Is someone killing the gods in New York…?

Jordanna Max Brodsky’s debut novel, The Immortals was a great surprise last year: it brilliantly blended Greek mythology and crime fiction, imaginatively updating the former. It was one of my favourite novels of 2016. Winter of the Gods builds on the new mythology, and offers the gods a new, deadly challenge.

Much of what I liked in The Immortals returns in this second novel: Brodsky really knows her mythology, and she weaves it brilliantly into the story. While there are moments of explanation, it never felt like a clunky info-dump. The author does some great deep-diving into the myths and legends, picking up on some lesser-known (but just as interesting) facets of either the gods or their experiences. A couple of different gods get more attention in this novel — especially Hephaestus (or “Flint”, as he’s going by these days) who is one of my favourites, as well as Eros and Mercury (to name only three). Each one brings something new to the table, and I definitely enjoyed the way Brodsky has brought them into the 21st century. There’s some good action, too. Unlike the first novel, I think there is more set-up for expanding the series further (please let there be more!).

That being said, while I enjoyed the novel, and the mystery at its heart, Winter of the Gods didn’t feel quite as smooth or assured as The Immortals. The momentum wasn’t as smooth, and there were times when I felt the novel was being stretched out. Also, Selene and Theo’s relationship wasn’t as convincing this time around. I understand that there was a reason for this (Artemis was the Chaste One, after all), but at times it felt forced and unrealistic, even unnatural. In fact, Selene seemed less-well drawn and less-developed in general, this time around. A character not as strong as in the first book. This was a little disappointing. Other character interactions and relationships were more natural and interesting. The antagonists were a good example of a long-gestating conspiracy cult (I figured out the twist shortly before it was revealed, although I’d had an inkling earlier on due to just a smidge of telegraphing).

Overall, this is a good, if imperfect, follow-up to the highly recommended The Immortals. If you are a fan of the first novel, I think you’ll find much to like in this: plenty of mythology, interesting characters, some mystery, and a pretty engaging story.

Selena DiSilva is a disgruntled woman living in New York City. She always ends up finding trouble. So when a dead body appears on Wall Street, Selena must figure out who did it. For long ago, Selena was the Greek Goddess
This book was ok. There were a few things that bothered me. One, it seemed almost necessary to have read the first book, which I’d never heard of. Two, for some reason the perspectives changing didn’t work for me. Other than that, the writing was good and didn’t make me cringe at another author attempting to modernize Greek mythology. I would probably read another book from this author.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

Once again Selene finds herself and other of the Greek pantheon trying to stop a cult from sacrificing humans to bring themselves back to power and rule.  All the characters that survived in the debut are back and once again the author has managed to write an entertaining mystery that kept me up very late so that I could finish this second book. 

4.75/5 STARS:  **This is an honest, unbiased review.  I would like to thank the author and/or/publisher for providing an ARC through Netgalley, all opinions are mine.**

With the success of the live action Wonder Woman movie this book is a good follow up to a character that comes form that kind of world. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first one. The previous entry was good as a standalone book. You can just read that and not have to come back to these characters if you didn't like the book. I liked the first book. This one was difficult to get through in the middle portions. There were a few things that came out of left field to fill in gaps that I don't think needed filling. The end of the book leads you want the next book. It almost made the first book a prologue while this is the real first book. I learn a lot about ancient Greek culture and now Roman culture from this writer. She's good but I hope in the next one that we can keep a steady pace like there was with the first book. A little bit too much time was focused on making the protagonist vulnerable to antagonist that she should crush easily. She eventually does but thats towards the end of the book. Those parts felt normal for the character, the earlier stuff didn't fit in my opinion. Other than that I'm looking forward to book three. I think with the release and success of the Wonder Woman these characters fit well for people who want to read a series with a similar kind of lead character.

I must note that I received it after it was released. Hence why the very late review. I get busy too you know.

I really enjoyed the first book but I struggled with the second. I'll probably give it another go in the near future to see if my feelings stay the same.

Winter of the Gods is the second installment in the Olympus Bound series. I did not read the first book in the series but found that the author provided enough of a backstory in this second book so I wasn't too lost. Growing up, I was fascinated with Greek mythology and other kinds of mythology, so this was really what drew me to this particular book. I think if an author is going to take the approach to write a series featuring the predominant characters from mythology, they should do their homework. It was apparent to me that Ms. Brodsky did just that. There was lots of attention paid to this kind of detail while also providing a pretty good balance of the non-mythological aspects of the story. Additionally, the author threw in a very interesting take on the correlations between ancient and more modern religions. Great world-building that featured Christmastime in New York City. I found Selene to be a likable, strong female lead. Really enjoyed her snarky inner dialogue. I wasn't quite feeling the sudden character development and felt that the action scenes were a little too far drawn out at times. Overall, great concept that was carried out pretty well.

