The cover is amazing! I know we should not judge a book by its cover, but the cover attracts you to read at least what the book is about :)

I really liked the book. I love books where the main character has to overcome challenges and test against other people in order to get something.

In this case, Hope, the main character, finds herself meeting people she never believed existed (the greek gods). She makes friends, enemies, and she even finds love. What I liked about the book is that is not the typical love at first sight, or even the friendship at first sight, those things grow up throughout the book.

This is a book I enjoyed reading and I'd like to read more books from Astrid in the future.

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.

★I got an ARC from publishers through NetGalley and this is my honest uninfluenced review★

Rating: 6 of 7; 5 of 5; 9 of 10
I'm struggling with the rating. Through the first half, I was sure it would be 4 stars, but things were getting better and I had to bring it up. This book is exactly what we call young-adult. But the thing is. It's a good one. I can't complain about the ya factor when I picked a book that I already knew it was ya. And yes I'm so going to read the next one. It can't be here soon enough.

So, Hope's life is kind of as normal as it gets. Then she receives this weird invitation and actually, she doesn't give a shit. But Fate is the most annoying lady and Hope unwillingly accept it. I think is pretty important say that she didn't decide to stay because of some random dark-mysterious-handsome-bad-boy, he may be the one who convinces her that it would be better for her if she stays, but it wasn't because of him.

Positives: This book doesn't take dozens of pages before the action starts. Actually, everything starts in the very first chapter, but not in a way that leaves you extremely confused. You have a little context, things start to happen, you have a little more context and then everything is happening. I can't be emphatic enough about how I loved it; Also - and it's very important - we are not dealing with a stupid main character. You know, all these characters that make you wanna be inside the book and slap them? Not her. And I loved the friendship here, I'm all in for friends like that.

Ending: Well, there's some wild idea. The main character is not dead. I would probably be ranting like crazy here if she was, but you know it really doesn't mean we didn't have plot twists in the very ending. Also, I had seen nothing that made me thought it was a trilogy. Until the end. So yeah I'm pretty much annoyed. Especially because honestly, what an ending without an ending!

Downsides: the character in general could be deeper, there was a lot of possibilities here and too little development; that may sound like bitching, but I dislike first-person narrators. I don't mind having just one pov all the time, but the first-person speech really annoys me.

Side note: There were a few things that made me remember of other series, and it doesn't actually bothered me but annoys a little. Also, pretty hard to read a book with that much Greek mythology when I didn't know the English names for all these characters, so the Wikipedia tab on Kindle was definitely my best friend through this book; I hate Hades like the big bad guy just because he's the god of death, it would always be way more interesting if he was some deep interesting character.

Tags: young-adult, Greek gods, lgbt+ side character, mythology, action, adventure, beautiful-cover, elementals, fantasy, fiction, great-read, magic

I received a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

This was my first read from Astrid Aditi but I requested it because based on the synopsis it kinda sounded like one of my recent favorite reads and I wanted to give it a chance. Well, in the end it was nothing like that but I still enjoyed it quite a bit, even more than I lately do with these kind of YA stories.

The story is a phenomenal YA mythology with a slightly cruel twist to it. The book builds on Greek mythological elements and while a lot of people say that it is similar to Percy Jackson, I don’t agree with them. Other than the Greek mythology and the descendants of gods/goddesses there is not much else that’s connects the two book.

The writing style is really amazing and has a flow to it that makes it impossible to put the book down. It phenomenally easy to read and went by so quickly especially since the pace of the storyline is pretty fast as well. Personally I didn’t except from the first book in this series to contain so much and for the storyline to progress with such rapid tempo. Actually I liked it because it opens up the possibilities for the upcoming installment and also prevents any kind of boring moment for happening. I really loved the storyline and the different challenges, they were interesting, exciting but a bit bloody as well, just the right mix of everything.

The thing I didn’t like as much and the reason why I only gave it stars was mainly Hope character. I didn’t hate her and she has a lot of good and redeeming qualities but in the end she was overly nice, sweet and self-sacrificing for my taste. I liked her in the beginning, her tenacity, her friendliness, her creative mind and she also goes through quite the character development thorough the book. However when we reach the end of the book her decision feels more like an obligatory, heroic choice the author felt her character need to make than something genuine. I didn’t like this.

