The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5) by Rick Riordan

Ratings:  ★★★★★

After a year of not reading this series I cannot believe that I made it to the grand finale and it was epic, beautiful, and satisfying. All I got to say is that this book should have been longer like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I blame that on Riordan's part of creating a major gap of time between The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian. I witness maturity in this book as we come to full circle with the gang and I wish that Percy was already in high school and the prophecy was meant for him when he turns 18 because it would have impacted me more than having him as young teenager.

This book jumps ahead one year after the previous book and Percy is with Rachel Elizabeth Dare on summer vacation away from the city. You do not get the luxury of knowing what has happened within the missing gap year but apparently everything was amazing even though Kronos is preparing a war that hasn't been seen in eons. Percy is a confused teen because he has intense feelings for Annabeth but between what happen in the previous book and the avoiding the topic of Luke, he is unclear where he stands with her while Rachel is taking the opportunity of being a flirt and trying to hook up with Percy even though its clear he is destined for Annabeth.

Out of nowhere Blackjack storms in and lands in front of Percy warning him that the moment has arrived. Percy quickly rushes off to begin the plan of destroying a ship that has tons of monsters and Kronos heading to Manhattan. Everything goes according to plan except that Kronos was expecting them already meaning that there is a spy in Camp Half-Blood. In an attempt to succeed the plan, Charles Beckendorf decides to sacrifice himself in order for Percy to escape the explosion. 

Between the previous book and this first major death, Percy realizes that this is war and tons of innocent people are going to die because of Kronos and him. Plus he discovered that Kronos who is possessing Luke's body is indestructible and cannot be easily destroyed. 

While all this drama is going on hell is breaking loose everywhere around this Earth. Poseidon is having war in the ocean with the other Titans, the Olympians are trying to kill Typhon as he is trying to reach Olympus and destroy the Gods. Each day grows darker for demigods and Gods alike and only Percy and his friends are the last hope for Mankind. Percy finally receives the Great Prophecy and he learns that he may die while protecting Olympus and decides that if he is going to die then he is going to die without a fight.

Nico di Angelo comes along pressuring Percy that in order to defeat Kronos/Luke, he needs to know more about Luke's past in order to understand everything. Plus Nico has been pressuring Percy that he needs to get stronger in order to have a chance of winning and to do that he needs to dive into the River Styx and suffer its toxic waters in order to get the special ability of super strength but at the cost that he has an Achilles heel in the center of his back and if anyone stabs him at that exact spot then his mortality will reveal and he will die instantly. Sounds fun.

All that drama sounds like it could be the summary of the entire book but that is only a glimpse into this grand finale. This book reminded me so much of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and since they shared similarities that means like the Battle at Hogwarts that we witness, as readers we get to witness the Battle for Olympus in Manhattan. I believe this book has become my favorite Percy Jackson book because the characters are older, the superficial innocence adventures are gone, and I believe this book feels older and mature between the fights, the drama, and the darkness that creeps into this book.

If I have to give a rant about this book I will have to say that I wished Rick Riordan had spend time on the minor characters. Unlike J.K. Rowling, she dedicated her time introducing everyone and making sure that even the minor characters were just as important as the main three and when some of them died you felt the pain and sadness of their deaths. Since Rick Riordan was trying to stay true to Greek Mythology and having the main cast go off on quests, we didn't get to see much of the minor characters and because of that I believe that their deaths was less impactful and because they are so young I didn't find it relatable compare to Harry Potter.

I do not know why and I would love to know if anyone else got this vibe but I felt like the ending of this book was a direct copy between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz. What I mean by that especially with Star Wars is how everyone taught that Luke Skywalker was the chosen one when in fact it was his father (Thank God! I do not like you Luke).

Except for few of the Gods, everyone predicted that Percy was the hero of the Prophecy who would either destroy or help Olympus and die at the end. Midway through Rachel Elizabeth Dare clears that up for us and I can understand how Percy was pissed off about this whole ordeal. I felt like Rick Riordan did this on purpose with naming the main villain as Luke so in a tiny way he could correct another fantasy series before a famous someone filmed the prequels. 

With Wizard of Oz is because how each and everyone in this series was award for their bravery. Literally it was like watching the movie and instead of courage, intelligence, and heart we get special titles and special bragging rights. I have to admit that I agree with Percy Jackson's wish to the Gods but I will say that if I were him I would have dumped Annabeth and received the God's generous offer.

Annabeth in the last few books was very difficult to deal with and because of that she came off as this obnoxious girl that I didn't want to deal with at all. I loved her in the beginning and seek forgiveness by the end of this book but I wanted Percy to be this phenomenon and not be tied down because of one person. Rick Riordan needs to wrap this series with a bow and I understand Percy Jackson decision but Annabeth shouldn't have been the only reason for this grand decision.

