Abigail Owen

The Games Gods Play

Mary Carmona

But his control breaks over the next three snarled words. “Damn it, Lyra.”

I don’t mind being yelled at, but sworn at? No. I raise one eyebrow, crossing my arms. “You want to rethink your tone?”

Hades stalks across the space between us, and I swear smoke is lifting off of him in black tendrils. “No, I don’t want to rethink my fucking tone.”

Quitters never win, and winners never quit.

The anger bubbles hotter, spiking my blood. “Mortals can’t respawn or use another life or just restart the damned game.” I pick up a pillow off the couch and hurl it at him.

It hits him right in the face before dropping to the floor. He stares at it like he’s never seen a pillow before, then slowly lifts his gaze to mine. I’m expecting smoldering fury, but he only looks confounded.

It’s probably been never since anyone pitched a pillow at Hades.

My shoulders sink. He picked the wrong damn champion.

Hades’ hand reaches for mine, lifting it up and placing it to rest on the arm of his chair, our fingers intertwined for all to see. So I know this is another little show for the others.

It’s working. To my right, I can see the open-mouthed shock on Dionysus’ face.

I’m sorry but this has got to be one of the worst books I’ve read in a while. I don’t know how many times I rolled my eyes while reading this dumpster fire. The only reason I’m giving this one star and not .5 is because of my love for Greek mythology which wasn’t even all that greatly depicted. The author continuously referred to Hades as the God of DEATH… He’s God of the DEAD not death. As far as the mythology goes it all seemed very basic to me. Hades character wasn’t doing it for me either… jeans with a button down shirt and suspenders? Yeah no thanks. And Lyra… I could not stand her! Probably the worst FMC I’ve ever read. Her relationship with Hades was boring and predictable. Also, Hades had this possessiveness with her in the beginning and then nothing else flourished after that, which there were plenty of opportunities to add that in later in the book but it just wasn’t really brought up again? The labors were meh. I think the only one that actually somewhat hooked me was Artemis’, when Lyra is running to Hades that was great but it wasn’t as impactful for me because the development of the characters just wasn’t enough for that moment. 

Overall this was poorly written, there were many things that made it ridiculous and immature. I wanted to DNF it within the first few chapters but I sucked it up just to see how it would end which was predictable and not at all surprising. I was just glad to be done with it. 

Roxanne Ramirez

I’m sorry but this has got to be one of the worst books I’ve read in a while. I don’t know how many times I rolled my eyes while reading this dumpster fire. The only reason I’m giving this one star and not .5 is because of my love for Greek mythology which wasn’t even all that greatly depicted. The author continuously referred to Hades as the God of DEATH… He’s God of the DEAD not death. As far as the mythology goes it all seemed very basic to me. Hades character wasn’t doing it for me either… jeans with a button down shirt and suspenders? Yeah no thanks. And Lyra… I could not stand her! Probably the worst FMC I’ve ever read. Her relationship with Hades was boring and predictable. Also, Hades had this possessiveness with her in the beginning and then nothing else flourished after that, which there were plenty of opportunities to add that in later in the book but it just wasn’t really brought up again? The labors were meh. I think the only one that actually somewhat hooked me was Artemis’, when Lyra is running to Hades that was great but it wasn’t as impactful for me because the development of the characters just wasn’t enough for that moment. 

Overall this was poorly written, there were many things that made it ridiculous and immature. I wanted to DNF it within the first few chapters but I sucked it up just to see how it would end which was predictable and not at all surprising. I was just glad to be done with it. 

Such a unique premise. It was a funny read with lots of action and tension. Really looking forward to the second because that ending was craaaaazy 

Monserrat Navarro 

As a lover of Greek mythology I loved this story. Hunger Games meets Greek mythology where instead of games it’s labors. I didn’t see the ending coming and look forward to reading the next book in the series 

The Games Gods Play

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