The Burning Maze : The Trials of Apollo book #3 by Rick Riordan - Book Review (no spoilers)

I had started reading this series years ago, and I honestly did not remember which book I was on. So I decided to read the plot summary of the first two books and started the third, not fully understanding what was happening. As I read this book, I began to realise that I had read it before (and definitely NOT read the second), but thankfully I didn't remember what was going to happen next, and merely had faint recollections of the characters and places while I was reading a certain part.

I love Rick Riordan's books, and this was no different. As far as plots go, this one wasn't the best, but it didn't matter. His writing style is such that it keeps us hooked to the story no matter what. He is witty, and all his jokes are actually funny. I loved the haikus at the beginning of each chapter. They summed up the chapter perfectly, without spoiling it, and were hilarious. The Arrow of Dodona's 'Shakespearean lingo' was fun to read. The author's books are rich in situational comedy, and the occasional pun adds to his already amusing books. 

It was funny how much Apollo hated his human body, aka Lester Papadopoulos. He never failed to point out its shortcomings and got exasperated whenever he failed to perform. The occasional references to his time on Mount Olympus and random incidents with the other Gods were cleverly written. Every so often something reminded him of Ares' embarrassing fails or Hereme's style (or lack thereof) and the details made the book nicer. Meg was well developed too, and her dialogues always suited her personality. We had enough details about her to get an idea of how she was. I had never liked Piper much in other series, but she seemed better in this book. 

Well, this book was great. The story was good and certain things really surprised me (yeah I'd read the book before but turns out I didn't remember anything). Most things were predictable but it was satisfying when they happened, and the feeling of knowing that Apollo would win in the end, no matter what happened, was somehow not as frustrating as I would've thought. The main characters kept getting into seemingly impossible situations and it was exciting to read about how the author got them out. 

I am definitely reading the next book sometime. Everyone was excited about having Reyna in the fourth book, but I don't remember her much despite having read Heroes of Olympus thrice. Maybe I should read it again.  

Lore by Alexandra Bracken - Book Review

"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 Perseus 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 of 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."

I couldn't do it. I couldn't finish this book. And I know that probably doesn't entitle me to write a review about it, but here is one anyway. I finished about half, after skimming through the last 50 pages when it finally got so boring that I had to put it down. It was sad because this book had so much potential to be nicer, and the idea was interesting and original, but it was just dull to read. I felt nothing towards the characters. I neither liked nor disliked them. There were just there, doing their thing, and frankly, it was very boring. Athena was an interesting person. As I said earlier, I like the author's idea of the Agon, and Greek Gods coming down on earth as mortals for a few days. I wasn't really confused by the families, but there were too many words and names that I couldn't keep track of what meant what. Evander and Miles had the capacity of becoming something more intriguing, but I found I didn't like them as much as I had hoped. Despite the interesting storyline, this book failed to draw me into the plot. Perhaps I had too many expectations from it, so the slow-moving book didn't satisfy me. The idea was original enough, but after a while, I thought that the story has started going in the usual direction and I didn't feel the need to read any further. Lore had just introduced Castor and Evander to Athena and Miles, and I can already tell Van and Miles are going to become a couple sometime. Lore had only mentioned Iro a couple of times till where I read, but she would surely become a part of their group later. I did want to reach the end, because this book had something different about it, and I had hoped it would be something I liked. A lot of people loved this book, so I don't know where I went wrong. But the slow plot just wasn't my cup of tea. The author gave little glimpses of action, with a few fights (at least in the beginning, I can't speak for the rest of it), but it was apparent that the main characters wouldn't die. I couldn't picture the fights in my head as well as I would have liked, and Lore seemed to win by fluke. Reading this book felt like more trouble than it was worth. The author has tried to make it suspenseful by not telling us about Lore's past right off. She gives us a few bits and pieces along the way, but rather than intrigue me, I found that I absolutely didn't care. By trying to not tell us much, the author has not told us anything at all. The history of the Houses and the friendship between Lore and Castor was explained a bit in the beginning. I didn't understand much of the former and was too disinterested to put any effort into trying to grasp it. The author could have made this a whole lot better, but unfortunately, I have to give it a one-star review for now.