However I loved how the gods and goddesses were portrayed in this story. Most of them were shallow, cruel and selfish, not really likeable but more godlike or at least how I would picture them.
While the book mostly revolves around the challenges and the upcoming feats that the winner need to accomplish there is a slight romantic element to it as well. The thing is I usually like when my fantasy has a bit of a romance to it but in this case I would have done without it. It was kind of childish and made Hope act her age, like a lovesick puppy. Sorry but for me it just didn’t work however I can see how a younger generation would dig it.

In the end I love that I gave this book a chance because it was really great, it had a lot of funny and interesting scenes in t and also I see a lot of potential regarding the series. I definitely recommend giving it a try, it’s a quick and action packed read with a hint of romance to it.

It’s just Hope and her mom. Her mom is her whole life. Her mom is sick. She is losing more and more of her every day. Her mom has dementia. All Hope wants is to save her mom, make her better. Hope spends her days at school and her nights with her mom. Hope takes care of her mom with the help a few friends. Hope would give anything if she could save her mom.

Her wish may have just come true when she receives an invitation along with every twelfth grader in New York to a challenge on Mount Olympus. If she can pass the challenge she will get her heart’s desire.

Hope wakes up in Mount Olympus to face other kids her age in battles. She meets some new friends along the way two to which she becomes very close to Amy and Gabriel. Hope has a very good soul who puts others before herself to keep harm coming to them. All the teenagers face some hard and terrible challenges in Mount Olympus. Hope, Amy and, Gabriel all work to face the challenges together but there can only be one winner.

I loved the Greek mythology stories that were woven throughout Olympian Challenger and seeing Hope not only facing the challenges but being strong enough to know when and who to stand up against when the right time came. I also loved that the characters had to do the challenges not knowing who or what was coming for them next.

I have loved visiting this world in Olympian Challenger and going to Mount Olympus with Hope and meeting Amy and Gabriel as well as all the Gods and Goddess along with their teachers too. Olympian Challenger has been an awesome journey that has kept me amazed from beginning to end. While the ending was the best ever I still have a lot of unanswered questions so many that I can’t wait to read the next book in the Olympian Challenger.

If you like Greek mythology and the Greek Gods and Goddess and all their stories then you are going to love Olympian Challenger.

This is a new to me author, and I am so happy with what I read! I truly loved this story! I've always been a huge fan of mythology, particularly Greek mythology, so when I read the synopsis of the story I knew I HAD to try Astrid's work.

This was a fast paced, fairly quick read for me. It was descriptive, but not TOO descriptive where it would become annoying with all the itty bitty details. It was a well blended read of courage, kindness, compassion, angst, and romance. There were times it was even heartbreaking. Yes, it was at times predictable, but then there were others where I was pleasantly shocked!

I can't wait for the next book in the series to be released because I HAVE to know what's going to happen next!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
As Percy Jackson series' fan, I liked the description so much that I decided to request this book with a beautiful cover. I was not dissapointed... so many references to greek mythology! I even remembered some stories (thanks to Percy Jackson, I learned so much about these bloody gods and demi-gods), and I enjoyed so much the quests, since I love these type of battles where one have to guess and decipher the riddles aboout their missions using the gods and demigods' stories as a support.
I really disliked more Heath than Hades....
Besides that, I loved the trio: Hope, Gabriel and Amy... they are so different but yet became friends and strong teammates.
Now, I wish that we could know what the other characters were thinking besides Hope... and also, the romantic relationship beetwen Hope and Kieron was a bit bland... I mean, they are cute, sure. But I felt that something was missing... maybe the lack of consistent development? Kieron would be nice one time, another rude to Hope... and she didn't even think deep about Kieron's frequent changing mood
And that cliffhanger at the end? *sigh* I think it would be better...