Winter of the Gods is another enjoyable installment. It starts with somewhat familiar ground as it kicks off with a murder mystery. Of course, every murder and story behind it is different, so this is not a bad thing. And this time, it appears that the Gods themselves are the targets. Ohhh... fun. Someone out there is trying to take out the gods. Like the first book, I found the mix of mythology and urban fantasy to be fun. Theo and Selene, now an official couple, are working to solve the crime and take us along for the ride.

As I mention often, I am not a huge fan of mystery books, so there has to be more than that to carry a story for me. In this, I think the mix of the UF vibe with mythology is what creates that something a little different to keep me engaged.

As for the relationship in this book, I have to admit that I struggled a bit with the concept of a virginal character with a love interest. I just really felt like the romance in this felt somewhat artificial and also more problematic than it needed to be. Maybe I just didn't connect with the characters enough to feel chemistry between them.

I do know that when the conflict of Selene struggling with her relationship with Theo would surface, especially in terms of preserving her centuries old virginity, I found myself just not caring at all. That's not good. This was suppose to be a real trial for the character and my reaction was "just do it and be done with all this whining. More sex, less stress. Or don't and just get over it. I. Just. Don't. Care." Now, I am sure it is possible to have a successful romance without sex, but yeah. This one, with the stress surrounding it, just wasn't working for me. Like at all. It was the entire strain on the relationship that irked me.

But outside of that, this was a fun story and I found enough aspects of it that I enjoyed to keep me interested and reading. If you enjoyed the first one, I don't think you'll be disappointed with this one.

The only reason I gave this 3 stars is because of the story. I just do not like these characters. Theo kind of grew on me, but Selene is just not one of my faves at all. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was into the characters more. Sadly, that was not the case.

Orbit Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Winter of the Gods. This is my honest opinion of the book.

The Immortals are back in modern day Manhattan, with Selene leading the charge to find the members of a conspiracy that threaten the gods. With the help of Selene's boyfriend Theo Schultz, professor of Ancient Greek and Latin at Columbia University, will the perpetrators be uncovered before the gods wink out of existence?

Winter of the Gods started out strong, but suffered in the middle. Although the ending was as exciting as the beginning, it was not enough to resurrect the book for me. However, the author has clearly done her research on both the culture of Ancient Greece and the legends of the gods and goddesses. The stories within the book regarding these myths are quite interesting and will keep me coming back for more. It is my hope that the author is able to capture the same intrigue and excitement from the first book as the series moves forward. Although Winter of the Gods has missed the mark for me, I can surmise that readers who have the desire to read more of the series would be missing whole parts of the story without this book.

Selene DiSilva has been around for a long, long time. Longer than anyone could guess.

She's actually the goddess Artemis, and she's been living in New York, protecting the city and it's women from those who would do harm. She's still got a few of her powers, but those continue to diminish over time as humanity forgets her and her Greek siblings, who are also roaming the world and living as humans.

When one of those siblings suddenly shows up dead in her city, she knows something's up. She teams up with the siblings that are left to stop an ancient cult from wiping them all out.

This is number two in the series, but not having read the first one, I still didn't get lost. The background is fleshed out enough that it's easy to pick up. The premise and characters are interesting, and the gods aren't rigidly following archetype.

The combination of old myth and a whodunnit mystery worked well, tossing a bit of fantasy into a murder mystery, and it has you easily rooting for the characters' success. Overall, a fun read.

I loved, loved, loved The Immortals - probably loved it a little more than this one. But this is an excellent sequel, and it just makes me want book 3 NOW! I love the whole premise of the ancient Gods still living in Manhattan and around the world, just with waning powers because they are no longer worshipped. At times, this plotline was a little harder to follow than the first, maybe because there was so much more mythological information included in places. But these novels most definitely make the gods come alive, in sometimes unexpected ways. The victims in this story are a little more heartbreaking than in the first, and that's the only part I really didn't like. Other than that, excellent plot, excellent characters, loved the humor and the dialogue and almost everything about this story. Many thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review. I was so excited to get this book - it was one of my most anticipated books for the year, and Jordanna Max Brodsky is already most definitely high on my list of favorite authors.

