Big thank you to Escapist Book Tours & Steve McHugh for the ARC copy to review and letting me be apart of the blog tour!

Book Blurb:

Diana, the Roman Goddess of the hunt, lives alone on the far edge of the Roman Empire. When an old friend arrives looking for help, Diana finds herself thrust back into her old life, and old problems.

With innocent lives caught in the crossfire, Diana realizes that the only way to ensure the safety of her friends and loved ones is to do what she does best: hunt her enemies down.

My thoughts:
When I first read the blurb for No Gods, Only Monsters I was really excited to pick it up. Over the past few years there’s been an influx in games, TV, movies and books featuring stories inspired by the Greek Pantheon, with my favourites being Hades game, Immortals: Fenyx Rising and of course, The Song of Achilles. As this book features an MC from the Roman Pantheon, I thought it would be interesting to she how she would react and engage with some of the most iconic members of the Greek Pantheon – Artemis, Ares, Hades and Poseidon to just name a few.

From the start it quickly becomes clear that No Gods, Only Monsters doesn’t only feature Roman and Greek mythos but many more mythologies and fantasy staples. The Romans, Greeks, Norse, Dwarves, Elves and werewolves; they’re all here. The mixing of all these different mythologies created a very real and believable fantasy world with an urban edge, were you can imagine Gods walking among us.

I found the initial plot hook really engaging. Not long after we meet Diana she’s approached by Artemis and a Dwarf named Skost asking her to leave her quiet life of isolation to help with their mission. Without proper time to explain everything she is ambushed by a group of warriors who transform into gruesome monsters as they have been infected with Harpy-blood. INTEREST PEAKED. From there the plot spirals into a fast-paced adventure with plenty of combat, twists, betrayals and just a hint of a blossoming romance.

I really enjoyed Diana’s commentary on the Greek Pantheon in particular, which was usually her distain for them, their actions and arrogance. I do wish we could’ve spent some more time with the various icons of mythology in this book and see them develop and interact with each other a little more. Some of the dialog I found to be lacking some depth and being pretty predictable at times. I think my favourite character was Medusa, her story is so heartbreaking but she ended up being a wonderful character. I really enjoyed Persephone and Hades too. The Greek Gods being terrified of Hades was pretty cool to see as he’s isn’t usually seen as a formidable foe in other mythos-inspired stories.

Overall, I did like No Gods, Only Monsters but just wanted more from it. I am still interested in the series as some powerful Gods were still in play at the end of the book so it’ll be interesting to see where Diana’s story goes from here.

⭐⭐⭐

Important Links:

Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VYVKK4H
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gods-Only-Monsters-Hellequin-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B09TJDLSN4/
Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60522229-no-gods-only-monsters

Escapist Book Tours: https://twitter.com/Escapist_Tours