The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

House of Hades by Rick Riordan
Series: The Heroes of Olympus #3
Publisher: Puffin
Publication Date: October 8th 2013
Source: Bought

The House of Hades is the fourth book in the bestselling Heroes of Olympus series, set in the action-packed world of Percy Jackson.

The stakes have never been higher. If Percy Jackson and Annabeth fail in their quest, there'll be hell on Earth. Literally.

Wandering the deadly realm of Tartarus, every step leads them further into danger. And, if by some miracle they do make it to the Doors of Death, there's a legion of bloodthirsty monsters waiting for them.

Meanwhile, Hazel and the crew of the Argo II have a choice: to stop a war or save their friends. Whichever road they take one thing is certain - in the Underworld, evil is inescapable.

As soon as House of Hades arrived, I dove straight into it. It took me longer than I would have liked to finish it (that was due to decorating and work), but I loved every single second of this book. 

I absolutely adored that we got to hear from all of the demigods in this one! Percabeth, Leo, Nico and Hazel are my favourite though. I love everyone, but those 4 are my favourites. 

My main interest in this book was Percy and Annabeth's journey through Tartarus to the Doors of Death. There were so many monsters down there that I was on edge throughout their whole journey. Percy and Annabeth are so strong, but if they didn't have each other in Tartarus, I doubt they would have made it out alive. They both rely on each other so much while their down there and it just made their relationship even stronger than it was before. 

Leo has always been a favourite of mine since the first book in this series. He's just so funny! I love that Leo had a much bigger part in this one. Leo's jealousy disappeared in this one because of something that happened to him and I really hope that he'll be able to go back in the next book because he deserves to be happy!

I absolutely adore Nico! Everytime someone in this book called Nico a weirdo or something like that I got slightly angry. Nico is struggling with his own problems and we find out something about Nico that made my jaw drop and made me wonder why I'd never noticed it before! I felt so bad for him after that. 

Hazel is such an amazing character as well. She learns from Hecate that she's going to have to face someone at the end of their journey to help save Percy and Annabeth, and that she's the only one that can stop them. Hazel must learn to use her new powers before it's too late.

I really like Jason, Piper and Frank too, but I just don't like them as much as the others. Frank went through an amazing transformation in this one though.

The storyline in this one was amazing! The Argo II was constantly under attack from Gaia's monsters trying to prevent them from completing their quest; Percy and Annabeth were trying to avoid being caught in Tartarus and trying to find a way to survive and the demigods meet some new Gods and creatures along the way. There was just so much going on in this book! And there's a lot more that I haven't mentioned because I don't want to spoil it for anyone!

The ending was brilliant (and thankfully there wasn't another soul destroying cliffhanger). I can't wait for the fifth and final book - The Blood of Olympus - to come out. I'm really excited for it, but I'm sad that it's going to be the last book. I'm not ready to say goodbye to Percy!

Overall, this was a fantastic sequel to The Mark of Athena. It was packed full of action, twists and had me on edge the whole way through the book. Seriously, if you haven't read this series or the Percy Jackson series yet, you definitely should! They're amazing!