Net Galley was kind enough to allow me to read an ARC of “Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit” by Colby Cedar Smith. I was giving this ARC as a digital copy but for myself I cannot read on my phone. Luckily, there was an audiobook which was very enjoyable!

First off, this cover is absolutely gorgeous! And definitely catches your eye.

This story is told in verse form from three different perspectives - Mary, Gio and Jeanne. Gio and Jeanne are Mary’s parents.

Mary is young, dreamer, full of life and is looking for love. She does not want to be a typical good Greek girl as her parents aspire her to be.
She meets a young man while working at her parent’s store and she is immediately smitten. He is not what her parents would approve of and she often wonders what it would be like to have a “regular last name” like Smith. We see Mary grow up in the course of this book. She starts off timid and aspirational and in the end she is strong and bold.

Gio & Jeanne’s stories are of their upbringings and we learn how they eventually met while he was injured at war. Gio by the end has an accident at his employers were he lost his thumbs and now can no longer work. We learn that once Jeanne had Mary, she given up her job as a nurse to be a stay at home mother. Gio goes to return home for a bit and Mary knows she has to work.

I am not going to spoil the ending but Mary is introduced to a very powerful man and brought in how groundbreaking it was for a woman to do man’s job.

There was a lot going on and having pretty much 3 different stories happening at the same time was a little confusing for me. Overall though, there are so many stories similar to this family and should continue to be told.