Waiting on Wednesday (19)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly blogging event hosted at Breaking-The-Spine.com that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.  This week I'm waiting on... 

Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck 
To Be Released: June 4th, 2011




(from Goodreads):
Kelsey Hayes is no ordinary college freshman. In fact, the eighteen-year-old girl has just returned from India, where she risked her life—and her heart—to rescue a handsome Indian prince from a terrible curse. Back home in Oregon, Kelsey is determined to move on, despite the lingering feelings she has for the man she left behind. 
She meets Li, a completely average guy who offers the promise of an ordinary, curse-free life. But just when Kelsey is ready to move on, Ren reenters her life, on a quest to reclaim her heart. Danger threatens their newly rekindled love and to save him, Kelsey must journey with someone else—a man who wants her for himself. The saga begun in Tiger’s Curse continues in Tiger’s Quest, as Kelsey finds herself in an epic battle between good and evil. From the shores of the Pacific Northwest to the jungles of India, the mountains of Nepal and Tibet, and the mystical realm of Shangri-la, this suspenseful tale of love, sacrifice, and redemption is not to be missed. 


The first book in this series-- Tiger's Curse-- was a really fun read, so I can't wait for this sequel.  It's gotten so many great reviews on Goodreads. 


So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

Genre: YA paranormal romance/ movie novelization
Pages: 329 (paperback)
Published: January 2011 by Poppy
Recommended for: fans of retold fairy tales; anyone considering whether or not to see the new Red Riding Hood movie, or anyone who'd rather read it than see it

Synopsis:
The blacksmith would marry her.
The woodcutter would run away with her.
The werewolf would turn her into one of its own.

Valerie's sister was beautiful, kind, and sweet. Now she is dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith, tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers Valerie another life far from home.
After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, the Wolf has been kept at bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them--it could be anyone in town.
It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says she must surrender herself before the blood moon wanes...or everyone she loves will die. 

 My Take: 


Red Riding Hood is closely based on a new movie coming to theaters March 11th, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) and starring Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!, Mean Girls).  In the past, I haven't exactly loved most of the movie novelizations and movie tie-ins I've read. That's because the book is generally around first, and generally better than the movie ('cept in the case of the Princess Bride), and if the movie comes first, how much hope can there be for the book, right?  That's sad, glass-half-empty logic, yeah, but Red Riding Hood proves me wrong.  Sorta-kinda.  

This book is not the Red Riding Hood story you heard as a kid.  It's part horror movie, along the lines of The Village, part mystery, and part romance.  Valerie lives a quiet life in her medieval village, which is notable only for the monthly tribute the villagers must pay to the Wolf, an age-old beast as terrifying as he is mysterious.  When Valerie's sister is killed by the Wolf during the Blood Moon, the villagers seek a way to destroy him once and for all.  They hire the services of a veteran werewolf hunter, who informs the naive villagers that the Wolf is not a beast-- he is one of their own, a cursed werewolf forced to change every month beneath the full moon.  Suspicion falls on nearly everyone, most of all Valerie, who has always been a 'strange' girl: deep, thoughtful, and unladylike.  Meanwhile Valerie is caught up in her own conflict: her parents have arranged for her to marry Henry, the wealthy blacksmith's son and the most coveted bachelor in the whole village.  But when the woodcutters arrive in town, Valerie is reunited with her childhood friend Peter-- and soon finds that he has become far more than a friend.  Caught between the two young men, Valerie does not expect that the Wolf-- whoever he or she may be-- desires her, too.  For under the Blood Moon, those bitten by a werewolf are doomed to become werewolves themselves.  


