13+
Greek gods. Trials. Main character with revenge motivations?
I knew I had to read it and I really enjoyed this one.
The main character Ara is the little sister of other books. Her older sister Estella was taken as one of Zeus’s tokens to be part of the Immortal Games (but you don’t get immortality as a prize, just an open wish and I loved hearing what the others were going to wish for – all less selfish than Ara’s original wish). After Estella dies and Ara wakes up to her sisters crushed twisted body on the bed next to her all she can think of is revenge and Zeus’s life. She spends years training to be chosen as a token alongside Theron another boy who desperately wants the chance to prove himself.
The Immortality Trials themselves will end up sounding like the Hunger Games but they are most certainly not. The gods each have a token and they roll a dice to control what happens to their tribute in each trial. The tokens know their best chance is to stay together but they are also picked off and only one can win at the end – so what is their strategy? Zeus, Poseidon and Hades have a wager, whoevers token wins gets the other two’s thrones. And Ara is Hades’s token. Did I mention Hades doesn’t believe in violence and wont give her weapons like the other tokens have?
Anyway to the stars!
Plot – 3.5/5 – it was entertaining and quick paced but didn’t have quite the depth and complexity I wanted.
World – 4/5 – I enjoyed it! It was clearly well thought out and I liked having the dreamscape as well.
Characters – 4/5 – this got an extra star because of how great it was to hear why other tokens were so desperate to win – it is easy just to focus on what Ara wants but the others had legitimate and selfless goals.
Romance – 3/5 – Sweet Romance – I just, I don’t like Hades as a love interest. He just – I cant get over the original myths and he would need to be rewritten amazingly (read into a completely different person with no connection to the myths) for me to forget that (and a closer age gap! I have seen it done with mythology edited or made so that the gods are younger. Other than that I enjoyed it and also how her relationship with Theron changed during the trials.
Things to be aware of: some violence and death as well as betrayal.
Damsel in Delight 