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The Chalice of the Gods (#6) by Rick Riordan

27 Dec 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Young Adult Tags: four stars, jesse bernstein, percy jackson, percy jackson and the olympians, rick riordan

Published: 26 September 2023 (print)/26 September 2023 (audio)
Publisher: Puffin/Penguin Audio
Pages: 288/7 hrs and 5 mins
Narrator: Jesse Bernstein
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4.5 Stars

Percy Jackson, modern-day son of Poseidon, is just trying to get through high school. After saving the world multiple times by battling monsters, Titans, and giants, Percy is now settling in at Alternative High School in New York, where he hopes to finally have a normal senior year.

Unfortunately, the gods aren’t quite done with him yet. Poseidon breaks the bad news that if Percy expects to get into New Rome University, he will have to fulfill three quests in order to earn the necessary three letters of recommendation from Mount Olympus.

The first task is to help Ganymede, Zeus’s cupbearer, retrieve his golden goblet before it falls into the wrong hands. You see, one sip from it can turn a mortal into a god, and Zeus would not be pleased with that result. Can Percy and his friends Grover and Annabeth find the precious cup in time? And if they do, will they be able to resist its special power?

The timelines of the Percy Jackson novels is often one I need to consult a chart for because while they can be their own series, there is a chronology to them where you can slot them into one another and have some sense of time.

This new book fits in between the events of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but before Trials of Apollo. While we know the end result if you’ve read Trials of Apollo, it is still a good read and a nice chance to revisit the original trio and see a different less dire side to this real and mythic world mix.

Being the start of a new series it is connected to at least two other novels, but Riordan has written it well enough that it can also be your very first introduction to the Percy Jackson world. There’s a lot missing, but you don’t need a full series back read before diving into this new one which could be a plus for latecomers.

Percy needs three letters of recommendation from gods to get him into New Rome University so this is the point of this new series. I enjoyed the story and this unique aspect. The balance of the myth and the realities of life playing off one another was fun. The mission the trio are sent on was interesting, it’s always nice to bring in some minor gods while still skirting around with appearances from the main lot.

It’s interesting because while it is a full length novel, it somehow feels like a short story, a little extra addition to join onto the main series and not its own fresh piece. Riordan has stated this is able to be read as a standalone so that might be why, but even so the plot is simple and feels like a fast read, despite the almost 300 pages and seven hours to listen. Not to mention it ends on an unfinished mission so not much to stand alone there. It might be the simplicity of the plot, which doesn’t take away the enjoyment, but it is a different approach to a Percy Jackson book.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are great as always, their mini missions bringing back the feeling of the early Lightning Thief days, but being older, wiser, and with more experience behind them. The mission in question is a lot more low stakes than saving the world, but the simplicity of it is often where a lot of the fun and chaos lies. Instead of world ending catastrophe, there’s favours and grudges to work through, not to mention temperamental minor gods you don’t want on your bad side.

It was a joy to revisit this world again, as much as I love and miss the wider group of demigods I’ve come to know and love, it was good to have the original three back again.

You can purchase The Chalice of the Gods via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

The Last to Die by Kelly Garrett

23 Dec 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Audiobook, Young Adult Tags: Audiobook, heather costa, kelly garrett, two stars, young adult

Published: 4 April 2017 (print)/17 March 2020 (audio)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire/Tantor Media
Pages: 223/4 hrs and 43 mins
Narrator: Heather Costa
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult Mystery/Thriller
★ ★ – 2.5 Stars

It all started out as a game.

Just a way to have fun. We figured as long as we had rules, it wouldn’t be a problem.

RULE #1: Only break into one another’s houses.

RULE #2: Only take stuff that can be replaced.

It worked for a while. Whoever’s turn it was to break in got a rush, and the rest of us laughed over the trophies they brought back. But then someone went too far. Lives got ruined. Someone is dead.

And I might be next.

When I added the book to StoryGraph I was intrigued by the 2.7 average rating, it had been an engaging and compelling story so far, especially something so short, and with only an hour to go I was keen to see how it would wrap up, what big explosive end of story Garrett would come up with.

Granted, there was a surprise twist, not the twist I was actually expecting, but it was a twist. Adjacent to what you’re expecting given the lead up but also not the fun twist I thought of. From there is was…mild. From a semi-intense scene, there are little answers and a few strange choices on ending.

