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[katara]

Title: Olympian Challenger
Author: Astrid Arditi
Format: Epub
Rating: 3.5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: February 18, 2018
Book Summary: A hero’s tournament. A defiant contender. Does one girl have the courage to take on Mount Olympus?
Hope’s world doesn’t have room for heroes. She barely has time for schoolwork, swim team, and taking care of her ailing mother. But when she’s invited to a mysterious tournament, the all-powerful hosts won’t take no for an answer.

Transported to Mount Olympus, Hope comes face to face with her new trainers—the pantheon of Greek gods. While other contenders train hard to gain a fighting edge, Hope searches for a way out. Instead, she finds a gorgeous shadow god who may just convince her to stay…

As each round unfolds, the ultimate prize draws closer—the granting of her heart’s deepest desire. If she survives the final challenge, her mother’s cure would be within reach…but only if Hope can ignore the tournament’s dark purpose.

Olympian Challenger is the first book in a bold YA urban fantasy trilogy. If you like Greek mythology, forbidden romance, and feats of courage, then you’ll love Astrid Arditi’s heroic coming-of-age tale.
Book Review: I was given an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hope Diaz's life has been anything but happy. Her mother was diagnosed with dementia (early stages?) and it is slowly robbing her of her memories. Hope has given up her entire life to take care of her mom and she hopes to one day to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a doctor (her mother was a midwife). One day Hope receives a mysterious invitation. In fact, the entire senior class has received one. Only Hope's invitation has more and she ends up on Mt. Olympus after trying to save a young man from drowning. Here she finds herself trapped and will have to play in a tournament for the Gods. But Hope has only one thing on her mind - getting back to her mother and she will do anything she can to leave Olympus.

Unfortunately for Hope, the exits are sealed and the only way for Hope to leave Olympus is play in the tournament. As the games begin, Hope finds herself in a battle to not only keep herself alive but to win the tournament with the hopes of returning to her Mom.

Okay I admit that this book kept me glued from beginning to end. I liked the premises of Greek Mythology but then again any story with it will pretty much sucker me in.

I liked Hope. I felt she had potential. She is desperate to be apart of her Mom's life while her Mom is being robbed from her by the stages of dementia and I have to sympathize with her on that. My own Mom is in the early stages of dementia and much like Hope, I don't like leave her alone because I worry of coming home one day and her memory of me is erased. So I can see how hard it is for Hope especially when she is trapped on Olympus and forced to play in a tournament she really wants to part of. As each person is eliminated, Hope finds her goal within her sight.

The only thing I have grown tired of when it comes to ya is the fact that everything seems to incorporate the Hunger Games in their storylines. Next to insta-love (this one, I have to admit, is a bit different when it comes to romance. It is a slow burn), most of the ya storylines seem to think they need to add to some element of the Hunger Games into their storyline. While this story has set itself a bit apart from the dystopian storyline and used mythology instead, it still felt like I was reading something along the lines of a fanfiction.

There were also some sentence structures within that felt a bit awkward. Some of them caused me to have to re-read the paragraph twice to understand what the author was trying to convey.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It kept me rivted from the beginning of the book to the end. Again I am a sucker when it comes to anything written with mythology weaved into their storyline. I enjoy those types of books more than anything. If this is to be a trilogy, I cannot wait to see how the series ends. Hope has a ton of potential and I am looking forward to seeing how she does in the next book.