Didn't work for me. Characters were flat and eh. Writing was okay. I didn't hate it, but I didn't finish it either.

I appreciate the opportunity to review. Sorry for the long delay in feedback. I'm working on clearing out my Netgalley backlog. I am DNF'ing all books that just don't work within the first 50-100 pages. Trying to find the joy in reading again by going through the hundreds of abandoned books here.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review and then forgot to upload a review. So, here's the review!

So, first of all I never read the synopsis before requesting this book. Instead I saw the cover, which is beautiful and the name and it sounded like something I would love from that alone. And I happened to be right! The main character is Tyler Bennett, a foster kid. The action starts right away and just keeps flying along! I was slightly confused at first but we slowly learn more about this crazy world. I mean, it was amazing to realize their world has a shadowy organization that trains teenagers to be assassins. Such a great premise for a book, even if I have read this type before. There are different points of view happening, which really helps keep the attention and made this a quick read. My favorite character was easily Hades, who even with his name alone is the most intriguing character.

So, overall this was a thriller with many action scenes and enough of the romance to work and not too much to overshadow the rest of the book. It was enjoyable, fast-oaced read that I would recommend to anyone who loves this genre as much as I do!

A Suspenseful and original story with believable characters. I enjoyed the book. I definitely want to read more by this author!

Such a good book! I found this thanks to a blog tour and am so glad I did! Well written and sure to please.

The only reason I didn't give this a one star was because I did manage to finish it. I only one star books if they are truly awful and I DNF them. It was a good book to read when I had insomnia and I wanted to fall asleep.
I found the first 30% of the book confusing but not intriguing enough for me to really want to get to the bottom of the confusion. There were too many personas introduced within the first 30% of the book, none of whom were really well defined until the last 30%. But by then, I was so ambivalent to them, I didn't really care who was who anymore. None of the characters were likeable. Even Hades the anti-hero was not anti enough, nor hero enough.
Some parts of the story seemed too repetitive (we got it that Elizabeth likes the way Hades says her name the first couple of times it was mentioned, we got that Shannon didn't like the sticky feeling of blood, etc.)
The world building is non-existent. It was set in DC, but it could really be anywhere.
The pacing was slow to the point that I was just glad the sort of climax of the story came about because it might the book was almost done.
Overall, the premise was good, but the storytelling was weak and confusing. Characters weren't well developed. World building was non-existent, and pacing was painfully slow.

Extremely fast-paced, this book hits a bit of scifi, a little bit of romance and tons of action.

Tyler has moved from foster home to foster home all of his life. He doesn't have any friends, but much of this—unknown to him—is thanks to his 'side job' as an assassin. He's unaware of his activities himself until he starts hearing voice and soon learns that he's not the only one involved in this situation.

The book starts out with a bang—a tension packed assassination which sinks its hooks deep and grabs the reader's attention. While this is a great beginning in so many ways, unfortunately the story is too fast. There is so much going on that the action speeds along and leaves, at times, other factors behind such as character development. But action junkies will definitely get their fill.

The story is told from the main four character's points of view and switches between them, Tyler remaining the strongest character. While the change from points of view is well done, other factors make the characters confusing at first. The characters tend to have more than one name, which, being assassins in a secret program, isn't surprising. However, this flip-flop between identities takes a bit to shift into place mentally and left me a little confused during the first part of the book. Add the fact that even numbers are thrown in to identify the characters a time or two, and it took a bit to slip everyone into their correct file. But after this was sorted out, the story was very gripping and intriguing.

Not only is the idea of a secret organization with assassins, who don't even know what they are doing, extremely interesting, but there's a pinch of science fiction thrown in. Secret experiments and test tube babies add wonderful food for thought.

I can't wait to read book two since to promises to be an exciting read.

I received a complimentary copy and enjoyed it enough to leave my honest thoughts.

Received from NetGalley for my honest review
Completed 7/25/17
372 page ebook

This book has pretty favorable reviews. Not great great ones, but favorable. I seem to be in the majority as I didn't like this book at all. I ended up giving it a 2 star rating, because I didn't HATE it, which is what I usually reserve 1 star ratings for, but I didn't like it either.

