Greek mythology mixed with celebrity and fame and oh yes a dash of hunger games.

I have eyeing this book for some time and decided to just buy it for once. Well, sadly, the book is going on the bye bye pile as I only keep 4.5+ starred books. But I can at least say I enjoyed it. And that is quite interesting given that I lost my interest in the first part of the book. Up to page 80 I was just mostly bored out of my mind and wanted to drop the book. But then it got better and better. However, given that 80 pages out of 336 were a bore/not my thing and I wanted to drop the book I am going to be rating it 4 stars. Maybe if I hadn’t had those feelings of wanting to drop the book a few times I would have rated it 4.5 stars.

This story is all about Ariadne and Theseus. About their love. About how they were destined to be the ones to kill the Minotaur. Along the way we see how the lives are for the Athens and the Cretans. Ariadne lives a pretty lush and luxurious life.. at least that is what the cameras see. We actually see that things aren’t as comfy or happy as you may think and we learn more and more things about shows and her family as the story continues. At first things may look like everything is OK. The sisters have their own reality show. Ariadne’s dad is the king. There are riches and fame everywhere.
But underneath that we see forced plotlines, drugs use, wishlists with presents to make one feel happy again, abuse, and more. We see there are plans and ploys running around to make things more interesting.

My heart broke for Asterion. A boy who just wants to be a boy but who is the Minotaur. Forced to become a raging bull who kill everyone. I loved how sweet Ariadne was for her brother while her whole family pretended Asterion was never there. Asterion was dead in their eyes.

The games, well, we didn’t actually see a lot of it so that was a shame. I would have loved to see at least one or two more competitors to get a real feel of the danger + make things a bit more better paced. Now we just see one competitor and while that one was just gruesome, it just felt weird to directly throw Theseus after that person. Then again, given how far along we were in the book I guess we couldn’t have waited much longer. The games were gruesome though, a labyrinth filled with obstacles that will kill you…. if the Minotaur doesn’t find you first. I would also kind have liked the pre-competitions to see how the kids were chosen. Now we only read that they happen each year.

There are plenty of twists and turns and I loved it.

I loved all the mythology that was in this book though I had to get into the fact that they took place in the now/future-time. For me mythology doesn’t mean cameras, colourful cocktails, tv-shows, and that stuff. But I have to say when I got into it I loved it. I loved that someone took mythology. Took Ariadne and Theseus story and made it into something now. And sure, I also had to get all my mythology facts straight as I just got a bit confused on things. But thankfully we got Google for that these days.

I loved loved LOVED the romance between Ariadne and Theseus. Holy wow. Those two have chemistry and sparks and the whole batch of hearts. It was cute and adorable and I loved seeing them together. Though I knew how things were going to end if the author would follow the original story. So I just soaked all the romance up and enjoyed each moment.

Icarus is also present and he is the best friend of Ariadne. Well, at least he tries to be. At times I just wanted to shoot him into the sun. But he did show he was a true friend throughout the story. I loved that his story is also hinted in the way of the drawings/paintings in which he is wearing feathers and flying away.

The ending was very well done. I am sad as well because of what happens there, but also happy because Ariadne got at least part of her wish.

I could probably talk some more about the book, but I think I have said most of what I wanted to say. I am happy I had a chance to read this book. It was a fun and interesting. Mythology x fame and fortune x twists and turns.