A good but not particularly great read. While I enjoyed the main character of Selene I wasn't a big fan of the "romance" between her and Theo as it came across as very mellow dramatic and somewhat juvenile with their jealousies and emotional upheavals.

In book 2 of the Olympus Bound trilogy, Selene and Theo are once again drawn into an investigation of murders that appear to be the work of a cult. There is a twist, though. Whoever is doing this isn't picking their victims at random. They are choosing them from among the Olympian gods.

The setting for the book is the Christmas season in modern-day New York City. Funny to set a book about the Olympians during a time period centered around celebrating the birth of Christ. But, the timing ends up playing a part in the story.

The mystery of the sacrifices has Selene, aka Artemis, distrusting even more than usual. She questions whether or not it could even be a member of her family performing the sacrifice in order to regain lost power. Overall, it's a good mystery.

Theo is trying to keep up with Selene and help solve the murders. Two of his close friends become involved in the investigation. I felt a little overwhelmed by all of the info given regarding circumstances and symbols during the investigation as a result of their research. It's all good information and impressive, but I felt like there was a little too much. It slowed the pace of the story even though it leads to an epiphany.

The characters are well drawn, particularly Selene and Theo. Their romance seems to suffer a little in this book. I think they aren't really listening to each other, which seems quite possible considering one is immortal-ish and one is definitely mortal. And I liked the addition of Hephaestus to the story as more of an important character than in the last book.

I give the book 3.5 stars. Overall, it's a good book. Just a little slow in spots where there was a lot of information given. If you're a fan of urban fantasy or the Greek gods, then you might enjoy this book. You might be able to read this as a standalone, but it would be better to have the background from book one. The ending definitely has room for things to continue in book three. I am looking forward to seeing where the author goes with Theo, Selene, and the rest of the pantheon.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

"Winter of the Gods" is a follow-up to a spectacular debut, "The Immortals", and as a series it's some of the best urban fantasy I have ever read. Brodsky brings a host of ancient Greek gods and goddesses to New York City, deprives them of most, if not all, of their powers, and weaves a complex intrigue: a dead body is discovered atop Wall Street's Charging Bull statue, but unlike last time, it isn't just the work of another homicidal cult - this time someone's sacrificing the gods themselves.

Before I continue the review, I have to emphasize that I love a very specific kind of urban fantasy - one that's not too heavily dipping into the fantastical, but is rather very strongly rooted in the realistic. If that's the kind of fantasy you enjoy as well, let me reassure you that this book belongs to this elusive category.

The main character, Selene, former goddess Artemis, is at once tough and vulnerable, and thankfully unencumbered by the touch of manic pixie girl quality that is so typical to most urban fantasy heroines out there. Selene is struggling with overcoming her godly tendencies in her endeavor to become more human. For all that glitters is not gold. It turns out that being a goddess means being unmoved by human suffering, while at the same time being motivated chiefly by rage and revenge.

My biggest objection while reading the first installment in the series was the romance plot with a human, Theo, who simply was not a believable love interest for an immortal goddess. The romance plot continues in "The Winter of the Gods", but to the author's infinite credit it is dealt with with all the realism it deserves. The complications of a man and goddess being in a relationship come right to the forefront. They face a host of conflicts. One of the more obvious ones is Theo's mortality versus Selene's immortality; another, more complex, is Selene's fear that being intimate will take more of her powers as The Chaste One. These issues - and more - build believable roadblocks between them, obstacles they don’t always know how to overcome. Such realistic portrayal of this struggle lessened my dissatisfaction with this relationship.

Simultaneously, the author starts teasing a possibility of another mate for Selene, once much more believable and appropriate for a former goddess, and more importantly, one that is filled with all the thrill and anticipation of "will-they-won't-they". Let me just say that if you're a fan of the underdog possibly getting the girl, this book is the perfect pick for you.

I have to conclude this review with emphasizing my honest surprise that this series is not more popular, especially among the urban fantasy fans. Great writing, complex characters, very human issues, mature approach to life, death, love, sex, family, friends, loyalty, sacrifice - all against the backdrop of rich mythology and the grandeur of New York City. Read it. Read it now.