For me, the characters were really flat. I couldn't get behind them or their cause. I just didn't care about them, they were uninteresting to me. Too much of the book was about high school drama, than the actual figuring out who & what they were. I definitely wanted more action, more depth to the characters and less whiney drama. Just didn't sit well with me at all.

If you are into that kind of book with that kind of drama, feel free to try it, you might like it, it just wasn't for me, which was sad because I liked the premise. If you are looking for teenage assassins, try Boy Nobody instead.

Setting = C
Plot = D
Conflict = D
Characters = F
Theme = C

Project Pandora is a fun ride with a cast of characters who all seem outwardly to have nothing in common, but are connected in by a dangerous organization. The uncertainty of the sleeper-agent style of life they lead lends to an exhilarating and mysterious adventure of a novel.
I did feel like some of the Greek Mythology was explained more than it needed to be, I’m sure most YA readers are familiar enough with popular Greek gods to understand the connotations of their names with certain agents/characters without explicitly stating what that person’s role was in Greek Mythology. Otherwise though this is a really fun ride!

This was a solid read with such a fun story and characters who really brought that story to life. I had such a good time getting caught up in the fast paced story that didn't let me down for even a moment!

I was excited about this book when I was approved for an ARC, but, unfortunately, this ended up not being a good book for me. The concept has so much potential, and I tried so hard to like it. I loved the Greek mythology references and the idea of a conspiracy involving the teenaged main characters, but the book just didn't click with me. I think the real downfall for me was that I couldn't relate to any of the characters. Also, there were little things that bugged me, like how to two characters codenamed Apollo and Artemis had a romance going on when those two gods are siblings, and the romantic relationship felt forced anyway. So I don't know. I had high hopes for this book, but the story didn't live up to them.

Project Pandora is book #1 of Aden Polydoros Assassin Fall series. The story centers on teenagers who have been brainwashed/programmed and then trained, Manchurian Candidate style, to do missions (assassinations etc), but remember none of it afterwards. I found the premise to be an interesting one and as the connections between the characters were revealed and grew, things became a lot more interesting.

There was a sort of detached feel to the book, which worked in the sense that the characters were, in a way, doing things outside of their control and keeps the reader invested in that concept. Alternatively though this led to the pacing between action to be a bit lagging. While Tyler (Apollo) Benett is the character listed in the book teaser with his connection with Shannon (Artemis), the characters of Elizabeth (Persephone) and Hades was more interesting. There are 4 distinct POVs in the book so you get lots of all 4 and learn about each of them as you go. Hades is in many ways a driving force and the character you love to hate and hate to love, but something about him makes him that much more interesting.

Overall, Project Pandora is a mystery and learning about it and the characters in it while they learn about themselves made for an interesting read. I happily recommend and can’t wait to know where things go from here.

I found this really hard going.
Although there was plenty of action I just could not relate to the characters which felt wooden and lacking in depth.

Wow and I do mean wow. This book goes there with the government.
I was reading this thinking oh my goodness what if? Crazy to really stop and think about it though. I love this book and want to know what happens next.
Tyler is standing in the kitchen kind of in a daze with a gun in his hand. He doesn't know why or how he got there. Then he realizes he has blood on him. Tyler thinks wait he can't be I didn't shoot someone? I should be at school, why am I here??
We meet Hades who seems to love killing people for fun and doesn't realize he has been brainwashed to do so. Hades is the only guy who knows he is doing this.
Tyler tries to stop himself when he realizes something isn't right, and he knows it's all connected to his burner phone that he doesn't remember getting.
Tyler meets Shannon and feels a connection to her. But doesn't realize that they already know each other in another way. Can Tyler figure out how and why Shannon and him know each other before it's to late?
See in this book they are taking foster kids and making them into whatever they want with brainwashing and other means. Pick this book up if you are curious, I was and I love it.

I truly ended up liking it way more than I was expecting and it was definitely a binge read for me.

