February 2021 BotM - Lore

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.

Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family's sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory. For years she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man--now a god--responsible for their deaths.

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.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore's decision to bind her fate to Athena's and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost--and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

Let us know if you'll be reading this one!

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

oooohhhh I'm so excited for this one!! I am IN!!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I love Greek mythology, so I'd love to read this! The waitlist for this book at the library is quite long though, so I make no promises 😅

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

I think this is the Fairyloot January book. It hasn't shipped yet so we will see if it is when it arrives :)

[Jo]

I'm definitely going to read this one, I'm almost done with my current audiobook, so I'll start on this one next.

[Brittany]

I am interested in this one but no digital library copies and I'm not sure I want it badly enough to buy it, If any of you start it and love it Ill look into the audio

[Jo]

I started it on audiobook today, I've only read the prologue, but it seems interesting so far. One bug bear for the audiobook is that it counts the opening credits as Chapter 1, so then all the other chapters are one off where they should be, which is a little annoying!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Oooh, that does sound annoying! Sorry about that Jo 😬

[Brittany]

Lots of books do that on audio. I've gotten quite used to it but it is annoying.

[Jo]

It's the first one I've had that's done, most of them have the opening credits under "Opening Credits". It's such a little bug bear thing but it's going to keep me off track now for the rest of the book because the chapter number on the screen won't actually match!

[Jo]

Okay so I've read up to Chapter 5 today. (view spoiler)[ I already love Miles, he's brilliant. It was a little difficult to follow to start off with but I think I'm getting into the swing of things now. Lore has just saved Athena, so I think things are going to start to pick up from here. There's a lot of "uber attractive" YA guys in this already, because of course. I'm interested to see where things go next. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jessie]

Im just about finished, I thought it was quite average until I made it half way through the book. The ending is was kinda sucked me in so I'll probably give it 4 stars

[Jo]

Read Chapter 6 yesterday. (view spoiler)[ Lore has agreed to tie her life to Athena's for the duration of the Agon, which seems like an idea doomed to disaster, since if Athena dies, she will die too. Also Miles overheard everything, so she now has a lot of explaining to do. We still seem to be in very much set-up phase right now, so hopefully the book starts picking up a bit soon (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Up to Chapter 9 today. (view spoiler)[ So Miles now knows everything about the Agon and is insisting on staying with Lore even though it's dangerous...sweet, if also quite foolish! She's now tracking down Castor to get him to help them....I think, honestly I kind of lost track. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Okay so I'm now on Chapter 10. (view spoiler)[ Castor is the new Apollo! Does this mean that Lore may have to kill her childhood best friend/definite crush? Also there is way too much drooling over muscles here, times like this remind me that there are certain things about YA books that I have definitely grown out of, even if I do still love them in general. The flashback to her childhood kind of took me out of things though, I don't really know why we needed a whole chapter dedicated to that, other than to see her meeting Castor? (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

I've made it to Part 2, Chapter 16. (view spoiler)[ So Castor was nearly killed by Michael, who I think is like the leader of his house? Anyway, he survived and was able to heal himself but only just. Lore is kind of pissed with Castor, and Artemis came after them and she escaped but Castor stayed to protect his people. Also there's a dog called Chiron. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jan]

I finished this and my review ismup if anyone interested

[Jo]

Up to Chapter 22.
(view spoiler)[ So they went to the Odysseus House to find Lore's old friend, whose name currently eludes me, but the Ares descendants were there and attacked them. Lore did something bad to her old friend but it's not really been said what yet. Lore almost killed the leader of the Cadmedes, but didn't at that last minute, despite the fact that this is the guy who killed her family. Also there was another flashback in the last chapter, and they kind of throw my rhythm off, they don't seem to naturally fit. Aristos Cadmo is a jerk though, and apparently in this world we're quite happy to marry off 10-year old girls to 50 year old men? There are some things that could have been quite happily left in Ancient Greece, and violent misogyny is one! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Made it to Part 3.
(view spoiler)[ I can't believe Gill was Hermes in disguise, I did not see that one coming! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Up to Chapter 37.
(view spoiler)[ There was an attempted sexual assault in Chapter 33 that I wasn't expecting and took me quite off guard. I always find those scenes more difficult on audio than I do in physical books because I'm not a very visual reader (I don't picture things in my head) but something about listening makes those kinds of scenes feel closer and more uncomfortable. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Chapter 40:
(view spoiler)[ So Castor somehow managed to survive being killed even though gods are supposed to be mortal in the Agon? Okay, hoping we get an explanation for that soon. Artemis is dead. Everyone seems to have forgotten about Miles who is missing even though they originally set out to rescue him, poor Miles! And now there's a big wave crashing over New York so things are not looking good. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Made it to the final part of the book, Part 5:
(view spoiler)[ I probably should have seen Athena being the one to kill Lore's family coming given the Aegis link but alas...I did not. So now we know Lore did steal the Aegis all those years ago, surely she knows where it is? She's been saying she doesn't, but she must! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jo]

Finally finished. I'll be honest I did not follow the last several chapters all that well, I didn't really want to take Lore into April with me, having read it through both February and March, but I kind of tend to drift off if I'm listening to audiobooks without actually doing anything, so I'll admit my attention span for the last few chapters was not great!

(view spoiler)[ So I think Athena sacrificed herself for Lore? But then Lore seemed to gain her powers and I don't think she killed her? But then she lost the powers at the end, both she and Castor did and they remain together as mortals? I was so confused as to what happened with the new Ares too, did he die? Who took his powers? I'm honestly just so confused with everything that happened at the end of the Agon and I swear I was following everything fine till like the last 10 chapters! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]