I am very pleased with this series and I believe for those who have never read Percy Jackson, you should definitely pick it up and by the time your reached the Titan's curse, the series become infinitesimal fantastic and plenty of action to witness. I cannot wait to dive deeper into Rick Riordan's books and I cannot believe this is a goodbye to all these lovely characters. Until next time...

P.S. This series finally completes my 2014 BookTubeAThon challenge! Begin and finish a series. It is never too late to finish any task!

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4) by Rick Riordan

Rating: ★★★★★

It has been over a year since I have last delve into the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and I believe that is too long to rediscovery this epic fantasy series. The reason why it took me so long is because I read the first three through the library and once I read an entire series it increases the odds that I will never buy it for my own possession and I need Percy Jackson in my life. After months of research and having the right resources I was able to own the whole collection and now I get to finish this saga. I definitely had to use major recaps to remember what happens in the previous books but this book in my opinion was standalone from the rest.

We get reintroduced to Percy Jackson who is now an incoming freshman attending freshmen orientation at Goode High School. He is always getting kicked out of every school that he attends thanks to monsters and other catastrophes and he needs to work harder this time around because Percy's moms boyfriend, Paul Blofis, teaches at the school and who defended him when the school was reluctant to accept him. While attending the orientation, he sees he a familiar face and immediately panics because he cannot believe why she is attending this school and we learn it is no other than Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

If you do not remember her do not worry because there is not much about her except that Percy met her at the Hoover Dam on a quest the previous year and she saved him from evil skeleton warriors. He never saw her again until now and we discover that she lives in New York and is attending the same school as him. Before he attends the orientation, Percy bumps into a pair of senior cheerleaders who are acting strange around him and appear to be something else and sure enough Rachel tells Percy to run when the cheerleaders show up on stage.

As Rachel and him run out of the auditorium and hide, we learn that the cheerleaders are empousa which are flaming hair monsters with fangs and their legs is one part donkey and the other is celestial bronze prosthetic leg. They are the inspiration for our vampires and immediately Percy has to fight them and kill them without making a mess of everything. Luckily he kills one but the other escapes leaving the school in flames and framing Percy as the trouble maker.

Percy escapes with Rachel and once he gets outside he bumps into Annabeth who came to hang out with him and go on their unofficial date. She immediately gets jealous when she meets Rachel and all the wonderful plans go down the drain as they need to visit Camp Half-Blood before all hell breaks loose. Once they arrive, Percy notices that while he was enjoying the normal life of being a teenager, he has forgotten that everyone else in the greek mythology world have been making plans and strategies over how to stop Kronos and defeat Luke and all the other bad guys that they have encountered.

As he gets adjusted to camp, he discovers that Dionysus is on a mission to make sure that the lesser gods are in an alliance with Olympus, no word on Nico di Angelo (previous book), and we have new members to the camp which is the new swordsman named Quintus and his hellhound companion named Mrs. O'Leary. We meet again Tyson who is Percy's step-brother and Grover who is granted only one week to find Pan before his searchers license gets revoked and his dreams of meeting his God is over. 

The following day Percy learns that Quintus has set up a game that will test the young half-bloods skills and strengths in combat and Percy gets to team up with Annabeth. At first the fighting seems easy with one big scorpion but then out of nowhere three appear and they have to retreat under a boulder. As they hid inside, Percy and Annabeth notices that this boulder has turned into a cavern and Annabeth makes the connection as the entrance to the Labyrinth (the one that is famous for the Minotaur and Theseus).

With the discovery of the entrance, Percy discovers that Annabeth and everyone believes that Luke is trying to enter the Labyrinth in order to infiltrate Camp Half-Blood and destroy it. Annabeth, Percy, Grover, and Tyson are now on this quest to enter the Labyrinth and find Daedalus (who is the creator of the labyrinth) and make sure Luke doesn't get a hold of Ariadne's string. If Luke gets it before them, he will attack with a taste of Kronos army and the gang might not be able to fight back. Will the gang be successful or will Luke and Kronos become bad asses and ruin the day?

I try to make this spoiler free and even though I have written a mouth full of information, this barely makes 100 pages and in the book there is plenty of epic battle scenes, secrets revealed, and so much more. What I loved about this book is that it left you at the edge of your seat as time is running out and Kronos army gets bigger each day. This book definitely beats the previous novels and I believe if you are currently reading this series and still haven't made up your mind to continue it I would say read this book and it will blow your mind in epic proportions.