Thought the book did the job in wanting me to read the next book in this series. Favorite character was bad boy/ mysterious Hades. I really enjoyed the plotline, and characters in this book. If the ending didn't end the way it did then it would have been a 5/5 star book for me. I don't mind usually the cliffhanger endings, but this one confused me a little too much.
I am glad I requested and was approved for this book, I will most definitely be continuing this series.

3.5 Stars

I was intrigued by the premise of Project Pandora and as always, I love reading new authors. This is Aden's debut novel, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And for his debut novel, I think Aden did a decent job.

Project Pandora isn't exactly a YA romance as the blurb seems to make you think it is. It's definitely more YA thriller/Sci-Fi with a touch a romance added to it, which I didn't mind at all. I really enjoyed the idea of this book, it was the delivery that pulled me back from this loving this book. And this book is told from 4 POV's and not just the two mentioned in the blurb, so that was a little misleading too.

This book is told in third person, which is ok for me. But when there are 4 POV's in third person, it gets a little difficult to figure out who's POV I was reading because I had a hard time finding the differences between the characters and their thoughts. When telling a story in third person, there will be a lot of inner dialogue. However, in this book there was a lot of purple prose and that hurt the flow of the book for me. I found myself getting bored at times and wanting to skim through parts just so I could see what happened next.

The thrill and mystery of this book is what made me give it 3 1/2 stars. While I may have skimmed parts because they felt too long, it was the plot that didn't make me stop reading. I needed to know where the story was going and what would happen next. It was intriguing and could see this easily being made into a movie.

Overall, it was good read. I didn't ever feel the need to stop, I just wish I could have read less inner dialogue and moved the book at a slightly faster pace. The characters were fairly well developed, but as I said, it was sometimes hard to tell which POV I was reading from at times because their voices were not distinct enough in that right.

I will definitely be checking out the next book from Aden.

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Read it three times. Loved the characters and the plot! Definitely a good read!

Wow- what an opening chapter! This book immediately drew me in. Our main characters are all about 17 years old. They are normal kids attending school, but every once in a while a phone rings, someone speaks some keywords, and these kids are hypnotized into triggering skills they don’t know they had, and they are forced to assassinate people. Once the job is done, they forget and return to their everyday lives. Such a creepy premise! As we move on, one of the characters starts to lose his programming, and begins to remember his other life when he shouldn’t remember. I loved this book all the way through, with a slight falling at the end. This is obviously a book one. However, we aren’t given closure to any part of the story in this first installment. I feel like with just an extra chapter the characters could have come full circle and completed something, even if it was an emotional part of the journey. One character was left up in the air as to their survival. I think this might be the missing element that left me feeling unsatisfied…Not hanging like a cliffhanger, this is different. I think if maybe we either saw that character’s funeral, or experienced their emotions once they woke up… Yeah, I think that is the problem for me… If that one character got closure (and sorry, I felt like there was not closure) I think this book would have rocked it until the end. So, all this to say, this was a super fun, exciting read. I would suggest, however, waiting until the next book comes out and counting on reading both books back to back if you don’t want to be frustrated with a too-opened ending. Otherwise, this feels like you are reading the first half of a book, and then being forced to wait before you can read the second half… if that makes sense. But that is NOT enough reason to miss out on this one. I really enjoyed it a lot and will be looking for the next book.

Good book, not great. It needed more character depth and development throughout.

I was really excited to get a chance to read this book. When I read the description it sounded like something I would really enjoy. And I did. However, there were parts of it that were a bit confusing. I felt like there were times I had no idea what was going on, and felt like certain things were still not fully explained by the end of the book.

One thing I did really like was the characters. Tyler/Apollo, Shannon/Artemis, Elizabeth/Persephone and Hades. Reading about what they were going through was probably my favorite part of the story, especially when they interacted as a whole. I did feel bad for them throughout the book at what their lives were.

I felt most bad for Hades, I really felt like he got the short end of the stick being stuck where he was, and the torture he endured. His being drawn to Elizabeth was probably the only bright spot in his life. I do have to say I’m a little torn at being Team Hades or Team Apollo, I liked them both. Hades is the bad boy every girl thinks she wants, and Apollo is the good to Hade’s bad.

All in all a great story, and I’m looking forward to the continuation of their story, if only to find out what happens to these four next.