Cover Image: Olympian Challenger

Olympian Challenger

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Member Reviews

I was super stoked to get this book. I am a huge fan of mythology and I tend to automatically try and read something when it is in the synopsis. There is a good mix of humor and romance combined with enough battle scenes to keep things interesting.

If you liked books like the Goddess Test then chances are this one will be a good choice for you. The only thing that kind of put me off of the book was the lack of character depth. It is easy to over look I just wish it would have given me more.

I love a good cliffhanger ending. Even if it makes me want to throw the book across the room. Those endings usually guarantee I am going to get the next in the series and this book definitely had one.

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As a huge fan of Greek mythology this book was a must read, and it did not disappoint!

The MC, Hope, felt very relatable and I just adored her. I really enjoyed seeing her journey throughout the entire book, she made me laugh and cry and I just can't wait to see what is next for her!

I also loved Kirian, the love interest, so fitting that he is the son of Persephone and Hades too!
Hades is one of my favorites so I was excited to see him included in a way!

My favorite part though was getting to read about all the challenges the characters have to go through, specially Hope, it really made it feel very Greek mythology and was just fun to read about!

Overall, an amazing story I cannot wait to see what happens next!

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Love this book! It's been a while since I've read a book with Gods and Goddess mythology and enjoyed it.



Hope is like any other normal teenage girl. She goes to school, has friends, swim team, etc. However, Hope is dealing with her mothers dementia. Some days all is perfectly normal, and some days it gets hard. Hope would rather have the normal days, but lately it hasn't been easy.



Until the day she got a letter and everything changed. Hope ends up finding herself on Mount Olympias. Yes, the one where the Gods and Goddess live. The place she least expected to be and not to mention she knows it really exists now.



Hope and a number of others have been chosen to complete a series of tasks in which the winner will become the next hero and be granted a wish. It does take Hope a bit to get used to everything, but in reality she really just wants to escape and get home. Since it's not possible, Hope will have to do all she can to move on and win.



During these tasks, Hope will make friends, see loss, have a God be her guide and even find love. In the end everything that she has been through has been worth it. Not the mention this book leaves you on a cliffhanger that just makes you begging for the next book.



I can't wait to dive into the next one!

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Don't get me wrong, this is not a terrible book at all. It just could not match up with the other YA books I've read so I had to give it a lower star rating. The plot was very interesting and dark, but the writing could not do it justice. I'm a sucker for a story about Greek Mythology so it was interesting to see how the Gods/Goddesses were presented. They were basically cruel assholes, which I feel like is pretty accurate when compared to the myths 😂 I also really enjoyed reading about the different trials. I was rooting for the romance, but the dialogue between the characters was just so cringeworthy. I loved the friendship aspect of the book a lot more than the romances, which isn't the case for me most of the time. Hope's willingness to go the extra mile for her friends made me appreciate her a lot more.

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Well written and easy to read. I love mythology retellings and this one is one of those that really grabs the readers attention. Such a fun read!

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I enjoyed this book! Great storyline, dialog, action, and writing. I definitely recommend checking it out!

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So not the book to read while pregnancy hormones are going haywire! Every death made me cry like a baby, and by the end of the book I was so angry that I couldn't sleep. This is the first book in this series, and I can't wait to dive into the others!

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I DNF'ed this book at 30% because I didn't quite feel it. The idea of it all felt like something between The Hunger Games + Percy Jackson. I feel like the latter may be because this story is about greek mythology, but even when I try to differentiate the two books from each other, I still feel the same.

I find greek mythology a really interesting subject to read about so I was excited for this book and what it had to offer, but I ended up rather disappointed.

We meet Hope, who gets a letter just like every seventeen year older in New York City, except — her letter is longer than everybody else's. The start of this novel was good, which is why I decided to continue, but then it went downhill.

The characters in Arditi's novel weren't really fleshed out. They were extremely one sided and had one trait only which defined the entire character for the rest of the book. I didn't see much plot development. You've got this girl who was really violent, and we didn't really see any other side of that furthermore.

Then there's Gabriel who lives up to the gay stereotypes. He can't fend for himself, is weak and loves fashion. That's understandable, but I don't understand why he's not like this further in the book? For sure, people can develop themselves during a book, but I think his change of character could be written in a different way without conveying stereotypes.