Even though we are getting more action than the books I believe that this book has become the turning point for the future of this series. Percy is now in high school growing up and with that comes maturity. While I loved this series I felt like in the beginning it was very innocent and playful and now with this book we realize that evil is real thing and the end of the world might appear sooner than later. This book reminded me a lot of Harry Potter especially from Book #4-6 because this book was darker than the previous book and we encounter death as never before.

As the reader we get an insight glimpse into what is a war and how innocent casualties get killed in the line of battle. I believe at that moment is when we open our eyes and grow up as human beings. I loved every second of this book and I have no clue what the final book is going to be about and how it will lead us into the spinoff series. All I know is I am definitely going to read the last book in the series and finally end Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

In each book as we discover new characters and further insight into the Greek Gods, I try to picture myself who could be my greek parents? If it could be both Greek Gods then I would say Poseidon and Athena but since this deals with Demi-Gods then I can only pick one. I find the son of Hades powers to be cool in this book but I believe at the end of the day it would be Poseidon. I always try to change it in every book but I always find myself relating to Percy and Poseidon more and more. Hopefully the final book can prove me wrong.

This was the first time in a book that I forced myself not to use google to look up these characters and their abilities which I am grateful for because I would have been completely spoiled early on in the book and ruin the entire series. I believe if we do not about this particular god or who is the greek parents on a particular child there is a reason why and we will learn later on in the story. I lose my patience in this book because I want to read the book faster than I possibly can and the moments where I am unable to read my book I get sad and coming up ways to read the book without being bothered.

I cannot get enough of this series and Rick Riordan is a genius as to how to attract people into his stories and how easily we are able to lose track of time in these classic greek mythology adventures. Thank you Rick Riordan for coming into my life and thank you for creating Percy.

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3) by Rick Riordan

Rating: ★★★★★

This book surpasses the previous book, Sea of Monsters, by a long shot and made me excited to continue on in the Percy Jackson series. This book had so much action, humor, romance, and anxiety wrapped into one book and I haven't felt like this when it comes to a series since Harry Potter.

In "The Titan's Curse", it starts out a few months after the sea of monsters and instantly we are introduced to the gang as they are in a major mission to recruit some half-blood's before the monsters attacks and kills them. The only thing I did not like about the book is this which is they left a major gap between summer to December and they never tell you what happens between Percy, Thalia, Annabeth after the events of having Thalia brought back to life thanks to the Golden Fleece. 

I don't know if he did that intentional but it's like Rick Riordan left this major climax at the end of the 2nd book and I would think that would be a major conversation in this book but it became anticlimactic in reality. It's like everything is perfectly fine that Thalia who was supposedly dead is alive now and acts like she's been friends with Percy all this time since he became aware of his Demi-God. They never talk about it in this book and I hope somehow they will because that just frustrates me! 

Okay back to the story. As they are on this rescue mission, Annabeth gets caught in the middle and is taken prisoner by Kronos Army. Artemis makes a deal with Percy that she will find this monster and help Annabeth but sadly she gets captured by this monster and if she isn't rescue, Annabeth and her will die, and the Gods of Olympus will not vote to fight back against the ancient monsters and titans which will bring destruction to the world. So Percy and the gang have like a week to rescue everyone.

I feel like since we already know the characters and the Greek mythology, it moved very fast which I truly appreciate because it kept me at the edge of my seat wanting to read more about what is going to happen with the gang. This was better than the 2nd book because the plot of the 2nd book wasn't that entertaining and I get this feeling that the 2nd was more character introductions so that way the rest of the series has more action pack adventure and in each book, the characters are maturing.

Even though this book is meant for middle schoolers, I see the character growth especially in Percy throughout this book. In the first book, Percy was 13 years old and being extremely stubborn and not fully grasping what is happening to his life and how everything is changing thanks to Poseidon. Now in this book, Percy is almost 15 and maturing quickly because there's been more than one occasion that Percy had been close to the brink of death.

Also I love Percy and Annabeth and I hope they fall in love because that would be a great storyline and I believe this book made it obviously that even though Annabeth is Percy's friends, there's a lot of emotions attached to both of them. I cannot wait to see it further developed in the rest of the series!

I hope Battle in the Labyrinth can exceed this book!!! :)

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2) by Rick Riordan

Rating: ★★★★ 1/2

Overall I found this book to be exciting and refreshing compared to the first book but I did not necessarily like the whole idea of this book and prefer the first book just a smudge more compare to the sequel. I've realize that sequels are a difficult task for the authors because every one gets absorbed into the first book and then cannot figure out what to do with the sequel or it becomes a background story leading into major conflicts in the third book which is the case with The Sea of Monsters.

