The characters were great. The descriptions of Olympus were beautiful and detailed without being obnoxious. I loved the story and the mythology tie-ins with the challenges. It didn't feel anything was skimped on for this book. I enjoyed it all. It was a quick enjoyable read and I can't wait for the sequel! This book is worth more than their charging so if you're wondering if you should take the leap. You definitely should, you're getting a deal! ( )

We meet Hope Diaz, a hardworking student who, next to swimming and school, also takes care of her dementing mother.
One morning an cryptic invitation arrives that invites Hope to a tournament which came from the gods on Mount Olympus (yeah.. the very real Greek gods). After being whisked away to their realm she is now a contender for the title of Olympian Hero and be granted one wish: a cure for her mother.
With the aid of friends and a certain gorgeous god, will Hope be able to beat the odds and get her wish or will she die trying to find her way back?

My take on the book:
I was honestly very pleasantly surprised by this book!
It was a really good story, keeping me captivated from the get go till the very end.
It was well written and I didn't find any errors (or I just didn't notice any). The flow was good, there was no rushing nor the feeling of being rushed through the story. Character development was good, and I especially loved how the Greek heroes got their stories in as well.
Even if you know little of mythology, you would still be swept off your feet :-)
I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy of this book and I really really enjoyed it. I look forward to reading more... now to wait for book 2... do you think Zeus would mind speeding up our time a tad? ;-) ( )

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Covers like Olympian Challenger draw me in. It's a guilty pleasure - I see a brunette on a cover in a pretty dress and magical lightning and think to myself - yes, I would like to be her. And I request a galley. Sometimes it works out, usually is doesn't Olympian Challenger is somewhere in the middle.

It's the story of a girl with a mother who is suffering what appears to be early onset dementia. Her mother has good days sometimes, but the bad days are quickly beginning to outweigh them. Then, a strange phenomenon occurs: every teen in NYC gets a mysterious invitation. Most people can't read it, but Hope Diaz can. She dives into a lake to rescue someone, then ends up on Mount Olympus. Ugh, bad timing. She needs to get back to her mother and now she has to compete to be a hero of Olympus. No thanks!

The story goes on through a series of challenges, and Hope struggles between not caring about them and learning that it would be better for her to win... but then still not wanting to win. In many points, this story felt reminiscent of Percy Jackson - from the parallels with the Greek Gods and divine lineage to the desperate need to protect their mothers. Fans of Percy Jackson may like this book... or they may get annoyed by the obvious similarities.

Where Astrid Arditi impressed me most was in her research. She knows her Greek mythology very well. Not just the gods, but also minor deities, heroes, myths, and contributing players. She did not create a single figure on Olympus - they're all from mythology, and they are true to form. You can clearly see Astrid's passion in the topic and how important it was to her in writing this book to fact-check and share the stories of so many different figures. In that way, this book was really neat and I would have been head over heels for it as a twelve-year-old seeking out more information on Greek mythology.

Unfortunately, where Olympian Challenger falls short is in its storytelling. There is a lot going on and the motivations for both the contenders and the gods are fairly weak. There is no motivation at all for the heroes training the contenders. We get the barest glimpse of characterization even in our main trio (aha, another similarity to Percy Jackson!). I think that Astrid wanted to tell so many micro-stories with the heroes that she sacrificed the depth of the characters and world-building outside the mythology... and really rushed the writing. And that's such a bummer because at it's core, this novel has so much potential.

Aside from the cheesy moments, I genuinely enjoyed this one. I just wish it had been a bit better, you know? I wish I was able to connect better with the characters and that, as a reader, I had more time in each of the challenges. There's a lot of potential here for an amazing story, and it falls short. ( )