Lore: from the Number One bestselling YA fantasy author

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The strongest of his generation, gone in the time it took to blink, remembered forever by his kin as a blade traitor—and, as her own father believed, the true cause of the centuries-old animosity between the Houses of Perseus and Kadmos.” I really do not care about any of the other characters because they were poorly developed. The dialogue between people is only meant to drive the plot along and there never seems to be real emotion in what anyone is saying. Often times Lore's inner monologue is just repetition of what she or someone else said a couple chapters before, which got old fast. Additionally, the "relationships" in this novel were also really boring and predictable. She doesn't see or interact with someone for seven years and then loves them because honestly his only personality trait is "being so beautiful". Can we talk about the interactions between Castor and Lore for a minute? This is how most of their conversations went: Sometimes the braver thing is to accept help when you've been made to believe you shouldn't need it.” Other than that though the only thing that tripped me up was the fact that in my head this wasn’t a standalone so I wasn’t picturing everything wrapping up so neatly at the end, lol. Also my bad.

Frantic: There were so many highs in this book. So much action, so much happening again and again. Action is great, but there needs to be 'downtime' too. This didn't have much downtime, making it feel frantic.There are too many things allured me about this including tempting storyline and incredible cover! But you know the feeling something bothers you and you cannot put your finger on it. Yes, something totally bothered me about this book. The ending was interesting. I didn't really knew what direction is going to take and how everything will be resolved so I was very intrigued to see that. One complaint I have is that the book ended a bit abrupt. I would have liked to see more of the aftermath and how everyone was doing instead of being done with the book. Just an epilogue there or something. Lore thinks of how attractive, beautiful, gorgeous Castor is and is clearly attracted to him. A few passionate kisses and a make-out session in the second half of the book.

The romance in Lore is cute, but somehow it did not satisfy me, I don't know if it's because of the fast development or the pace of the book... It is a sweet "childhood friends to lovers" story and it added a cute touch to the book. At first, I was not sure about the place that the romance would hold in this book, since the beginning is all about fighting, revenge, killing, and trying to survive for the Agon week, but the author did a good job of showing how the badass girl and the sweet boy completed each other and how they'd had feelings for each other for years. They are adorable. The romance in this book wasn’t super intense, but the romance between a couple of the side characters was beautiful. It was something that I wasn’t expecting, but it was slowly woven in to the story and it helped create some happy moments in the midst of all the violence and chaos. No, sweetie. No. I got absolutely no HG vibes from this book whatsoever, and the Greek mythology portion was absolutely horrendous. The only thing this book succeeded on was making me hate every single character and every single god and every single word in this damn book.I also want to briefly mention, and I do not want to be too personal, but childhood cancer is something that is very close to my heart and something that impacts every day of my life, so reading a book about a boy who had to go through multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, and stem-cell transplants, for a cancer he had to fight twice, to get to see him be a modern-day Greek God… it was just very powerful. I can’t even think of another YA book where we get to see a young side character be impacted by cancer and see those around them be impacted by it too, and not have it be the focal point of a sad story starring it. I just wish we had more representation for this very real situation where people’s lives are so heavily influenced by this disease that impacts so many children every single day. (This is one of the few triggers I do personally have, but I thought it was very well done, and it made my heart very happy to read, and I wish more children and young adults living with cancer, or living in remission, could read stories that give happy and hopeful endings.) I know it's not a big deal, but it still bothers me because why would you create something so elaborate and then get inaccurate at the very end? Why would you leave a hole so big in the plot when you put so much effort into creating a whole different reality? Like I said above, Lore is the last mortal descendent of Perseus but basically has opted out of the fight for various reasons. She doesn’t want power or immortality. Though she does want her family avenged. But the killer is a god and even though Gods are mortal for seven days, he has a powerful bloodline and they protect him as well as hunt the other Gods. Exposition: The execution of this book could have been better. The world was rich and complex, that's for sure, but it needed more exposition. The information came in clumps here and there, making it feel like you were continually behind on everything. I felt like I had to catch up all the time or that I was missing something. It was a bit frustrating.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods. Then I just didn’t buy most of the character dynamics and relationships. These people are supposed to be close and I just don’t see it outside of maybe Lore and Castor and Lore and Miles. But other friendships Lore supposedly have fall so flat and unbelievable. Without substance. And any conflict between “good” characters just get resolved. One of them tries to literally kill another one and it’s forgotten a few chapters later.

Characters: I LOVED THEM SO MUCH. Miles, the kind optimist (I wanted to be friends with him so bad). Van, the guarded tech master and protector of the group. Castor, the underdog and long lost love. And Lore, the fierce, determined, and ultimate embodiment of female power. Literally Castor & Lore throughout the whole book: tIME dOESN'T mEAN sHIT bECAUSE oUR lOVE cONQUERS aLL. Castor Achilleos – of House Achilles, Lore’s best friend and fighting partner growing up, who had leukemia. This sample was very good and really just whetted my appetite for the rest of the book. I can’t wait to find out where the story goes. I just love Greek Mythology, add to that a fierce heroine and I am super excited. I definitely will snap this one up the first chance I get! Gil – Recently passed away, but the one who became a family with Lore and Miles these last few years.