Lore // Alexandra Bracken

If you are looking for a grown-up Percy Jackson but make the main character a woman and throw in some Hunger Games kind of read, then this is the book for you. It's a standalone novel, so even though it's pretty hefty at a little over 450 pages, it's not a gigantic commitment, and you'll be turning pages so fast you'll make wind. Which is good because by the end you'll feel like you've just done an intense workout, and you'll need a breeze. 

The span of this book is so large that I'm going to use the jacket summary, and then go off that. "Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality. Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man—now a god—responsible for their deaths. Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods. The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost—and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees."

There's a lot of characters in this book. But there's materials in the front and back of the book to reference - maps, family trees, lists of who's alive and who's not - and Bracken writes in such a way that you don't get too confused. I loved Castor's sensitivity, Lore's toughness, Van's snark, and Miles' ingenuity. The banter throughout was fun, and the plot always kept moving. Reading this book was like watching an action movie, but make it a historical and mythical. 

*There is a sensitivity note for this book, so check out reviews and the author's website if you're like me and you need to know what you're walking into!