Hey friends,
I’m sorry this is coming out a bit late, I’ve been sick this last week and have spent most of my free time sleeping.
<yay sleep>
As you’re all aware, today is Monday (at least it still is in the States) meaning it Goodreads Monday! For those of you not familiar with this meme, Goodreads Mondays originated on Lauren’s Page Turners’ blog. To participate, you just showcase a random book from your Goodreads page. The twist is that I’m only going to feature my TBR shelf (aka the “want to read “shelf) like many other people do so I guess it’s not that much of a twist, BUUUUUT, I’m also going to predict my star rating of the book! I’ve seen both Regan (PeruseProject) and Sam (Thoughts on Tomes) do 5 Star TBR Prediction YouTube videos and have been inspired to do a video or post but was struggling to find some 5-Star predictions. This is kind of my middle ground where I can predict my star rating and why and then revisit this post after I read it to see how close I actually was.
To pick the books for this, I’m putting my Goodreads want to read shelf number in a random number generator and letting fate pick the number for me. The lucky number for this week was 372 and as you can see from the title, the lucky book was The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan.
Title: The Burning Maze
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: May 9, 2017
Genre(s): Young Adult, Mythology, Retelling
Source: Not owned/Library
Pages: 431
Synopsis
{POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 1 & 2}
The formerly glorious god Apollo, cast down to earth in punishment by Zeus, is now an awkward mortal teenager named Lester Papadopoulos. In order to regain his place on Mount Olympus, Lester must restore five Oracles that have gone dark. But he has to achieve this impossible task without having any godly powers and while being duty-bound to a confounding young daughter of Demeter named Meg. Thanks a lot, Dad.
With the help of some demigod friends, Lester managed to survive his first two trials, one at Camp Half-Blood, and one in Indianapolis, where Meg received the Dark Prophecy. The words she uttered while seated on the Throne of Memory revealed that an evil triumvirate of Roman emperors plans to attack Camp Jupiter. While Leo flies ahead on Festus to warn the Roman camp, Lester and Meg must go through the Labyrinth to find the third emperor—and an Oracle who speaks in word puzzles—somewhere in the American Southwest. There is one glimmer of hope in the gloom-filled prophecy: The cloven guide alone the way does know. They will have a satyr companion, and Meg knows just who to call upon…
Star Rating Prediction:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 4.5-5/5
Last year I became completely obsessed with Rick Riordan’s work! I read the entire Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series in a week and quickly read the Magnus Chase books and first two Trials of Apollo books shortly thereafter. I am absolutely in love with his writing, characters, and stories. I’m mad I didn’t read this books when they first came out, but I’m SO excited I’m getting to them now!
As for the Trials of Apollo books, I love them so much! I think Apollo is such a fun main character. He’s hilarious and his direct narrations add so much to the story! Because this is set in the Percy-verse, we get so many appearences from our favorite characters! Also having Apollo with his demi-god offspring is pretty amazing. I did like the first book more than the second book, but that’s just because there was a bit more action in book one. That being said, they were both SUPER enjoyable! (I reread these two, so here’s the updated mini reviews)
All of that being said, I’m expecting to love this one just as much if not more than the previous two books. In the Rick Riordan series, the third books usually mark an interesting turn for the midpoint of the series. I’m excitied to see where the narritive goes.
Have you read The Burning Maze or other books in this series?
What did you think?
Let me know below!
Coffee Cocktails & Books 📖 