* Will Update on GoodReads *

I love this world and Amy, her personality is easy to understand. There are a ton ton ton of things wrong with this book, to be honest. There were times when I would read a passage and just stop and ponder how it sounded so off and out of place. But the story is engaging enough to push past those things. As far as an ebook, it’s way long. My font is tiny and it’s 4800+ pages in my iPhone 8 Plus!

I’m interested to see more from this author.

I really enjoyed this fantasy book. I haven’t read one in a while and this made me just want to read more. The character development and plot was great

The story had a similar vibe to the hunger games. The characters were great and started fairly consistent. The descriptions offered were perfect. They gave the reader a great image of the surroundings while allowing the imagination to still take hold. Overall an enjoyable story but not in my top favorites.

Summary: After reading the summary on both NetGalley and Goodreads, I thought I would give this book a try. I adore stories that re-tell or include Greek mythology of any kind, and of course romance and fantasy have a magnetic pull that is hard to resist. While the idea of a young girl being transported to Olympus to be a champion of the Gods is a very interesting premise, this book does not deliver in the slightest. After being invited to Olympus and transported there essentially against her will, Hope Diaz will be forced to fight for her freedom if she wants to see her mother again. While in Olympus, she'll have her work cut out for her as she battles bullies, the God's challenges, and the Gods themselves if she wants to make it out alive. She also gets to meet a shadow God that seems to be very interested in her in a lovey-dovey kind of way.
Thoughts: Forced dialogue, an incredibly whiny "perfectionist" main character made getting through this novel absolutely insufferable for me to get through. Yes, she has a mentally ill mother, and yes, it is made unequivocally clear that she wants to leave Olympus, and HATES being there....but calmly accepts the reality of this happening, and decides to draw the line at satyrs? Furthermore, lets talk about the under-developed romance in this novel. After describing Keiron (the "love" interest) as: "disturbingly beautiful, like a white tiger at the zoo", and being emotionally abused by him, she's utterly enchanted by the fact that he saves her, and then proceeds to drop her like a hot potato the next day. This is goes on through the latter half of the novel, with the ultimate realizations that they "love" each other. Infatuation seems to be the better answer here, Except, he's secretly helping her! Honestly, as I got three quarters of the way of this book, I was going to decide to leave it, but I wanted to be fair to the author. It's hard to put oneself out there for the world to see, but this book needs a lot of work. The sentence structure in this novel is abysmal. It looks like it was written by someone who is still learning how to show and not tell a story to readers, and there are several areas in the book that seem to need a little more editing to make more sense to the reader. There's also a nod to the Hunger Games in the book, which just further fueled my fire that this story was a mixture of the Percy Jackson with a smattering of the Hunger Games for good measure. I tried to appreciate the quests, as they were imaginings of the tales of the heroes of Olympus, but it wasn't done in a way that I thought was engaging to me personally. This might be a fun read for a teenager who doesn't want to think too much about what they're reading, because the characters are super petty and stereotypical bully-like characters, while the only mildly redeeming character is written as a gay stereotype. Honestly, if this story had been about Gabriel Ableson, I think it would have been a lot more engaging, I think he was the most likable in that whole cast of characters.

Hope Diaz is someone every girl can identify with: smart, funny, relatable, fashionable, who loves her mom and does good in school.

The Greek mythology changes everything: she is sent an invitation to tell no one but conquer a fear. After saving someone; she is sucked into Mount Olympus to compete to become their champion.

She makes wonderful friends and awful enemies, eats fabulous food, takes luxurious soaks in the tub and falls in love with a boy, Kieron. No, a man of shadows and myth. Hades son.

Will she become the champion? Will she get her one wish and save her mom? Find out in this fabulous book that leaves you breathless, waiting for more.

I am in love with the strong Mythology and stories behind each challenge. The author is very well researched. This is a better and more well written gender flip of Percy Jackson basically. But better. Read and you won't regret it. 5/5 stars.

This Book was at times Heart warming and heart wrenching amazingly done take on Greek mythology! It was a gender bent Percy Jackson like tale filled with Love imagination and a wholly unique take on Mount Olympus and the Gods that reside there. I learned things I didn't know previously and got to revisit old well loved myths! and the Romances SO well done especially Loved the same sex characters and how their characters developed all the way to the end and their Love story was really well done! All in all a new favorite and here to hoping she write many more books in this world cant wait Hope and her World again in the future!

