A review by emilyrainsford
The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

3.75

Eh.

This was aggressively okay. 

I mean, it was definitely better than Fourth Wing, so that's a start. 

I really should have loved this. It's got trials! Greek mythology! Short chapters! And I *love* the Percy Jackson series. 

It was fairly entertaining but I just found myself getting bored with it. The main character was fine but I didn't care about her much. The writing and story read like middle grade for adults. I love middle grade and I am an adult, yet somehow it just felt a little incongruous. 

Maybe I'm just getting too old? Even with the MC being 23, I find it really hard to buy into the idea of a centuries old god getting hot for someone who just stepped out of childhood. It's just weird to me, so maybe that's why I struggled to really vibe the chemistry between the MC and Hades. She just felt too young. 

For some reason, a single scene was frequently broken into multiple short chapters. I like a short chapter but this just took it too far at times imo. If you're literally putting a chapter break in the middle of dialogue and then just continuing the scene.... like, why?? 

The entire 111 chapters centre around a group of mortals being forced into a competition of "trials" put on by the gods. It's a fairly fun storyline. I just wish I'd been inspired to care more about any of it. 

Overall, it was fine. I think a younger audience might enjoy it. Will I read the next one? Honestly, I just don't care about what happens to them, so probably not.