I didn’t like the ending, it was rushed and actually lacking a lot of clarifying details that are kind of important in these types of mysteries. It isn’t even done well enough where it’s left open to let the reader decide what happened, it feels like it was just ignored. After a long drawn out line of clues, the ending wraps up incredibly quickly, and where it ends it incredibly unsatisfying given the character journeys. I’m still not entirely sure Harper learnt anything, but at the same time, given the way they act through the story it’s a weird ending where there’s consequences, but I don’t know if there’s remorse.

There are a lot of unanswered questions. Some are weird choices to leave unanswered, even in the final standoff they’d be perfect the drop in. Once you notice one mystery isn’t going to be answered, you start to realise how many there really are. Not all important of course, but some definitely are, then there’s others that are raised and never addressed again, like the author forgot they were left open.

One thing the story had going for it was while a lot of the characters are unlikable, they were compelling which I liked. You know they are horrible people, but they have a little compassion in them, misguided or vacuous as it may be, but there is something to latch onto. All of these characters are shallow people and have no real connections with their friends which is an interesting take. They are rich, bored teens who don’t really like each other, so the detachment feels correct to be fair, though Harper could be on her way to some kind of depression or she’s never been able to form real attachments and that’s just how she is.

I am very much in the camp of not needing to like characters or narrators. What I feel let down is the ending where the motive and consequences are lacking clarification. The small bit of information we get is there to tick a box, and the rest of the unanswered questions are ignored. If you are going to write a mystery, the reveal and outcome needs a little attention as this is what the hints and clues and build ups have been for. The fact most of the book does this well, builds drama and tension to have it fail absolutely at the end was a letdown. The answers are there, but the executions could have been spread out and extended better. No real satisfying closure for a good read.

The blurb promises it to be unputdownable with a dark story and dynamic writing. At times it was there, but for all the work to build it up only to have it fall at the end makes everything leading up to the flop meaningless.

You can purchase The Last to Die via the following

Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde

18 Dec 2025 1 Comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Fantasy Tags: andrew wincott, Audiobook, fiction, four stars, jasper fforde, speculative fiction

Published: 2 July 2020 (print)/2 July 2020 (audio)
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton /Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 307/12 hrs and 27 mins
Narrator: Andrew Wincott
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4.5 Stars

Peter Knox lives quietly in one of those small country villages that’s up for the Village Garden of the Year award. Until Doc and Constance Rabbit move in next door, upsetting the locals (many of them members of governing political party United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population), complicating Peter’s job as a Rabbit Spotter, and forcing him to take a stand, moving from unconscious leporiphobe to active supporter of the UK’s amiable and peaceful population of anthropomorphised rabbits.

Jasper Fforde has a fantastic way of creating alternate timelines/universes where it feels so real yet there’s always something slightly off. In Thursday Next it was the Crimean war and airships, and technology to bring back extinct creatures, in The Constant Rabbit there is the unexplained event that anthropomorphised rabbits and a few other creatures. But it happened so long ago, and has been so ingrained in society it’s its now normal.

Having an older narrator was great because being old enough to know about the before times, while having life experience behind him with the new world order worked to give a well-rounded story. There are people who know no different, and those who remember before. And the snippets of information about the years before add another element of this creative world Fforde has built.

Peter was a great character, he was perfectly suited because he was very middle of the road and accepting, but at the same time had a few opinions but still needed to be pushed into a cause. Being surrounded by such a variety of other types of people (and rabbits) was a great way to see that a regular person can make a difference without being presented to us from the beginning as The Hero.

I loved the subtle yet not subtle dig at UKIP and the characters based on certain UK politicians with their xenophobic and racists views. It felt real within the universe Fforde has created, yet mimicked their real world idiotic views. Fforde keeps it in world beautifully but still manages to pointedly state despite their loudness, they are wrong and in the minority.

One thing I adore about Fford’e writing is he’s great at giving you glimpses of future events in the story without telling you any spoilers. They are intriguing enough that you know something happens but not when why or how, and often not even if it will happen in the current book or is just there for story context. But this time we know it’s going to happen in story and it’s those little clues at future events actually makes the waiting more enjoyable because with a type story like this, anything is possible and could happen at any time.

One key highlight was the narrator was fantastic! Wincott had an absolute perfect style of reading this book that I adored from the second I started. I loved the tone used to tell the story, I can’t think how to describe it but it was perfect for this type of narrative. I don’t think it’s entirely down to the writing either (heaven knows I’ve heard some rubbish audio from brilliant texts) because while the tone and writing style of the story was fabulous, it matched perfectly with Wincott’s voice.