I'd recommend this to younger teens in the age between 11-13, as this will more satisfy them than what it did me. Overall, I had no problems with the writing style in this book-I found it quite easy to read!

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~~ I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ~~

The premise of Arditi's book intrigued me, I love any interaction with Greek mythology BUT this book got painful after a while. I liked Hope at the beginning but her journey felt disjointed to me, and although the book described the Gods a lot - they're still very two dimensional. The romance was predictable and tropey and finishing the book didn't really give me any sense of gratification at completion. It elicited more of "oh, ok, its over now" than anything else. It has potential, but not my cup of tea.

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*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I started out this book in love with the whole scenario. The mythological base for this book is so strong that it is lovely. Whenever a new hero or quest is introduced it is a bright highlight of the otherwise bland story. Our narrator, Hope, is way too good for her own good. She often gives up so much to help people which is, typically, fine by me. That is until that is literally all she does. Her whole person is just giving up parts of herself for others without having any flaws. Everyone loves her because of how nice she is including the handsome god. I was able to overlook the case of no-flaws Hope until Kieron, the dark love interest, insisted that he was a man compared to Hope. This happens after they kiss each other while she is in his arms. It has been stated before that he has been alive for thousands of years but please, please, please don't remind me of this fact after he kisses a seventeen-year-old girl. I really didn't want to be reminded about this fact.

the rest of the characters are also very one dimensional. Amy is only known for her love of stealing bright gems and Gabriel for his love of one of the gods. If more thought had been put into the characters I feel like this would have been a great book. Instead, it has become one I am going to never finish just due to the fact that the characters are all flat and never remind me of just how giant an age gap is between a mythological being and the young YA narrator.

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Olympian challenger is a fun take on the traditional Greek mythology characters.. As a fan of mythology, I had high hopes that were not disappointed. The main character just wants to find her way home after mistakingly accepting a challenge that transports her to Mount Olympus. Expected to compete with the hopes of having one wish granted. Her mother’s health is declining, so of course she digs in and finds the grit to fight for her wish. There are interesting characters along the way and a little romance too. This challenge is a win!

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such a refreshing read! knowing it was about greek mythology I knew it was going to be a fun read and it really was. I loved the main character and the concept of the book was just really exciting and interesting, loved every bit of it!

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If I read this years ago during the height of YA paranormal, I would rate it higher. Now? This book turned from a 3.5 read to a 1.5 star read quickly. I may have enjoyed this book for the first 20% or so, but then it went downhill really fast. The protagonist is likeable, but the romance is not for me and this book felt unoriginal, like a mash-up of popular YA books. I really enjoyed the tasks set for the challengers though, they are interesting and introduced readers to various Greek Mythology.

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It's a bit of quick read but not one I found all that enjoyable. It's a bit of a predictable plot with characters I didn't much care for.

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First off - I really enjoyed the story overall. It was a fun quick read for in between.
I really liked the premise of the book: A big group of teenagers is transported to Mount Olymp from New York (apparently they could only open the window for transport on a small area). All teenagers are decendants from the gods and are thrown into a competition to become the new Challenger for the gods. The winner will have a wish granted.
We are following our heroine, who is living and taking care of her sick Mom and who doesn`t want anything but spend as much time with her as possible - or cure her. She at first does not want to stay on Mount Olymp and participate in the challenge because she wants to be with her Mom - until she realises that she can cure her Mom through that wish if she wins.

For my taste, there were just a few plotholes or tropes that I felt were not written well or unnecessary and are the cause for my rating not being higher.
1 - The love interest - really? Why did that need to be in the story? It felt forced and unnecessary and it did not bring anything to develop either the characters or the plot. It wasn*t touched on enough to make me swoon and I was just annoyed.
[Spoiler] What really annoyed me was that in the beginning, our heroine (human) asked her love interest (god) what the biggest differences between humans and gods is and his answer pretty much is that humans can love. So how does he pretty quickly turn into this loving mushball? This *could* have worked if the author would have explored him starting to develop these feelings more and how these strange feelings started to develop. But no, it just happened without explanation. Thats a no for me. [/Spoiler]
2 - The sheer amount of characters that were not explored really but all just were defined through one single trait. Most of the characters had no depth or real development. You just follow this one trait (which usually correlates to the god who picked them to come to Mount Olymp
3 - Why just New York? The reasoning behind it felt forced and from a story perspective there was no reason to limit the teenagers all coming from one City.
4 - The heroine annoyed me SO MUCH. She is too goody-good. She is always the morally white person who makes these *perfect* decisions, always caring about others .... not saying these are bad traits but this was too much, it simply was not believable anymore. Especially in the end
[spoiler] as she gave up her main motivation to actually go through this challenge because somebody else was sad because the lost somebody. Her wanting to cure or spend time with her Mom was held up as such a humongous thing in the beginning of the book and we see NO character development that shows her values change. So why do you give that up? Just because somebody you have literally NO connection with is sad to have lost somebody. No,[/spoiler]

