The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

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 won the Goodreads Choice Awards 2014 in the Best Middle Grade & Children's of 2014 category. It's the final conclusion to Riordans 2 5-book series about the demigods of Olympus and Rome set in modern day. Where the first series focus solely on Poseidon's son Percy Jackson and his Greek Deity descended friends of Camp Half-Blood, the second series introduces the Roman Camp Jupiter which protects and trains the descendants of the Roman Gods. This is a clever spin on the fact that the Greek and Roman Gods are two sides of one coin.

I've been a big fan of Riordan's series ever since reading the first Percy Jackson book. They are well written, funny and filled to the brim with history, legends and myths. Riordan manages to bring the ancient into the modern and makes it work really well. Children (and adults) reading this will not only be entertained they'll also learn and maybe get curious enough to learn more.

We follow a large amount of main characters and while some authors would drown in the effort of making them all stand out, Riordan gives each and every one their own story and time to shine, and while my memory was slightly rusty I was still very quickly ensnared in the story once more, rooting for all the heroes.
While there are epic battles both big and small, I really enjoy how a lot of this book really centers around the main characters and the decisions they make. You really get to see them grow and own up to their legacies and it's just such a good experience

My only complaint would be that you forget these are mostly in fact kids, because they do not behave like kids. You could argue that their situations have forced them to grow up way too fast, but I do think some of them are just too mature for their age. Particularly Nico whom I love, but was shocked to discover is only 14 in this final book! The way he's acting he should be way way older (also I need him to be older to make me feel less like a pervert).

... It's a really good book and a really good series and I really think more people should read it. :)

THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS The Heroes of Olympus #5 by Rick Riordan ISBN13: 9781423146735 516 pages / Published in 2014

Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2015