Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan + Heroes of Olympus series review

Blood of Olympus Review

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Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they’re stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it “might” be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea’s army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

4.5 stars – look at that! I gave the lowest rating to the finale book in the prior Percy Jackson series and now I’m giving the highest rating of this series to the finale book. Riordan has improved greatly in his finale books, and I’m just so impressed.

This was such an exciting book. Full of action and adventure, comedy and love, deep characterization and just lots of excitement. It did take me a little bit longer to read, but once I finally sat myself down and concentrated, I couldn’t stop reading it.

I had a few minor gripes with it (LIKE WHY DID WE HAVE TO ADD IN MORE NARRATORS BUT THEN I KIND OF DIDN’T CARE BECAUSE REYNA AND NICO WERE AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG). I didn’t get too much Hazel and Frank in this one, and I felt like I would have loved a bit more from them since they were featured quite heavily in the beginning of the series and super cool beans. Jason was the King of Meh as usual.

Anna and Leo and Coach Hedge would go quite perfectly together, I should think.

Things that I loved? BABY COACH HEDGE…AND THEN HIS BABY. Omg, he was classic love as usual. LEOOOOOOOOO and his LOVE. Reynaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Nicoooooooooooooooooooo and his new love (please please please let that be a thing). So much actionnnnnnnnnnnn. I actually really enjoyed Piper and such quality evolution of her character over the series???? COACH HEDGE AND LEOOOOOOO. Ugh, there really was so much to love in this story.

I’m also quite pleased with the ending. I will admit it did wrap up a bit too quickly, but I thought it was still done quite well and I was pleased with it overall.

I don’t want to say too much about it, so this will be a quick review. Overall, a fantastic end to the series that was much more enjoyable than most finales that I’ve read. It was a great way to wrap-up this series, and I’m super disappointed that I won’t have more of this in my life. Such a great series with just fantastic characters – two of them were just my absolute favorites ever???? It showed such fantastic diversity, amazing adventure and fun, and so much more. 4.5 crowns rounded up to a five and an Anna rating!

Series Review

So, was this series Percy Jackson? Well, no, but it was something different and still very captivating. All the books got a 3.5 rating and higher for me, and I found some new, amazing characters that I have such an attachment too. My love for older characters deepened and while a few characters were a bit sketchy, it still was so so good.

The Characters

UM, CAN WE JUST STOP AND HAVE A MOMENT OF SO MUCH NEEDED SILENCE FOR THE AMAZINGNESS THAT IS LEO VALDEZ AND COACH HEDGE. Omigosh, I will never stop loving them. They are easily some of my favorite characters in all of history. I just want to be in a permanent hug with them that never ends???? SO. MUCH. FANGIRLING. Ugh, ugh, JUST UGH. They bring so much hilarity and hope to this series, and I couldn’t stop loving them.

Percy was great as well. I felt it was still the same Percy from the original series and he just was a little older, little wiser. He still has my heart. Annabeth grew on me as the series went on, and by the end, I was totally enjoying her quite a bit. I might have jumped for joy a bit that Nico appeared again, and Riordan gave him so much amazing characterization and depth in the last two books that I might have died and just forever loved him all over again like I did as a kid??

And Reynaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Dear Mr. Riordan, PLEASE GIVE HER ALL THE BOOKS. ALL OF THEM. I WANT SO MUCH MORE.

Frank and Hazel were good. Piper and Jason were meh. In fact, Jason was the King of being Meh, and most of time, I forgot that he was there because he was quite often off being knocked out. I feel like Riordan was trying to do so much so fast that some of these characters just got forgotten or glazed over. They weren’t bad, but some of them just didn’t get up to the level of love.

Also, the diversity that Riordan shown was just fantastic. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

The Favorites

Blood of Olympus and The Son of Neptune were my favorite. They were such fast paced books and they showcased such great characterization and fantastic Riordan writing. The Lost Hero was one of those books that I enjoyed more that I looked back on it, but I didn’t quite enjoy it as much when I was reading it because it was so brand new.

The Lesser Favorites

The House of Hades and Mark of Athena were my lesser favorites of the series, with both of them earning a 3.5 from me. A lot of the reasons that I wasn’t as pleased with them as much was just the pacing. At times, I kind of fell off reading it because I thought it was either too repetitive or just not going at a fast enough pace (or sometimes too fast???). Sorry, Rhea @ Bookenchanted, who I know these are your two most favorites. D: Please forgive me??

The Ships

Okay, the ships in the last two books were everythingggggggggggggggggg. I mean, there are so many classic ships in this. Annabeth and Percy. Coach Hedge and Millie. Tyson and Ella. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS: LEO AND CALYPSO WHICH ARE MY ULTIMATE. Will and Nicoooooooooooooooooooo.SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END. Piper and Jason were sweet, too.

Overall Conclusion

super super enjoyable and it’s kind of equalling the Percy love and fangirling. I kind of just want to dive into all of this again and relive it all. SO MUCH LOVE. Overall, a solid four crowns for the series and definitely going down as one of my favorite series of all time.

What do you think? What was your favorite book of the series? Did you prefer Heroes to Percy? Let’s discuss in the comments below!