Disclaimer: Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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The characters were great. The descriptions of Olympus were beautiful and detailed without being obnoxious. I loved the story and the mythology tie-ins with the challenges. It didn't feel anything was skimped on for this book. I enjoyed it all. It was a quick enjoyable read and I can't wait for the sequel! This book is worth more than their charging so if you're wondering if you should take the leap. You definitely should, you're getting a deal!

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You will like this book if you like:
- Greek Mythology
- Hate-love relationship
- "Obstacles"
- "Competition

I really appreciate the Olympian Challenger's accuracy regarding Greek Mythology, and the adventures are actually really fun, action-packed, and entertaining to read.

The romance is also one of the redeeming factors, because this book had a decent enough hate-love relationship (between a god I might add), and it was definitely enjoyable and shippable. However, (I have never say this in a book review before by the way), this book really need to work on the kiss scenes. Which is SUCH a shame because I actually really like the Kerion and Hope's ship. But I found the kiss scene not...just not that good (How do I say this)? It's an instinctive feeling, and it's just that I've definitely seen (a lot) better, so I would really advise the author to improve in this area.

However, I myself have a hate-love relationship with Hope and her narrative. I understand that that is who she is, it's her character, but her "saint nature" is just increasingly getting on my nerves as the book progressed. It's only because that she is actually a really capable character that compensated this problem enough for it to not completely drive me away from reading this book. If you get annoyed by characters that are a "saint" because they are just SO kind, selfless, and always saving the characters even when you really just wish that she let those characters die because all they bring is trouble, you will really, really hate Hope.

I enjoyed this book as an ARC, and if you're looking for just an okay-enjoyable-pretty good read, this book would be appropriate for you.

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"When he's near, I'm a moth circling a flame--trapped and forgetful of the danger ahead."

As a HUGE sucker for anything related to mythology... this was a such a treat to read. It's reminiscent of The Goddess Test trilogy, which I really enjoyed too. Olympian Challenger is a mix of romance, fierce battle scenes, humor and diversity.

It all started with a strange invitation:

"You’re cordially invited…
To embark on a singular journey.
If your heart is true,
And your soul heroic,
Dare to face your fears,
And your most precious wish will be granted.

If these words you can read,
Don’t breathe them to a soul,
The punishment would be severe,
That confidant may disappear.

You have until midnight."

Essentially, you're following a teenage girl and her struggle in dealing with her mother's debilitating illness, trying to keep up her grades up to get into MED school and, somehow, manage to take care of herself (just barely). One day, everyone at school receives a very strange invitation, but only Hope (our MC) is able to decipher the full message. And to win a wish? Hmm... this invitation seems very tempting. So what happens when our MC is thrown into a world she never thought could possibly still exist? Ha, not what you're thinking. Our MC here doesn't give a crap about the prize and the outrageous tests that she must go through in order to get it - she just wants to get back home, back to her mother and spend whatever time left she has with her before she's gone. I mean, that was until she met Kieron, Hades and Persephone's (smoldering) son. It was then, that maybe, just maybe, she could win this wish to save someone who she really cares about with the encouragement of someone she's gaining feelings towards. But are they reciprocated?

Olympian Challenger did not disappoint! This was a such a fun page-turner and I am excited to see what happens in the next installment to this trilogy.

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The Greek Mythology aspects were well done but the character development could use some work. Hopefully sequels will create more rounded characters. It will be a good suggestion for certain readers in our store and I have already talked to one customer about it who sounded interesting and would look into the book.

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It is a good book for those who are fans of Percy Jackson. This is like but it darker. Hope Diaz is a good character who is strong but suffers bouts of self-doubt. The story had a great rhythm and is good ya book.

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