human) and then falls in love with her and her personality, which is no less a characteristic of Psyche than her lauded beauty. 

There is no doubt that the heroine of the novels is Psyche. Psyche is described somewhat unconventionally at first as the ugly sister; at least this is how she sees herself. We see how she relates to her caring father, and her more problematic relations with her mother and sisters. She is described as a feisty girl, fighting against injustice, not afraid to speak her mind. This is a strong and quite modern representation of the mythical girl, who is far more passive in the original myth, where she is honored, then punished, and then accidentally hurts Eros – almost in complete silence. 

This Psyche is intelligent. Her beauty is her greatest visible asset, but it does not define her character entirely. She is beautiful from within as well as on the outside. Even her looks are narrated with a small twist. Special attention is given to Psyche’s skin: it was the colour of olive and her sisters, trying to beautify her "tried to scrape the brown off" (p. 28). Her sister even laughs at her because Psyche is not as white as she is. Psyche’s hair is also unique – it is extremely curly – and she has green eyes, a far cry from the blonde-haired, blue-eyed stereotype of Hollywood and fairy tales. Her figure is also athletic and strong as if her body represents her strong will. But in the end, her difference is what captivates all around her, exposing how truly beautiful she is. She is unique. 

Thus the author is perhaps using the story to convey a message to every girl that she is beautiful as she is, and people will notice it eventually. The emphasis on the contrast between the white skin of the sister and Psyche’s darker skin can perhaps suggest that the author is particularly making the story an empowering tale for non-Caucasian girls. There is no specific rule or pattern for beauty. Real beauty comes within. So the first novel is a tale of finding and losing love, of personal growth and sacrifice. As the story unfolds, Psyche will mature and grow stronger, as will Eros. This is a tale of growing up, of understanding who you really are, of defying the will of others in order to find your own path. The characters may be mythological, but the message is universal.

Maurice, Lisa, "Cupid and Psyche for Children" in Regine May and Stephen J. Harrison, eds., Cupid and Psyche: The Reception of Apuleius’ Love Story since 1600, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2020, 381–396.