The mystical concept of anthropomorphised rabbits and the way society has adapted in such a short period of time was fascinating. There is so little else that is different from our world that having them coexist and the societal rules around that in terms of legislation and polite society was fascinating to read. Fforde always comes up with clever concepts but the execution and the well thought out world building and ground work he lays to have it all make sense is astounding.

There is personal drama, animal politics, and the magical realism we love from these kinds of novels. The tiny details are as important as the bigger ideas and as per usual they are interwoven and threaded together, circled back to and have more impact than you think in pure Fforde creativity.

Honestly, I have to say it again, if you can get this as an audio please do, Wincott smashed it out of the park and I enjoyed the brilliant style in which he read it as much as the story itself.

You can purchase The Constant Rabbit via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

10 Dec 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Aussie YA Challenge, Australian Women Writers, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: #AussieYAChallenge, Audiobook, aussie, aussie books, Aussie YA Challenge, australian women writers challenge, barrie kreinik, contemporary young adult, four stars, loveozya, sophie gonzales, young adult

Published: 9 March 2021 (print)/11 March 2021 (audio)
Publisher: Wednesday Books/Hodder Children’s Books
Pages: 352/8 hrs and 58 mins
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off.

Darcy Phillips:
• Can give you the solution to any of your relationship woes—for a fee.
• Uses her power for good. Most of the time.
• Really cannot stand Alexander Brougham.
• Has maybe not the best judgement when it comes to her best friend, Brooke…who is in love with someone else.
• Does not appreciate being blackmailed.

However, when Brougham catches her in the act of collecting letters from locker 89—out of which she’s been running her questionably legal, anonymous relationship advice service—that’s exactly what happens. In exchange for keeping her secret, Darcy begrudgingly agrees to become his personal dating coach—at a generous hourly rate, at least. The goal? To help him win his ex-girlfriend back.

Darcy has a good reason to keep her identity secret. If word gets out that she’s behind the locker, some things she’s not proud of will come to light, and there’s a good chance Brooke will never speak to her again.

Okay, so all she has to do is help an entitled, bratty, (annoyingly hot) guy win over a girl who’s already fallen for him once? What could go wrong?

One thing I’ve discovered is I enjoy books set in US high schools if they are written by an Australian. I picked this up for my #AussieYAChallenge but was incredibly confused with the American narrator. But it ended up ok because it’s a good story and does have decent Australian representation in it.

The US school system is a baffling thing anyway but I liked that it didn’t feel so engrained in the school. We get story outside of school a lot which helped balance it. I also enjoyed how even though it followed the US style YA story of having these school wide social media/student organised systems in the form of Darcy’s advice business, it wasn’t weird and unsettling. It was something I had seen with One of Us is Lying, and a few others – a public forum, app, or secrets blog that ruled the school, caused drama, or blackmailed people. This is more like Dear Wendy which technically was university and more public, but the premise was the same: a write in advice service.

The secret locker business was interesting, and the way Darcy explains it was set up is reasonable, as is the eventually outcome of the whole endeavour. Darcy has an interest in helping people and makes sure she does her research and isn’t doing it for gossip or nefarious purposes. But like all things, it’s the invested interest and biases than can get you into trouble.

The hired for advice thing was well played out, and I liked how the relationship between Brougham and Darcy evolved. The blurb is slightly misleading, but from Darcy’s perspective it is not entirely untrue. While there is drama I enjoyed the personal nature of it and it never felt unrealistic. The often overdone, overreaction unreality was missing and it was refreshing to see.

I enjoyed the queer aspect where the bisexual representation was handled well, as well as the exploration of other issues in the school club discussions. It isn’t a side plot per se, Gonzales interweaves everything to be connected somehow, but it’s another aspect of Darcy’s character and it’s a great way to show her growth as well as tie it into the conflicts of the story.

Even with the US setting Gonzales brought the Aussie writing style that made it feel natural. With this also came the benefit of having an Australian character that didn’t sound like a painful stereotype or an American in disguise. Brougham got to actually be a full character and not a background voice of cliché phrases. Gonzales does sneak in a few slang words and some unspoken things which any good Aussie could pick up on, and while it felt a little like a nod to the Aussie reader or a brief education, it still felt ok and within the narrative. I never felt like we stopped the story to have a wedged in “Australian moment”, instead it was a fun meeting of cultures.

Kreinik is a good narrator and the voice of Darcy suited her well. There was no bad Aussie accent either which was so good and a nice change. Overall I was pleasantly surprised considering I was a little reluctant going in.

