(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Summer Solstice is here. Let the games begin.

Nothing but lies (some of them her own) and deceit have brought Chloe to Olympus for the Solstice Olympic Games. As the Oracle and the special guest of the King of Myth, Chloe becomes immersed in a life of unfathomable luxury, taunting history, and overwhelming excitement. Though scheming and untrustworthy, the gods remain on their best behavior as the tension and anticipation builds around the outcome of the Quest of the Twelve Labors, the deadliest competition of the Games. All seems well on the celestial front…until athletes start turning up dead and a philosopher missing for months returns with a most terrifying story…

But that’s not all.

As Strafford confronts his troubled past and more is learned about the Great Unknown Prophecy, Chloe grows close to another, setting off a chain of events that will bring her face-to-face with a truth that will rock both of her worlds to their core.

And it’ll all happen before Solstice’s end…

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy from Diantha Jones as part of her blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]

With the first two books in the Oracle of Delphi series achieving high levels on the ‘awesome book’ scale I thought it would be hard for Prophecy of Solstice’s End to measure up.  Yet Diantha Jones keeps surprising me over and over again.  Once again, this book is better than the last one!  And considering how much I loved Prophecy of the Setting Sunrise, that’s even more of an accomplishment.

I love how Chloe and Strafford’s relationship intensity is cranked up to 11 throughout the book.  They’ve sort of settled into the whole being in a relationship idea and what results is whole new levels of commitment on both their parts as well as more drama later on.  I can’t go into much more detail without giving anything away, but let’s just say that with the passion comes doubt and misunderstandings when Chloe joins Strafford in Myth.

One of my many favourite parts of Diantha Jones’ whole series is how she portrays the gods and goddesses from the Greek myths.  Apollo is manipulative even with his own children, Hera hangs on every display of affection from her husband, Zeus is a scheming letch, etc.  They’re portrayed as essentially the same people they were in the myths only now they’re in the modern day and are a huge threat to Chloe as the new Pythia.  I also like how the children of the gods reflect their parents’ personalities, especially in the case of Aphrodite’s daughters.  What was more interesting than how the gods were portrayed was the dynamic between them and their children.  Some of the demigods fully accept their roles as heroes while others like Strafford are obviously questioning them.  It certainly makes for lots more tension in Myth.

As with her last two books, Diantha Jones kept throwing twist after twist into the plot that blindsided me completely.  The Regalis Stella problem from the last book?  That’s not resolved yet either and in fact the problem is cranked up to 11 in Prophecy of Solstice’s End.  In addition to that, Apollo’s war with Zeus is looming and it’s not as simplistic as it would seem.  To be fair, nothing is simplistic in Prophecy of Solstice’s End and that’s one of the strengths of the Oracle of Delphi series: it keeps you guessing as to what’s going to happen next.  And with that massive cliffhanger at the end of the book in the epilogue I’ll be left guessing about what will happen in Prophecy of the Betrayed Heir, the next book.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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