I was so excited to get my hands on this book. I read through the first one in anticipation of this one, and thought, what an amazing, original take on Greek mythology! It was such a gripping murder/ thriller, I couldn't put it down, and thought, there's no way the second book can be this good... well, it was that good and even better than the first one. Theo's character redefines what an attractive male protagonist is, and Selene is the most refreshing version of Artemis I've ever read. I do have to say that the ending broke my heart. I haven't cried over a book in a long time, but I cried like a baby with this one. I hope book 3 mends my broken heart <3

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No one ever said dating the Goddess of the Hunt was going to be easy. Even in her diminished state, some thousands of years after the Greek Pantheon tumbled from Mount Olympus, she’s a force to be reckoned with: a woman of perpetual virginity, with a vengeance toward those who wrong womankind. But this is where classics professor Theo Schultz finds himself at the opening of Winter of the Gods, Jordanna Max Brodsky’s followup to last year’s Greek gods in New York debut The Immortals: enacting a chaste affair with Selene DiSilva, the fallen goddess formerly known as Artemis.

Theo and Selene met during the events of the first book, when Selene tapped Theo for his classical mythology knowledge after ritual murders began occurring all over NYC, crimes tied to the rituals of fading Greek antiquity. Selene may have been a goddess, but her millennia-long memory has some holes. As an expert in things mythological, Theo was more than happily sucked into the complex, never-ending family feud.

Now, Theo and Selene return in another winning combination of gritty crime procedural and intellectually stimulating urban fantasy. The murdered body of Hades is found stretched out upon the famous Charging Bull Statue in Bowling Green Park in a manner echoing the earlier ritual killings. But something isn’t quite right: Selene takes off after a suspect, a mere mortal, and is stunned when he dons the sigil of Hermes and flies off into the night. Selene and her far-flung family haven’t had access to their artefacts of power for centuries—the rise of Christianity and modernity having sapped their powers—and certainly no regular human should be able to wield the arrows of Apollo, or any other godly item. Someone is messing with the very structure of their godhood.

Theo and Selene travel around the New York area trying to bring together family members to aide her in her quest to find the killer. (She’s the Goddess of the Hunt, after all.) But things hardly proceed smoothly for the young (and not so young) lovers. Theo is our entrance point into the modern lives of the gods, and though they are diminished by our modern world, they are what they are: prickly, oversized personalities, often servants to their archetypes. Theo is enthusiastic, an expert in his own right, but he’s often dismissed by beings who aren’t used to treating mortals as anything but toys. He doesn’t appreciate it when he is told to wait in the car, and I can’t blame him for a minute.

Selene continues to be a complex character, one who feels the conflict between her Olympian role, and her more human aspirations. She and Theo enact a strange romance: bounded by what she sees as her duty, and her true desire. Her intercession in the lives of battered women continues to be fraught: on the one hand, she isn’t above laying down serious hurt on men who are violent towards women. (It’s intensely satisfying reading about a domestic abuser getting attacked by zoo animals.) At the same time, she doesn’t have a lot of compassion towards the women she’s ostensibly helping, deriding in them what she perceives as weakness. I don’t think anyone has ever accused the Greek gods of an overabundance of compassion, so maybe her callousness maybe isn’t a huge surprise. Still, it unnerves Theo at points. As I noted: dating a goddess ain’t easy.

Winter of the Gods introduces a number of new characters—Hephaestus (known now as Flint), the son of Ares and Aphrodite—and touches base with humans and divine beings we first met in The Immortals. But among the most important characters is, again, New York City itself: its moods and environs, its people and places. The original Greek pantheon was tied to real locations—the cloud-covered heights of Mount Olympus, where the gods lived; the island of Delos, where Apollo and Artemis were born—so it only makes sense that, here and now, they would root themselves in our vital human geography. Yes, it’s true, the gods are capricious and self-centered, more worried about their own skins than our fleeting mortal lives. But they also live where we live, and love where we love. They’re the imperfect bastions of our rough humanity, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Winter of the Gods is available now.

So I just read the blurb, aha, so it is a trilogy. I so wondered about that when finishing this book. It had a feeling of being the final book, but at the same time, it was so obviously not over. And I worried that it was indeed the end because more should have been told, and will be told ;) So yay for that.

In this one, Selene finds out that someone is hunting gods to kill them. Why is this? Who is doing it? So many questions, but at least she has Theo by her side. I like their relationship, they take it slow (because the myth is true so...) He is more relaxed now, he jokes, and he does love her. And she, I do feel sorry for her, she cares for him, but she is a Goddess, she has her issues.

I like this series. The gods running around, well some have faded away long ago, they are not as they used to be. They need worship in some form or another. I do like this mythology, and I would love to see it explored more, as one god does mention other gods, but are those still around too?

Conclusion:
Anyway, this one feels darker, or maybe I just do not remember the darkness in book 1, because people died there, and people sure die here too. It was sad.

I am glad there will be another book because more is sure to come.