Olympian Challenger

Mix Percy Jackson with the Hunger Games and a dash of Twilight, and you get the Olympian Challenger. This is a terrific YA Greek Fantasy book that's entertaining for adults too.

The narrator of the audiobook does a nice job, but she pauses between sentences a bit too often which makes her narration choppy at times.

I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook. This is my honest and voluntary review.

An incredible story. Hope is absolutely delightful with her wonderful sidekicks Amy and Gabriel. Amy is a hardened thief with a heart worth more than its weight in precious jewels or metals. Gabriel is tormented by memories of his father but is also growing in strength and confidence. I look forward to the continuation.

I received a complimentary copy of this book and voluntarily posted an honest review.

I thoroughy enjoyed this book! I was immediately intrigued by the idea of mixing humans and mythology in a competition for the Gods. Hope is character so truly human that it is hard not to connect with her compassion and struggles. I can't wait to see where the story continues next!

My review is based on the audiobook
I enjoyed this story. I like how the author involved the Greek Gods and mythology into the story and quests. The pacing was good and the world building was on point. The narrator did a great job bringing the characters to life. I look forward to more in this series

I was asked to review this upon reading it. Let’s just start with that I couldn’t put it down. The story line flowed pretty smoothly. There were however a couple of parts that it took a moment to realize that the scene had changed but I promise it did nothing to diminish what a great read this book was. It remind me so much of the mythology that I read in school that I have long forgotten. I can’t wait for a second installment to come out.

I loved loved loved this book!!! It captivated me from the very beginning all the way to the end. I didn't want to stop reading so instead of watching TV, I would read this with my meals. That's how good this book was. I enjoyed the various characters and the storyline. It was soooo interesting and I can't wait until the next book in the series is released!

Absolutely loved this spellbound adventure and awesome characters! A must read if you enjoy the likes of Percy Jackson. Very clever plot that kept me reading for hours on end. Wonderful series for young adult and up.

I received an advanced complimentary copy of this book for free to give a voluntary honest review. This review contains only my own thoughts and opinions of this book. First of all, I want thank the author Astrid Arditi. I am always honored receiving and reviewing ARCS. I am however sad to say that I could not for the life of me get behind this story. Basically everything in this book I had an issue with. If I were to point out everything that bugged me however, then this review would be its own book, so I’ll try to keep it short and to point.

The major issue I had with the story was the writing style and inspiration. Its all been done and seen before. It’s like the author read hunger games and then Percy Jackson and made a mashup of those two books. Because she has taken the exact same concept as Percy Jackson with the Greek mythology, destiny and quests and the concept of a death match until the last survivor from the hunger games. The thing is though, Percy Jackson is a children’s book, but she made it a young adult genre like the hunger games. The end result of that is not great. The writing, Greek mythology aspects in the story and the poor development is just too ridiculous and bareboned in details to adhere to an older audience.

Just like in Percy Jackson, Greek mythology is a very big area of creatures and stories. This author’s mistake is trying to fit too much of the mythology in one book, which is what makes it so bareboned to begin with. It’s just too convenient and unlikely that every story, creature, god and hero most known in Greek mythology makes an appearance in this one girl’s adventure and this one competition that takes place. It felt like Arditi sacrificed good development, pace and natural personalities and emotions just to make the mythology aspect as detailed as possible. She should have focused on making it a good natural flowing story instead of forcing Greek mythology in every, conversation introduction and supernatural aspect with every detail possible.

I also have to address the characters and their personalities. Let’s start of with the main character Hope. If a girl like her excited in real life she would have been one of the first to go in the challenge. She is just too naive, overly melodramatic and unrealistically selfless to a self-destructive degree. I mean, she cried like a little baby when she had to shoot down a few birds attacking her and her friends. She threw away the whole competition several times for so stupid selfless reasons that it was only pure luck and the hard work from the other challengers that saved her. Yet she is the heroine that the author tries to pass of as special? Then there is Gabriel, the gay character with father issues and an interest in fashion. He was written so over-stereotypically gay, to the point of becoming insulting to the gay community. He and Hope were friends, but seeing how patronizing the dialogues was, Hope felt more like his overprotective fussing mother than a friend.

And surprise, surprise. Every single one is conveniently Americans. God forbid other ethnicities. I’m so tired of this pattern of everything American in YA books. Sure, be overly patriotic all you like, but at least have a reason for why that makes sense. If the book is about GREEK mythology, how is America the country out of all the countries out where the portal opens to Olympus so that the American descendants of the gods just happens to be chosen from?

It feels like very little thought and planing went into this book when it was written. A lot did not even make sense to me, like for example the quests and challenges. What was the point of those? There were nothing to be gained nor learned from them to progress the challenge and story further. Every single challenge was a fight with a mythological creature and retrieval of an object. Even the whole reason behind the challenge and fighting til last man standing was sort of dumb and anticlimactic to begin with.

I hate to bash down an author’s hard work this much, but I can’t with a good conscience give this book more than one star.

Hope and several other teenagers answer their mysterious invitations and find themselves contestants on Mount Olympus. High action adventure, Greek mythology, and even a little romance. A delightful and clean story. An author that I will definitely read again. Looking forward to book 2!

I really did like this book. It was wonderfully full of adventure and secrets, hero's and pain.
It was hard to put it down and now I'm eagerly awaiting to read the next book to see what happens to Hope.

I thought this story was amazing. To incorporate the mythology into the quests is awe inspiring. I also think there could have been more to the story especially in the beginning before going to Mount Olympus.