The Games Gods Play
Abigail Owen
The Crucible #1
A cursed mortal is chosen by Hades himself to fight in the gods' deadly competition — but why does he want her to win?
Description
The gods love to toy with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them…I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’ patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.The worst god. Hades.For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.
The Crucible series
Books like this
The Wind Weaver
Julie Johnson
A halfling with forbidden magic is captured by a terrifying commander — and fated to save a dying realm.
10 tropes in common
Blooms of Darkness
Anna Applegate
A magicless fae princess must survive a deadly marriage tournament — and the shadow-wielding stranger who sees too much.
9 tropes in common
Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
Rebecca Yarros
A fragile scribe's daughter enters dragon rider training — and is hunted by the deadliest wingleader there.
12 tropes in common
The Savage and the Swan
Ella Fields
The wolf king captures his enemy's daughter — but she's the one thing that could destroy his iron heart.
12 tropes in common
Crown of Earth and Sky
Emberly Ash
A vengeful Fae queen and the Brutal Prince she's betrothed to ignite a dangerous war of wills — and desire.
10 tropes in common
The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Carissa Broadbent
A human girl enters a deadly vampire tournament and is forced to ally with her most dangerous rival.
9 tropes in common
The Ascended
Bree Grenwich
A girl who forges starlight is bound to a necromancer prince — and forced to compete in trials meant to kill her.
10 tropes in common
Blood of Hercules
Jasmine Mas
A survivor discovers she's heir to a god's bloodline — and must conquer a brutal academy of immortal villains.
8 tropes in common
Kissed by the Gods
Caty Rogan
A divine kiss turns a fugitive into a prize — and the godsworn warrior who captured her into something more dangerous.
9 tropes in common
Court of Ravens and Ruin
Eliza Raine
A rune-marked slave escapes one prison only to be claimed as betrothed by the Shadow Court's deadly prince.
10 tropes in common
A Promise of Fire
Amanda Bouchet
A warlord kidnaps the realm's most powerful soothsayer — and can't stop wanting her equal, not his weapon.
12 tropes in common
Promise of Darkness
Bec McMaster
A fae princess sent to assassinate the cursed Prince of Evernight starts to wonder if he's really the enemy.
9 tropes in common
On Wings of Blood
Briar Boleyn
A half-fae dragon rider is forced into a betrothal with her cold, arrogant vampire tormentor at a deadly highblood acade
9 tropes in common
Court of Shadows
C.N. Crawford
A hunted demi-fae gladiator must earn her place at a fae academy — under the eye of the assassin who spared her life.
9 tropes in common
From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash, #1)
Jennifer L. Armentrout
A Maiden forbidden from all touch falls for the golden-eyed guard sworn to protect — and deceive — her.
11 tropes in common
A Touch of Darkness
Scarlett St. Clair
A goddess who can't grow life must create it in the Underworld — or lose her freedom to its dark king.
11 tropes in common
Worthy of Fate
A.N. Caudle
Marked by the gods and hunted by her fated mate, a girl must survive a deadly trial before darkness consumes the realm.
9 tropes in common
Unbound
Penelope Bloom
A girl with a forbidden power must survive a deadly magic academy — and the fire-wielding enemy who can't stop watching
10 tropes in common
Spring's Descent
C.L. Briar
Hades has stalked his little witch for years — now he's dragging her to the Underworld to be his queen.
9 tropes in common
Bow Before the Elf Queen
J.M. Kearl
Trained to kill the elf king who comes to claim her, she can't bring herself to slay the man fated to love her.
10 tropes in common