Serena’s Review: “The Games Gods Play”

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Book: “The Games Gods Play” by Abigail Owen

Publishing Info: Entangled: Red Tower Books, September 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publicist!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: The gods love to toy with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them…

I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.

Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’ patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.

The worst god. Hades.

For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.

So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?

I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?

Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.

Review: I’d had my eyes on this one for a bit before the publicist reached out about a potential review. While Kate has been reviewing “Lore Olympus” on the blog, I, too, have been reading and loving the series! And this book sounded very much like the same sort of story but in novel format. Plus, a few years ago I read and enjoyed a YA fantasy title by this author, so I felt fairly confident that she could pull it off. And boy was I right!

There’s so much to like about this one that it’s hard to know where to start. I guess I will begin with a note that while we’ve seen many trends come and go within the fantasy genre, I have to guess that the influence of “The Hunger Games” with its deadly competition has to be the most long-lasting. Since that series came out, has there been a point in fantasy publishing where this theme isn’t consistently showing up? Not that I can think of! That being the case, it’s definitely a packed field, making it more and more difficult for authors to make their take on the topic feel fresh. So credit where credit is due, Owens does a fantastic job of breathing new life to a very tried-and-true formula.

While many aspects of the fantasy competition is familiar (the one competitor who is overly vicious, the magical abilities/gifts that can give a competitor a leg up, the teaming up of various parties to make their way through), the most important part is the creativity behind the tasks themselves. And that’s where this book really shines. We see a decent number of these events, and all of them felt new and exciting. There was a lot of variety between them and the forms of danger and challenge they presented were all interesting. If anything, I wish we had seen even more of these events!

My likening it to “Lore Olympus” was also more on point that I had even suspected. Tonally, the two felt very familiar: funny, romantic, and full of heart. While the love story itself was obviously the focus, I also enjoyed the strong friendships that were explored and established throughout the story. And Lyra is a fantastic lead character around whom to build all of these various relationships. She’s brave, caring, and empathetic to the situations of those around her, even while many of them treat her terribly. And, of course, the dynamic and chemistry built up between her and Hades was perfection.

I don’t want to go into spoilers, as there are a few major twists and turns towards the end of the book, but I also really appreciated the way Owens dealt with the lore of the Greek pantheon. It’s the kind of book where readers are rewarded with little winks and nudges here and there depending on their level of previous knowledge of the famous myths. But at the same time, none of these Easter egg moments are crucial, and the book is equally approachable to readers who may know less going in. I also very much liked the way Persephone’s story was dealt with, which was my major concern when I read the description of this book.

I did have a few stumbling points in my reading experience, however. First and foremost, I failed to truly understand Lyra’s curse on two fronts: both how it worked and why it was necessary to the plot. To the first point, we are told that the curse disallows people to “care” about her. Specifically, this isn’t limited to romantic love. However, as the story progresses, again and again we see characters form connections to her, some so deeply that they are willing to risk their lives to help her. If that’s not “caring,” I don’t know what is! I was honestly expecting a late-game twist where Lyra had misunderstood her curse the entire time and it either never existed in the first place or meant something completely different. However, we didn’t get that. And, in the end, we didn’t really get anything Honestly, if we just took this aspect of the story out, nothing major would change! If Lyra’s character arc needed to focus on her insecurity forming strong relationships, that could happen without a curse and take away some of these major question marks that were left as it currently stands.

I also did not love the late game conflict introduced into the romance. I feel like I just wrote about this recently, but I wish authors felt more comfortable moving away from this strict plotting structure for romance novels. Especially with romantasy titles that have other plot elements built in already, this late-stage conflict point often feels as if it is thrown in simply to check a box and not as something organic to the story itself. Here, the actual conflict didn’t make much sense. And it made even less sense that Lyra would be able to piece together the already nonsensical logic leaps behind it on her own.

With these minor flaws in mind, I should maybe rate this book an 8. However, I simply had too much fun reading this one to leave it that! I read this one in about two sessions and was having a blast the entire time. There was adventure, romance, and drama. Fair warning, however, it does end on a fairly massive cliffhanger, so readers should be aware of that going in (I’m talking to you, Aunt Mary!).

Rating 9: If you’re wallowing in the loss of “Lore Olympus,” never fear! Abigail Owens is here with a fantastic new take on the Greek gods and everyone’s favorite dark and broody love interest, the God of the Underworld himself!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Games Gods Play” isn’t on any relevant Goodreads lists, but it should be on Greek Mythology.