Retold faerie tales are best when the similarities between the book and the original tale are subtle, I think, and there were a few places where I thought this book was far from subtle. (ie Valerie tells her grandmother, quite randomly, 'What big eyes you have...')  I liked the way the mystery of the Wolf and the action unfolded, even though the story started out fairly slow and superficial.  There's a lot of death, and a lot of gory death at that, which really can only be expected of this kind of werewolf story.  In the end, I'm still not exactly sure about the holy terror that is the Wolf of Daggerhorn village, but one thing is clear: he's no Jacob Black.  My biggest peeve with the book is the inconsistent and often shallow characterization-- Valerie was alright, but her two love interests held little or no interest, really.  Father Solomon-- the Wolf Hunter-- was nearly awesome enough to make up for all that-- he's such a brooding, vengeful character, and best of all, he's going to be played in the movie by Gary Oldman (!!)  Can't wait to see that...  Anyway, in the end, I enjoyed the read, but do wonder if maybe it wouldn't be a better idea to simply go and see the movie.  That way you get the cool-looking cinematics and the plot, without having to trudge through all of the extensive backstory or (hopefully) bad characterization.  

Cover: 4/5 (white covers are the new thing, it seems) 

Premise: 4/5 

Characters: 2/5 

Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda

 (Billi SanGreal Book #1)
Genre: YA fantasy/horror
Pages: 327 (paperback)
Published: 2009 by Hyperion Books
Recommended for: paranormal readers who're in it for the paranormal rather than the romance; Mortal Instruments fans

Synopsis:
Bilquis SanGreal grew up knowing she would have to make sacrifices to be in the Knights Templar.  Sacrifices like losing her mother to the Templar's ongoing battle against the Unholy; sacrifices like trading her childhood in for relentless training; sacrifices that keep her completely  isolated from the world of a normal teen girl.
Billi's lone wolf status is challenged when her childhood friend, Kay, returns from his psychic training in Jerusalem.  Kay manages to stir things up quickly -- he's gorgeous, arrogant, and wants to slide right back into his old place in Billi's life.  Billi is skeptical, but interested, until she meets Michael -- an ethereally handsome guy who seems to understand her like no one before him, and effortlessly stakes a claim in her heart.
Just as Billi's starting to enjoy this pleasant new twist to her life, Kay ruins everything.  In a moment of bravado, Kay uses the last of the Templar's treasures, King Solomon's cursed mirror, drawing the attention of one of the most dangerous of the Templars' enemies -- The Angel of Death.  Only with the mirror can the dark angel unleash his full powers, and now that he's heard the call of the mirror, he'll stop at nothing to get it.  To save London from catastrophe, Billi will have to make sacrifices greater than she'd ever imagined. 


My Take:  

Devil's Kiss is one of those YA books whose back cover summaries try to fool you.  (And also one of those that give away half the plot in a few paragraphs, so I'll leave the summarizing to the lengthy synopsis above.)  Judging from the description, I'd pin this book as another slightly fluffy, fun paranormal romance with a love triangle dominating the pages.  I'd really like to preface this review by saying none of that's really true: Devil's Kiss is a novel both dark and rivetingly emotional.  The love triangle isn't half what it's cracked up to be, either-- romance was never the key factor in this story, it's just part of how our MC Billi is struggling to balance being a normal teenager and a member of the ancient Knights Templar at once.  


The Templar-- I love 'em.  Always have.  The creatures and denizens of hell Billi and her Order of modern-day knights (who're sword-wielding and mystical, yeah, but also broke, mostly middle-aged guys whose round table would fit in perfectly amongst the wares of an old pawn shop) face aren't your typical Buffy villains.  They're closer to demons than vampires, but still very unique amongst the usual paranormal suspects.  I really enjoyed the mythology-- which is flawless as well as just freakin' cool-- and the gray, rather dreary London setting.  There's something emotionally raw and morbidly beautiful about Sarwat Chadda's version of a fallen angel-- Mike, aka Micheal. (No, he's not just an 'amber-eyed' stranger, but the aforementioned very bad-ass Angel of Death whose hell-bent on bringing a plague of death down on all of London's firstborn.  I told you the synopsis was majorly misleading, and feel no regrets 'bout the little spoiler. ;)  