This book moved quicker now that we know who is Percy Jackson (Thanks the Gods) and it captures us right back where the book left us off in Lightning Thief. It is the last day of school for Percy and everything seems to be going fine until a bunch of monsters attack Percy during a game of Dodgeball. When he is saved by his friend Tyson, and Annabeth (who arrived to New York unannounced) during that battle, he is immediately rushed back to Camp Half-Blood because the camp is close to be destroyed thanks to Luke & Kronos. When he arrives, he finds out that the tree that is the barrier for the camp has been poisoned, Chiron was fired, and Grover is in danger stuck in an island in the Sea of Monsters.

 At the camp, he believes his friend Tyson is a normal human but realizes that he is a Cyclops who is hated among the community as deceitful monsters. Not only that but he is a son of Poseidon a.k.a Percy's half-brother. Now that everything is an uproar, Percy and his friends must leave the camp in order to save it, save Grover by traveling to the Sea of Monsters and capturing the Golden Fleece.

I was shocked that I enjoyed this book because when I read the description of the plot, I found it to be rather boring and imagining that I was going to suffer through 300 pages of pure boredom and I am glad that I was entertained and that it is the shortest book in the series. I love that it did not take long for the action to begin and I was mesmerized by the storyline and the ending caught me by surprise! The only thing I did not like was how the beginning even though it was short, took so long for it be interesting and almost became this repetitive cycle in comparison to the first book.

I LOVE TYSON'S RELATIONSHIP WITH PERCY!!! I believe Rick Riordan is an absolute genius with addressing serious topics such as ADHD, Dyslexia, Autism and other syndromes in a form of a children's book and showing that even though they may seem a disability for some people, people like Percy and others used it to their advantaged and didn't let it affect them. Like Tyson, even though he is a Cyclops, he reminded me of autistic child and I found that so inspiring to show how Percy loved him as a brother because of his bravery and kindness. I applaud Rick Riordan for incorporating that into this series and showing how love and friendship can help succeed us in life.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1) by Rick Riordan

Rating: ★★★★★

I am so shocked as to why I haven't read this series when it was first published. This book brought out different emotions for me and makes me want to devour every book that Rick Riordan has written when it comes to Greek Mythology. I could have finished this in 3 days and I need to read the complete series of Percy Jackson!

In many ways, I felt as though I can relate extremely to Percy Jackson and this story reminded me a lot with Harry Potter. The writing style, the quick pace of action, and even the font of the book reminded me of everything about Harry Potter which makes me love this series even more!!!

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, is about a 12 year old boy name Percy Jackson who seems like an outcast because he's been to a different school every year, suffers Dyslexia and ADHD, and has father abandonment issues. Then several months, weird events have happened without much explanation for Percy and he believes it's all in his imagination until one night, a Minotaur is sent to kill him and his mother and miraculous is brought safely to this camp called Half-Blood and it's where Percy discovers that everything of Greek Mythology is real and above all else he is the son of Poseidon, one of the three most powerful Gods you could possibly have as parent. But what's controversial is Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades weren't suppose to have children post WW2 and now Percy is on a quest to find Zeus's stolen Lightning Bolt which he blames Poseidon as the thief and if they do not find it when the summer solstice arrives, the world as we know it will crumble thanks to the Olympian Gods.

It took me 42 pages until finally I became an addict and I love the writing, and the characters which is a pure miracle for me! I thought I was gonna dislike Annabeth and Grover but at the end of the day I adore Annabeth and somehow I want her and Percy to be together even though technically they are cousins. I saw the movie before reading the book and thank God I did because the movie does not live up to the high expectations I have now thanks to this novel. 

Another thing that I need to mention and honestly I feel as though it is part of the reason it is a success is Percy's Mother. I loved how he included an adult figure in Percy's life and I can feel the love and heart-felt embrace she has for Percy and how much she sacrificed so Percy could have a normal life as much as possible. I believe with the addition of the mother, it brings such a huge gratitude towards mothers (especially my mother) everywhere and made this series for everyone regardless it is meant for middle schoolers.

Even though this a work of fiction, I could easily get absorbed into the storytelling and could imagine myself as Percy throughout this book which I believe is the main purpose of great book. If the writer can capture our attention and help us imagine ourselves as the character or riding alongside the main character than you have already won half the battle. Plus what made me believe that I could fill his shoes is when he has a conversation with his father and his father mentions,

 "Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it? No... sir. I must take some blame for that, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained."

When he made that ocean reference my mouth literally drops. I try my best to respect and obey my elders but I have that habit of if my mother cuts me off in the middle of what I am saying, my blood boils and I snapped back. I don't like to be restrained and not be acknowledge for my ideas or beliefs. And someone I know has mentioned that exact quote to me and they have never read or heard of Percy Jackson. At that moment I realize that given the choice to be a son of Olympian God, I would pick Poseidon. I cannot wait to read the rest of this series!