The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
Published by: Hyperion Books
Pages: 545
Format: Hardback
Rating: ★★★
Series: The Lost Hero (#1) | The Mark of Athena (#3) | The House of Hades (#4) | The Blood of Olympus (#5)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Rick Riordan, you have outdone yourself, my friend. Percy is back. PERCY. IS. BACK. I could barely contain my excitement! I’d missed him so much! Jason, Piper and Leo were great, but Jason could never replace Percy, so it was lovely to have his charming perspective again. I enjoyed this sequel more than the first. I though Hazel and Frank’s backstories were really interesting, and the quests seemed even more exciting. The Roman camp was so new and different to Camp Half-Blood, I really enjoyed learning about it, and who doesn’t love a bit of Roman mythology?

Characters:

Percy: THE FACT THAT HE REMEMBERED ANNABETH OVER EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. I forgot how much I love this pairing. Percabeth is adorable, and I cannot wait until Mark of Athena when the whole gang will be back together. I want to know more about what happened to Percy in the eight months he was missing, but other than that I had no complaints. I loved his wit and humour. The amount of times he misheard or mispronounced something was incredible – I should’ve made a tally – it’s such a classic Rick Riordan way of explaining the complicated pronunciation. I would not want anyone other than Percy Jackson telling me Greek/Roman puns. I loved how you could really see how he’d changed from the original PJatO series. He’s grown up – almost 17 – and his attitudes towards battles and relationships have aged appropriately with him. Much appreciated, Rick, much appreciated. I will say: darn you, Nico d’Angelo for making sweet Percy even more confused. Percy was kick-ass regardless of whether or not he could remeber his past, but I will thoroughly enjoy the books where he is 100% sure of himself.

Hazel: Hazel’s backstory was probably the most intrguing of the seven. I didn’t see it coming. During Hazel’s chapters we were effortlessly transported to Hazel’s past so that we could get a better understanding of her motivations in the future. I didn’t know that Hades – I mean Pluto – was associated with riches, and although Hazel’s power seemed a little strange, the curse aspect of the sotry really aided her fragile relationship with Frank. It’s a shame that Rick didn’t team Percy up with two girl instead of one guy and one girl, because it would’ve been a change to the classic couple & lone boy dynamic.

Frank: It took a while for me to like Frank, this was probably due to his lack of self-confidence, but when he grew into his character and his power I was fullt behind him. It was pretty obvious who his godly parent was going to be, but the tension was real anyways.

Relationships:

I have a sneaky suspicion that as much as Rick Riordan cares about the action and adventure the one thing at the forefront of his mind is the couples. I love every single one of the pairings, because they are all completely sweet and not too over the top. The characters are 16-17 so it’s expected that there should be more romance than when they were only 12. However, Hazel is only 13, and this means that the series can be classed as Middle Grade which means the relationship details are few and far between. But when there is the odd kiss on the cheek you can guaruntee it’s going to be ridiculously adorable.

Pacing:

Rick Riordan’s books are always action packed, and Son of Neptune was no different. There were mini quests to compliment the main quest and they really helped to drive the plot forward. I have a feeling that the series is going to get Harry Potter-esque and the plot will get a little bit darker as the series progresses. But for now, I was quite happy with the heroes randomly meeting random gods in random locations. There are very few slow sections in the Heroes of Olympus series so far, but I can guarantee that if there is a slow section then it won’t hinder the plot/flow of the novel.

Overall:

I’m going to give Son of Neptune three stars. I realise that this is the same rating I gave to The Lost Hero, but the formula was very similar, and although I LOVE Percry with all my heart, Leo had the same comedic effect in the first book. This book was a great introduction to new characters and new settings, and I can only hope that from here the series continues to get better and better.