Billi herself is a protagonist I cheered for the whole time-- she's very real in her troubled relationship with her brutally distant Templar father, and her relationship with Kay was really fascinating, too.  Kay's an Oracle, see-- a boy who has been trained since childhood to use his second sight to aid the Templar in their crusades against the Unholy-- and Bill's oldest childhood friend.  He returns from his Oracle training in Jerusalem endowed with new psychic power-- power beyond anything the London Templars have ever seen before, and more than ready to reclaim his friendship with Billi... and perhaps more.  I liked how the Christian lore was intertwined with undead and Templar mythos, and I also liked each of the Templars in their own right.  The story actually draws more Mortal Instruments comparisons than paranormal ones, for me, because there is that same sense of otherworldly darkness blended seamlessly in with the modern, urban world.  I guess I'd describe it as a 'dark, urban fantasy'.  The twists and turns of the plot keep a reader guessing, and the ending leaves everything wide open for a sequel-- I can't wait to get my hands on book two, Dark Goddess.  The only thing that really bugged me were the few 'school' scenes scattered throughout the early pages of the book.  The whole mean girls angle has been hacked at so many times, and I really didn't think any of it did more than deplete the plot a little. (Not drastically-- just enough to be slightly annoying.) All in all, though, I give this one much applause for a truly awesome fantasy world, great writing, and a heroine I can't wait to see more of.  

Cover: 4/5 

Premise: 5/5 

Characters: 5/5 

Plot: 4/5  

Overall Rating: 4/5

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

Genre: YA historical fiction
Pages: 210 (paperback)
Published: (first) 1954; republished 2010 by Oxford Press
Recommended for: history lovers, history lovers


Summary:
The Ninth Legion marched into the mists of Northern Britain-- and they were never seen again.  Four thousand men disappeared and their eagle standard was lost.  It's a mystery that has never been solved, until now... Marcus has to find out what happened to his father, who led the legion.  So he sets out into the unknown, on a quest so dangerous that nobody expects him to return. 


My Take:  

Yep, the Eagle of the Ninth is the bestselling young adult book which inspired the new Roman-era movie The Eagle. I've been wanting to see the movie for a few weeks now-- but since my people are much more inclined to see a comedy (blah) than an action-y historical film, I settled for reading the book the movie was inspired by.  And I'm so glad I did!  The movie might be another Gladiator, and still I don't think it could possibly live up to this amazing book, the first in a trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff.

Marcus Aquila is a young Centurion, the newly-appointed commander of a Roman army legion.  He arrives in Roman-occupied Britain eager to move on from the sleepy northern towns where his troops are stationed and find some action and glory, but finds action all too soon when the 'barbarian' Brits unexpectedly rebel.  Marcus ends up barely twenty and wounded for life, his leg having been severely injured in the battle against the Brits.  He goes to live with his reclusive uncle in another Roman-occupied town, where Marcus surprises himself by saving the life of a young British slave, Esca, who was doomed to die in a bloody Arena battle between gladiators.  Marcus buys Esca as a slave in his uncle's house, and the two become friends despite everything. Twenty years ago, Marcus's father marched into northern Britain-- the Ninth Legion-- and mysteriously vanished, along with every last one of his troops and the golden eagle standard which the Roman army treasured above all others.  Confused and uncertain about what his future could possibly hold now that he is injured and discharged from the military, Marcus sets off on a quest which some tell him is suicidal: he travels north, disguised as a traveling healer and with only Esca to help him face the suspicious and sometimes brutal tribesmen of Caledonia-- northern Britain, whose savage beauty and wild landscape even the great Roman Empire could never completely conquer.   

This is one of those rare books which I will read, and immediately know I will reread again and again.  The Eagle of the Ninth is something of a classic (it was first published in 1954), so it's really cool to see it and its two sequels packaged as YA, this first book with a new (and admittedly Hunger Games-esque) cover.  The way Rosemary Sutcliff writes history is just freaking amazing-- I love how a reader can totally, perfectly grasp the dogma of the Roman Empire and the sharp contrasts between them and Roman-Britain, even if they've never before read another book about Rome.  The plot is by no means fast-paced-- but it's not plodding, either, and the story-world keeps a reader more than interested.  The characters are really the gems of The Eagle of the Ninth-- I loved both Marcus and Esca.  They're both so self-depleting and really everything you would look for in a couple of heroes, and they're so real that a reader can feel their pain and triumphs, and ultimately it's pretty much impossible not to fall in love with them.  I particularly loved their friendship, since the whole master-slave relationship isn't exactly one which people normally think of as blossoming into a long and beautiful friendship.

And the ending-- every once in a while, it's so fantastic to be read a book and love the happy ending, and not have to worry over the cliffhanger for about a year like most of our modern YA books have us do!  I recommend this one for fellow history buffs and lovers, though not those who thrive on constant action/romance and those with short attention spans.  (Which I totally get, having the attention span of a squirrel when it comes to most TV shows. ;)  I cannot wait to get my hands on the next two books in this trilogy, and of course to finally get that movie ticket to see The Eagle!!   

Cover: 4/5 

Premise: 5/5 

Characters: 5/5 

Plot: 5/5 

Overall Rating: 5/5

In My Mailbox (10)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie.  The idea behind IMM is not only to put new books on our radars but also to encourage blogger interaction. IMM explores the weekly contents of our mailboxes: books bought, received, won, and borrowed, along with other goodies and swag. 

I kind of went crazy with the book-buying last week... oops. ;)  I've been really busy these last few weeks, but hopefully reviewing all these great books will put me back on schedule!

For Review/ E-books:

 

Bought:

--The Red Glove (Curseworkers Book #2) by Holly Black (!!) 

--Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 

-- The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter 

--The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney 

--Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley- Cartwright (based on the new movie directed by Catherine Hardwicke)

-- The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff 

-- The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Thanks to:

-- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

-- Harlequin

-- the Simon &Schuster Galley Grab

Special Guest Review: Schooled by Gordan Korman

Today I have a very special guest reviewer... please welcome my sister Pinky to a Myriad of Books!  She wants me to tell you that she's very tall (much taller than me, though I want to tell you that I'm older), has a pet killer unicorn, is on the Battle of the Books team at school, and is secretly a mermaid.  Online personas are such fun...

Genre: YA/MG contemporary
Pages: 224 (hardcover)
Published: 2007 by Hyperion
Recommended for:

Synopsis:
Homeschooled by his hippie grandmother, Capricorn (Cap) Anderson has never watched television, tasted a pizza, or even heard of a wedgie. But when his grandmother lands in the hospital, Cap is forced to move in with a guidance counselor and attend the local middle school. While Cap knows a lot about tie-dyeing and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school.

P!nky's Take:

Schooled is a fast paced, realistic fiction story about a boy named Capricorn Anderson.  Cap lives with his grandmother in a hippie community where he is home schooled, set apart completely from the world, named Garland Farm.  Back in the day, Garland Farm was full of treehuggers and peacemakers.  But in present day, the only citizens of the community are Cap and his grandmother.  Not much of a community right?  It seems to work pretty well for them.  In the beginning of the story, Cap's grandmother, 'Rain', falls out of a plum tree.  What was a seventy something year old doing in a plum tree you ask?  Why picking plums of course!  Since Cap is an avid driver, (at age 13) he drives Rain to the Emergency room, having no idea of what he would be exposed to in the next couple months-- the horrors of public middle school.

 Everything is totally against what he has been taught at Garland.  People are fighting over the most ludicrous things, getting shoved into lockers, and receiving something called a 'wedgie' that doesn't look very pleasant.  Cap is always finding small wads of wet paper lodged in his enormous mound of dreads and everyone is always obsessing over something he has never even held in his hand-money.  When living with a social worker and her outraged teen daughter, getting picked on by the whole school, and having your only friend be the biggest nerd in school isn't enough, try getting elected 8th grade president.  Sounds like a good thing right? An honor? Yeeeeeah no.  Truth is, there is a group of popular kids who run the whole school and everyone in it.  During their 8th grade year, they control the whole place, and they make sure the biggest dweeb in town is elected president so they can all laugh at the poor sap as he screws up.

Schooled is hands down one of my favorite books of all time.  The way Gordon Korman makes the characters come to life and gives you the sense that you are right there beside them the whole time is an excellent job on his part.  The novel is from 6 different points of views, meaning each chapter a different person is telling their side of the story.  I have found that this tends to keep things interesting, because some characters can get you frustrated, make you bored, infuriate you, and some will delight you and make you want to hear more from them.  Cap's only friend when he first arrives is the biggest dunce you could imagine and a shoe-in for 8th grade president, a guy by the name of Hugh Winkleman.  It doesn't matter how totally awesome you are, if you have a name like that, you were born to be a yo-yo.  Everybody knows that Hugh Winkleman is the next 8th grade president, what with all the wedgies Zach Powers and his popular crowd have given him in the past 2 years.  So when Cap comes along, in his corn husk sandals and tie dye tees, Hugh was overcome with joy.  How Korman writes with such accuracy on how middle schoolers feel and think, is beyond me.  It's like he is writing it first hand and can tell you exactly what every person's perspective is in full detail!  Young or old, brainy or buffoon, I would recommend Schooled to anyone.

Keep it real,
Pinky

Cover: 4/5

Premise: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5/5

Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

 (Lost Voices Book #1)
Genre: YA fantasy (contemporary)
Pages: 304 (hardcover)
To Be Published: July 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Recommended for: fans of both paranormal and edgy contemporary YA

Synopsis:
What happens to the girls nobody sees—the ones who are ignored, mistreated, hidden away? The girls nobody hears when they cry for help?
Fourteen-year-old Luce is one of those lost girls. After her father vanishes in a storm at sea, she is stuck in a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village with her alcoholic uncle. When her uncle crosses an unspeakable line, Luce reaches the depths of despair. Abandoned on the cliffs near her home, she expects to die when she tumbles to the icy, churning waves below. Instead, she undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid.
A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. The mermaids are beautiful, free, and ageless, and Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: they feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks.
Luce’s own talent at singing captures the attention of the tribe’s queen, the fierce and elegant Catarina, and Luce soon finds herself pressured to join in committing mass murder. Luce’s struggle to retain her inner humanity puts her at odds with her friends; even worse, Catarina seems to regard Luce as a potential rival. But the appearance of a devious new mermaid brings a real threat to Catarina’s leadership and endangers the very existence of the tribe. Can Luce find the courage to challenge the newcomer, even at the risk of becoming rejected and alone once again?
Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive. 


My Take: 


Lost Voices is one of quite a few mermaid tales turning heads in the YA market now.  It seems mermaids are the next big thing after vampires-- though frankly, they're far from my favorite paranormal subgenre.  At least this book is a very original take on mermaids-- it's not just a fantasy, it's also an edgy tale about the struggles and even horrors faced by young girls-- horrors which drove our protagonist, Luce, to throw herself off a cliff into the tossing sea.

Luce is fourteen and the orphaned daughter of a pair of nomads.  Her mother died shortly after her birth and her father, who was on the run from the law for years, vanishes at sea while working on a fishing ship.  This leaves Luce to live with her drunken and often cruel uncle in Alaska by the sea.  She's an outcast at school and her only happiness comes from remembering the days when she traveled with her father, who is presumed dead.  So when she dives off a cliff into a stormy sea, she fully expects to be free from her sad existence forever.  But Luce is reborn as a mermaid-- a girl-siren blessed with immortality and eternal freedom in the sea.  She joins a tribe of mermaids, all of whom committed suicide while in the depths of despair.  The other girls don't talk about their old lives, having given humanity up in favor of living a peaceful life in their home cave and luring the occasional fishing boat to destruction on the rocks with their siren-like voices.  Yet not all of the mermaids are able to cope with their new existence; and even Luce often finds herself challenging Catarina, the beautiful young mermaid who is undisputed queen of their tribe. 

I liked one aspect of Sarah Porter's mermaids a lot-- how the mythologies of traditional mermaids and sirens are subtly blended together.  What I really couldn't stand was how catty and positively cruel most of the mermaids could be.  Catarina in particular was just about bipolar-- one minute Luce was her best friend; the next she's her bitter rival.  These mermaids are a capricious lot, to say the least.  The story also plodded along quite slowly.  As a reader, I can totally enjoy and get into a story where things develop a little slowly.  But Lost Voices really pushed my patience.  It took me literally three weeks to finish this book-- that's probably some kind of record.  I think this is one of those books which some people won't be able to finish and some will really enjoy for its lovely prose and potent mix of gritty reality and unique fantasy.  Sarah Porter uses imagery to great effect, and Luce's story is one which will stay with you long after you turn the last page.  That said, I don't think I will be checking out the next book in this planned fantasy trilogy.

Cover: 5/5 

Premise: 4/5 

Characters: 2/5 

Plot: 3/5 

Overall Rating: 3/5

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

(Book #1 of the Heroes of Olympus Series, the second series set in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians world)
Genre: YA fantasy
Pages: 553 (hardcover)
Published: October 2010 by Disney/Hyperion
Recommended for: anyone who loves the Percy Jackson books and Greek/Roman myth

Synopsis:
Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunk-mates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.

My Take:

Why has it taken me, a huge Percy Jackson fan, so long to read The Lost Hero?  I guess I was half-afraid to read it after the disappointment that was The Red Pyramid (Riordan's Egyptian-myth book).  But I'm now re-convinced of Rick Riordan's power-- he writes as brilliantly as ever so long as he sticks to Greek and Roman mythology, it seems. 

This new book is the epic first in a second series featuring the demigod heroes and heroines of Camp Half-Blood.  We have three new main heroes: Jason, who claims to be the son of Jupiter (Zeus's Roman incarnation) and cannot seem to remember how he learned his awesome fighting skills or how he ended up at on a reform high school field trip to the Grand Canyon with a super-hot girlfriend and no knowledge of anything (including his own last name *Carrie Underwood music plays*).  His amnesia doesn't make him any less of a likable, all-around great hero.  Leo is the Grover of this new series-- a funny guy whose mouth works about ten times faster than his brain, which happens to be better wired for tinkering and building incredibly powerful tools and weapons.  He is, after all, the estranged son of Heptaestus, Greek god of the forge and tools.  Piper's the daughter of superstar actor Tristan McLean and a notorious kleptomaniac.  What she doesn't know is that her strange ability to easily convince people to do as she says is a power courtesy of her goddess mother.  The trio arrive at Camp Half-Blood via a rainbow-pony/pegasus-drawn chariot and are immediately swept up in the conspiracies and secrets going down at demi-god summer camp.  Percy Jackson, hero of the Second Titan War and the first series, has mysteriously vanished and the camp is in uproar trying to search for him.  And Piper keeps having nightmarish visions of a new villain whom hails from the very oldest and most sinister Greek myths.  The three campers soon set out on a quest to try and head off this mysterious evil before the world (and Olympus) all goes to hell in another calamity like the Titan War.

I was happy to see plenty of characters from the Percy Jackson series in this book, though none of them really stole any spotlight from the new characters.  Thalia, Annabeth, Chiron, and even Clarisse make brief appearances, though we see nothing of Percy himself.  I also like how the books are delving into the Roman side of mythology now and the gods' various Roman incarnations and myths.  If you love the fast-paced plot and smart, hilarious retellings of myths and characters from Greek myth from the first book series, then you'll love The Lost Hero-- it follows pretty much the exact same storyline centering on a quest.  Throw in a half-dozen jaw-dropping revelations, a trash-talking satyr who masquerades as a track coach, a lot of trademark humor, and an enormous, flying bronze dragon, and you've got a heck of a fun book.  I think it's definitely better to read after the original Percy Jackson series, though, in order to completely 'get' the whole Camp Half-Blood thing-- it's explained way better in the first books.

Cover: 4/5 
Premise: 5/5 
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5