You can purchase Perfect on Paper via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Highly Illogical Behaviour by John Corey Whaley

04 Dec 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Young Adult Tags: Audiobook, john corey whaley, julia whelan, robbie daymond, three stars, young adult

Published: 01 September 2016 (print)/10 May 2016 (audio)
Publisher: Faber and Faber/Listening Library
Pages: 258/6 hrs and 17 mins
Narrator: Robbie Daymond and Julia Whelan
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
★ ★ ★ – 3.5 Stars

Teen and adult fans of All the Bright Places, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and Everything, Everything will adore this quirky story of coming-of-age, coming out, friendship, love…and agoraphobia.

Sixteen-year-old Solomon is agoraphobic. He hasn’t left the house in three years, which is fine by him.

Ambitious Lisa desperately wants to get into the second-best psychology program for college (she’s being realistic). But how can she prove she deserves a spot there?

Solomon is the answer.

Determined to “fix” Sol, Lisa thrusts herself into his life, sitting through Star Trek marathons with him and introducing him to her charming boyfriend Clark. Soon, all three teens are far closer than they thought they’d be, and when their walls fall down, their friendships threaten to collapse, as well.

A hilarious and heart-warming coming-of-age perfect for readers of Matthew Quick and Rainbow Rowell, Highly Illogical Behaviour showcases the different ways we hide ourselves from the world–and how love, tragedy, and the need for connection may be the only things to bring us back into the light.

I’m glad I didn’t look at the novel comparisons in the blurb because I may not have picked this book up. It can be a blessing and a curse those things. I did pick it up for the plot though because it grabbed my attention and I wanted to see how Whaley explored the issues involved.

I didn’t like Lisa at the beginning, and when you start to think she’s changed her mind as she realises Solomon’s situation and gain his friendship but then you go back to not liking her. She appears nice, but she is also manipulative and uses people for her own advantage. Justifying to herself that there’s no harm done and it’s for people’s own good. Even when you think she is going to grow a conscience she still goes around meddling.

I am fascinated by people like Lisa who cannot understand two people becoming close friends who have similar interests without thinking they like one another. Clearly she doesn’t have someone who is into the same stuff as her she can connect with because why else would Solomon and Clark be such good friends if they weren’t in love with one another?

The dramatic irony is the most frustrating part because we know things Lisa doesn’t so seeing her manipulating characters and tamper in their lives is annoying and doesn’t help her favour. It is important to remember that Lisa is 16 and dreams of escape. It’s something I need to remind myself of as I judge her ethics and morals severely through this story.

Lisa aside I did enjoy these characters. Solomon’s situation with his parents is presented in a great way, and one that they’ve managed successfully. There are still complications and work to do but I liked that Solomon is trying to save himself as much as anybody else. He is guiding his story without it being unrealistic.

I liked Solomon’s approach to this being tricked/used thing. He is sensible and despite being housebound he isn’t entirely a fool. He manages to use people as much as they used him and it was great to see a character not easily forgive being played but still allowing it to get their own advantages from it.

It’s hard to avoid falling into the ‘loving Star Trek’ side of geeky kids, but given Solomon’s obsession with the show I was surprised he wasn’t as online as he could have been. The balance between his nerdiness and his real life involvement was great. I could have easily enjoyed him being on forums and so deeply online since it was his only connection, it could have helps given him friends even if they weren’t in person. But Whaley puts Solomon in the real world a lot and with a strong connection to his family and it was nice to see the shift. This also helps solidify his connection to Clark since he finally has a friend who he can gush about his favourite show about.

The portrayal of a gay character as well as an exploration of mental illness, anxiety especially, was well done. Fully formed and rounded characters alongside a disorder that is debilitation and uncontrollable was great. Neither felt subpar and both were treated with respect. Whaley highlights when and why Solomon has anxiety, includes great coping mechanisms, and also shows that yes, sometimes it will result in highly illogical behaviour that can appear scary or dangerous to other people.

Whelan and Daymond did a great job on the audiobook and I never once was taken out of the story. The alternating perspectives worked well and seeing the same friendship through different eyes really drives home Lisa’s goals and Solomon’s trust. A great contrast and one that drives you on to see the resolution.

It is a reasonably short read but Whaley has written an interesting story that explores the complexities of life in a light hearted, but also serious and respectful way. There are no easy solutions but there is a chance at growth and redemption.

You can purchase Highly Illogical Behaviour via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible