The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Series: Heroes of Olympus #5
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: October 7th 2014
Source: Bought

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.

The Blood of Olympus was quite possibly my most anticipated release of the year - the final Heroes of Olympus book - and I was pretty freaking excited for it. The Blood of Olympus was a brilliant end to the Heroes of Olympus series, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of the series.

The Blood of Olympus took me forever to get through. It took me less time to read The Mark of Athena & The House of Hades - and they had more pages! Honestly, The Blood of Olympus had an extremely slow start for me. I wasn't as drawn into the story as I usually was, and I found myself only reading a couple of chapters a day because I was slightly bored. But, the book did pick up about a third of the way in and from that moment on I was hooked. 

The demigods are running out of time to stop Gaia from rising. Nico, Reyna and Coach Hedge are trying to get The Athena Parthenos back to Camp Jupiter before the Romans attack while Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Frank, Piper, Jason & Hazel head off to stop Gaia. 

I love every single one of the characters in the Heroes of Olympus series, so when it was revealed that one of the 7 demigods would die, I was obviously heartbroken. All 7 of the demigods are amazing for different reasons: Annabeth & Percy are just my absolute faves (obviously, no reasons needed); Leo is hilarious and bonkers; Jason is strong and hilarous; Piper is awesome; Frank is the sweetest and Hazel is badass. I just couldn't imagine losing one of those characters because I love them all. I also really, really love Reyna and Nico. Reyna is just so freaking awesome, badass and amazing. And Nico is the cutest, scariest, most adorable guy ever. 

The first part of the book dragged and just lacked the usual feel for me. I can't even explain exactly what it was, I just wasn't that invested at the beginning of the book. But luckily, the book picked up and during the second half I just couldn't put it down. I was excited to see whether the demigods were going to be able to stop Gaia or not - after all the build up throughout the series - or whether it would lead to a huge war, and I wanted to know which of the demigods was going to die - even though I was sure it would kill me. The build up to which character was going to die was kind of ruined when it told you who it was going to be chapters before it happened. Being told who it was going to be took away the emotion from the death. I absolutely adore the character that died, but honestly, I felt nothing during their death. Not a thing, and that's extremely unusual. I wish Riordan had kept that bit of information secret until the moment before the death. The action and fighting at the end of the book was fantastic! Riordan had me on my toes and he can definitely write a brilliant fight scene.

I really loved the ending of The Blood of Olympus, and I also didn't. It was a really happy ending and I did shed a happy tear. But I was also kind of expecting a more final ending from Riordan. I'm slightly happy about the open ending because it means that there could be more from the HoO characters (yay!), but I did really want a wrapped up ending.

Overall, The Blood of Olympus was a brilliant end to The Heroes of Olympus series. Although I didn't enjoy it was much as the rest of the series, I still thought it was a great end to the series. I'm sad that it's over, but I'm hoping that there may be appearances from certain HoO characters in Riordan's new series (pretty, pretty please!) which I'm super excited for!