86 books like The Blood of Olympus

In this book, Maclean created one of the most unique and incredible settings I’ve seen, along with an interesting group of characters. It’s a World War II thriller set on a fictional island in the Aegean Sea, Navarone—a combination of some of the Greek islands, where the German army has set up a pair of major cannons to control the nearby waters. The neighboring island houses a prisoner-of-war camp with at least two hundred Allied prisoners. 

To free the prisoners, the Allies assemble a team to neutralize the guns at Navarone. The team includes a New Zealand mountaineer, an American bomb and radio expert, an expert Greek combatant, and two British soldiers, each with distinct personalities, along with two locals who help them. 

The setting of Navarone has as much variety as the team, spanning cliffs, mountains, the harbor, and a series of caves. The mix of the two makes… show more.

This book takes place from 1916-1921 in Bombay and Calcutta, following the protagonist in an alternating timeline. The story that is set in the past is my favorite part of the book, when you get to see how the protagonist, a young Parsi woman, became who she is. I loved watching her first fall in love, then grapple with gender roles and expectations until the past timeline eventually catches up with the present-day mystery. The setting itself is fascinating and unusual, and the protagonist’s journey is particularly compelling.

This book combines a terrorism thriller with a mystery, as Brett, the protagonist, learns of his brother’s death. As he learns more about the murder/suicide, it connects to Sirocco, a terrorist organization planning a bio-terror plot in the US. The pacing and interweaving of the terrorist plot with Brett’s investigation are really well done, keeping you interested in both parts of the plot and guessing up till the end. I especially loved the twist the author put in—I’m usually pretty good at seeing those, but in this case, it really caught me by surprise.

A cracking action thriller. A friend recommended this to me, saying my pulse would rise within the first few pages. He wasn’t wrong. It shot up and barely came down. Jet is an Israeli agent who wants out, but it’s never that easy. Such a good first book that the author wrote about 20 more in the series. Guess who read them all!

Am I deranged for loving horrifying cliffhangers? If you do too, book three of five in The Heroes of Olympus is the epitome of jaw-dropping endings you will both love and hate.

This series follows Percy Jackson from the original middle grade content to a young adult era. The stand-out cliffhanger of the series, The Mark of Athena, is bursting with page-turning action and follows multiple characters, but it’s the steadily growing romance between Percy and Annabeth that drives the stakes.

I consider this couple one of the best executed healthy romances in modern youth content. My biggest recommendation is that if you start The Heroes of Olympus series, make sure you have all the books on hand first, because you will need the next one on hand.

Looking for the quintessential guide to Greek mythology? This is the book I studied in high school, the first time learning the stories that have stuck with me to this day (many decades later). Hamilton’s storytelling feels authentic to the voices of the original authors without being dry. Among this collection, you’ll find creation stories (think Titans, Olympians, Zeus, and Hades), fabulous love stories (Orpheus and Eurydice, Cupid and Psyche!), heroes of the Trojan War (Odysseus and Achilles) and earlier (Hercules and Perseus), famous families (Oedipus and Antigone), and monsters (Cerberus and the Minotaur). You may not sit down and read this cover to cover, but Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is a great reference you’ll want on your shelf.

Schlitz’s latest historical novel, set in Ancient Greece, is one I read aloud to my own kids, who like many are already well versed in Greek and Roman mythology.

The story of the rebellious daughter of a noble family and an enslaved boy, it’s a haunting and beautifully rendered introduction to classical philosophy and the story of Socrates. Reading this together gave us a chance to discuss the classical world as a real place and its culture and religion in detail and depth.

Schlitz’s books are among the most literary and original out there and this one was written to stay with you for a very long time. 

The ancient world has always held a fascination for me. It must be in my genes because one of my fondest memories is my father telling me stories about the Greek gods. As a kid, I also found a book in our house that had been handed down through generations within my family entitled The Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E.M. Berens. This book was published in 1892 but Berens is still in print, no doubt in its umpteenth edition.

My book has a leather cover, the spine frayed so that the webbing that binds the folios is exposed. The pages are mottled, yellowing. It is a treasure. Inside, the lives of the fickle, adulterous, benevolent, or malevolent deities are revealed; their bickering and flaws similar to mortals but their ability to bless, curse, and manipulate man’s fate, divine.

White Fox is another excellent example of a fictional mixed media narrative formed around a cult object of art – in this case, a film script. The author’s technique of alternating the dual narration of two sisters with excerpts from the eponymous script, White Fox, written by (and about) their missing mother, does an excellent job of mixing the real with the surreal. While the mystery at the heart of this sophomore novel is a very human one, the addition of the mysterious film script and the mythology around it bolsters a terrific atmosphere and makes for a compelling reading experience.  

Catherine Fisher uses myths brilliantly in all her books, but best of all in the trilogy of which The Oracle is the first volume. It’s a wonderful mash-up of Egyptian and Greek legends with characters you will grow to care about more and more with every page. Junior priestess Mirany begins to doubt the existence of the God she serves. The land where she lives is dying of drought, but the God doesn’t seem to listen to his people anymore, and a struggle for power that could destroy them all is about to take place.