A fun and engaging book about a teenager who is brought to Mount Olympus and discovers that all the myths about Greek Gods are not myths at all. Once on Mount Olympus the main character, Hope Diaz, finds out that she has to compete with other teenagers in order to return to her sick mother on Earth.

The Author of this book has developed a background story that explains why humans have been separated from the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece got so long. I really enjoyed how the Gods themselves are described and how they fit in very well with the descriptions you would find in a textbook; yet, the author makes them seem realistic and accurate in their responses to modern ideas. The whole setting worked really well for me and it seemed like the author worked hard to add in the creatures and individuals who are mentioned in Greek mythology.

When the quests began I wondered if the characters were downplaying the fact that their peers were dying. A couple pages later the main character herself wondered the same thing. I appreciated the reality checks that Hope had that brought her back to a rational way of looking at her experiences.

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. It fits well in the Teen genre.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I'm heavy into Greek mythology and YA dramatics and this did not disappoint. It was like a mashup of Divergent (when they compete to be in Dauntless) and Percy Jackson.

Things I loved:
- The way the challengers had to prove their worth to be taken to Mt. Olympus
- The involvement of lesser known gods
- Each Challenger's unique ancestry
- How there were real stakes. Challengers could die during each task (or worse, depending on how you look at it)
- A heroine that wasn't the strongest/fastest/bravest
- Diversity - homosexuality, orphans, dementia
- Incorporation of many Greek myths

Things I wasn't so crazy about:
- Flat, rushed friendships. It just happened too fast for me and didn't feel genuine.
- I kind of felt like I was beat over the head with Gabriel's sexuality. It also felt like that detail wasn't so much about Gabriel, but more to highlight how open and accepting Hope is... over and over again. I thought it was great that there was a gay character, but I wanted to hear more about who he was, not the sex he was attracted to. For example, a big strong weapon chose him. WHY? The answer is implied, but it would've been nice to see him discover it too.
- I wish we got to know the other characters a bit more. We learn their names, but not much about them and why they were chosen by each particular God.

Overall, this was a fun read and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

First off, I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing me this ARC to review. Please note that the version I read was an advanced copy, and certain events/language may be changed in the published edition.

Stars (Out of 10): 3/10 Stars

Spoiler Free: Anything that claims to follow/use Greek Mythology always intrigues me. I grew up on Percy Jackson and other Rick Riordan books, so I just have a soft spot for the stuff! Unfortunately, even with that soft spot, I did not enjoy this book at all. I wanted to drop it at 35%, and almost did after hearing from other readers that the story isn’t worth it in the end, but I ended up continuing (I still don’t know why.) In the end, they were right. While the story is the only thing I may have liked about the book, it still wasn’t phenomenal.

First off, this book uses a ton of tropes and stereotypes that I am just over. We’ve got insta-love, which tried to follow a haters to lovers pattern but switched waaay too fast to lovers. It honestly made me cringe at points, especially when the narrator would think of this boy she loved and how she would do anything for them. (Uhhhh… okay.) Additionally, I hate most of the choices surrounding Gabriel. One, he seems to carry some of the general gay stereotypes, but only at certain points. He spends a whole scene gushing over fashion with this other female character, but we don’t see that hobby/trait brought back again, which makes it feel shallow and fake. He is also constantly portrayed as someone to be protected, as weak and small, with our main narrator constantly saving him/feeling sorry for him. I honestly don’t know if the readers get to know Gabriel at all beyond feeling sorry for him and his situation, as that is all our narrator seems to think about him.

These continues on to other character problems. None of our characters feel really fleshed out, and most seem to be based off of one specific trait. We have our standard smart girl who only cares about proving herself and her superiority and our evil dude who just enjoys killing puppies for fun. The narrator’s main rival throughout the story also has barely any depth, even with the parallels the pair constantly have with each other (I was honestly expecting more here, some sort of revelation or something, but no.) Even the narrator’s best friend in the competition, Amy, shows little more than her thieving skills and sad backstory, and their constant tension (caused by tiny little things and always instigated by Amy) stops us from actually getting to know her as well. Even the gods all seem like carbon copies of each other, and this is the saddest part. Instead of developing their personalities from their powers and stories, all seem to be exactly the same. Vain, with huge egos and lust for power.

This brings me to our narrator, Hope (ironic name eh?). She seems to be almost good at everything, and when she does lose, it’s either because she wasn’t trying or her overflowing goodness got in the way of her hurting someone or letting someone else be hurt/left behind. She’s an overdone chosen one, and I feel like she doesn’t really have to learn or do anything in order to solve her problems. She’s just magically better than everyone. I did like the ARC with her mother, on how that’s her one motive, but even that is given up in the end for a more “selfless” narrative (which, to me, kinda removed Hope’s one drive as well.)

I did like that the quests/challenges were all based around other heroic quests, and the planning/idea behind them all was pretty intriguing. However, the action of completing them felt too easy for the most part, and any challenge Hope had with them was trying to ensure all her friends made it through as well. It once again enforced the idea that these challenges weren’t actually difficult at all for Hope.

Overall, I’m pretty disappointed with this story. It had a really nice idea, and the plot was mainly intriguing, but the lack of support from the characters/an uninteresting romance made the entire novel fall short.

Olympian Challenger byAstrid Arditi, has a very interesting concept. I mean it has Greek gods living in modern times, always messing with human lives, it has a challenge where the big winner can win a wish and it also has forbidden romance, which is something that always makes things more exciting. But to be quite honest, I was a little underwhelmed, I’ll start with simpler things, I thought the world was pretty cool, I also found it a refreshing take where the humans involved weren’t demigods (while I love demigods, a new twist is always welcome). I also really liked that while it was a contemporary fantasy romance, the part set around Mount Olympus was very Ancient Greece-y.

My main problem was with the main character, I found that she tended to contradict herself in so many ways. I know people can be made of many layers, but this kind of contradiction just felt a bit off, in one moment she would be more on the soft side and then the next she would be bitting people’s heads off, which yes I know people can find their courage to fight back, but not in the way that was done, it just felt like the ‘sudden courage’ just came out of nowhere. I don’t know, I thought that could have been done a little better. I also didn't like how she kept doing things that could be considered wrong and there just weren't consequences to her actions? It's like she just could do no wrong at all. Another thing, was that I thought it was a little slow to my taste, but it wasn’t like there weren’t enough things happening, because it sort of already happens since page one, but the pacing just didn’t quite agree with me. And last, but not least, I thought that maybe the secondary characters needed a little more development and it felt like they were just two-dimensional when they could have a third dimension.

I know I criticised the book quite a bit, but it’s not necessarily a bad read, I’d call it a solid read, maybe it didn’t work for me, but maybe it could for someone else.

This book was a good read. I didn't know if I would enjoy the book or not but after I hit maybe chapter 5 or 6 I couldn't put the book down. The plot was interesting and very informative of greek mythology, the characters are all different and some of them you hate others you completely and absolutely love. The best way I can describe this book is that it's a cross between The Hunger Games and Percy Jackson.

This book is not normally something I'd go for but the premise was interesting enough that I wanted to give it a go. I'll be honest with you, I wasn't keen on any of the characters - the Gods were, well Gods and therefore only looking out for number 1, and the humans... they were insipid, and/or gits. As for the romance elements, none of it was believable. I'm sad to say I just wasn't a huge fan.

3/5: I received this book from NetGallery in exchange for a review. This book started off slow. The author loved her thesaurus and the words overwhelmed the story at the beginning. About 1/3 of the way in it started to get interesting. At times the story got confusing with the sheer number of primary characters and it was hard to remember who everyone was and who was in what scene. I wish there was a half-star option because I would have increased my rating to 3.5 stars.

Nice and entertaining book with good characters. I really enjoyed the writing and the rhythm of the novel, and I would probably recommend this to anybody who feels like reading a YA-novel.