Review: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Title: The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus #1) [Goodreads]

Author: Rick Riordan (the God) [Website]

Number of Pages: 553

Rating: 5¹⁰ /5

Release: October 12, 2010

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Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she’s his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids.” What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

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I don't know if I've said this before, but Rick Riordan is a God. Really, he should be given a place among the 12 Olympians because he's just THAT good. I can't help but fall in love with everything he writes. Percy Jackson and the Olympians? MIND BLOWN! The Red Pyramid? LOVE! And now, The Lost Hero (MIND BLOWN + LOVE) ² ! 

The Lost Hero had it all: kick ass characters, an invigorating and action-packed plot, a sh**load of humour and a whole lot of potential.

I’ve always loved Riordan’s characters. Even the evil ones have redeeming qualities. They’re all believable and oh, so fun! Honestly, if I had friends like Riordan’s characters, I’d be one happy girl. By the end of The Lost Hero, Jason, despite having lost his memory, was able to evolve and develop as a character. Throughout the course of one book, he was able to grow as a person. And that was very important to me because he was basically starting with a blank personality since he lost his memory. Piper was an amazingly refreshing character. She was so different from what I expected. To say the least, Piper has become one of my favourite kick ass female heroines. Leo, Jason’s best friend, was just hilarious. Humour is very important to me and I love how Riordan’s books are all sprinkled with a healthy dose of hilarity. Leo, in my opinion, was the character that grew the most. He went through many trials that helped him face his past. By the end of the novel, he certainly changed in many ways, for the better. I can’t wait to see what awaits him in the rest of the series.

The plot, similar to Percy Jackson, was action packed. The main characters faced different trials that pushed the plot along at a well paced speed. Each small conflict contributed to the main problem. There’s no fluff in this novel; every chapter, every paragraph, every line is important. The entire plot ties together. We get answers to some of our questions but Riordan skillfully leaves many questions unanswered, making the wait for the next book so much more painful!

I think Riordan’s best decision was making this series a spin-off from Percy Jackson. I already knew most of the characters in this series because I grew close to them in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It makes me love this series that much more because I feel like I’m reuniting with old friends.

Bottom line: READ THIS BOOK! But read Percy Jackson and the Olympians first because The Lost Hero will mean so much more. The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2) is going to be simply astounding. Riordan has set the bar high with The Lost Hero and I’m sure that he’s going to do even better with The Son of Neptune!

-S

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Follow Friday (02/24/11)

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted over at Parajunkee's View. Each week one blogger will be selected as a feature, so sign up for the Follow Feature. Future features are picked randomly.

So, this week's question:

Q. Share your current fav television show! Tell us a bit about it...

Hmm...don't judge me, but my favourite show right now is Strong Heart. It's a Korean variety show, and on it 18-20 celebs basically tell stories which relate to the theme of the show. They can tell funny, sad or scary stories but they all have to be true. Most of the time it's funny stories though, and I like the two hosts very much. And, no, i'm not Korean but i find there shows highly addictive, lol, as it shows a different side of the celebs people idolize.

-L

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My current favourite TV show is How I Met Your Mother. It's hilarious! I just started watching it this week on DVD (yes, DVD! Who uses those things anymore, right? Well I do! I'm staying away from all this "Blue-Ray" stupidness) It's frickken funny and I can't get enough of Barney. SUIT UP! 

-S

Teaser Tuesday (02/22/11)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Here's how to do it:

-Grab your current read

-Open to a random page

-Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

-BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

-Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

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Title: Angelfire [Goodreads]
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton

Teaser:

"How was your day, Ellie Bean?" my mom asked, like she did every single time.
"I didn't die," I answered, as usual. 

Sounds good, doesn't it? I've just begun and I'll be reviewing it as soon as I'm done. Thank you NetGalley and HarperTeen for the galley! 

-S

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Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium (Delirium #1)

Author: Lauren Oliver

Number of Pages: 441

Rating: 4.5/5

Release: February 1, 2011

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Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

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I have to admit, I was putting this book off for a while. I wasn't sure what to expect. Bloggers were comparing it to Matched and while I liked Matched, it didn't live up to the hype for me. So I went into Delirium hoping to be surprised. And I was. 

The premise of Delirium was interesting enough but not enough to capture me right away. I knew it would be a romance but what I was looking for was substance. I hate reading a book where the girl and boy fall in love in less than a week of meeting and say "I love you" as if it's nothing. It's completely unrealistic. That being said, the relationship in Delirium was nothing like that. Lena and Alex, her love interest, actually spent time together and got to know each other. They went through good times and hard times together. They looked out for each other. Their relationship felt real; they actually worked at it. 

And that wasn't the only relationship in the book. We get to see the relationships between Lena and her best friend, her aunt, her sister, her cousins. Every single relationship in Lena's life is affected by the deliria; it's interesting to see how each relationship evolves or is destroyed by this disease.

Lauren Oliver is a genius with words. They just flowed out of the pages. She was descriptive but in an implicit way. Her sentences could have 5 million different meanings depending on your perspective. Her writing was just beautiful.     

The plot was great as well; after about a hundred pages, the pace really started to pick up. The issues and adventures that Lena got into really helped the plot overall. Little things from the beginning would come up throughout the book, tying the plot together. The end was a bit rushed for me. I loved that it was heartbreakingly sad though. And I especially loved how there was an intricate background to the story. Lauren was able to gracefully paint a story for every character that she mentions, no matter how minor. And the feelings throughout the novel were so electric and charged; I could literally feel them leaping out of the pages. I was so invested in this book that even though it was over 400 pages long, it still ended too quickly. 

The characters were all believable and their progress was obvious. I can't lie, Lena kind of annoyed me in the beginning. She followed the rules religiously. Her best friend, Hana, was the ultimate rule breaker. They were complete opposites. I felt more attached to Hana in the beginning. But that changed throughout the novel. I grew to like Lena more and more because she really did evolve into an actual human being with her own opinions, thoughts, fears, and ambitions. Alex brought out this beautiful rebellious side to her. It was always there and Hana did begin to extract it but Alex was able to pull it out of her all the way. 


Along with Lena and Hana, I also fell in love with Alex. I've always had a thing for bad boys, both in books and real life, so of course I loved Alex. He was the bad/good boy though. He was a rule breaker but he was...a good rule breaker. He did bad things for good reasons. He's one those characters that you just can't help but like. His personality and his life will just win you over.  


Another character that deserves an honorable mention is Lena's cousin Gracie. She doesn't speak to anyone but Lena throughout the book despite being old enough to talk. But what we learn about her through Lena is enough to show me that she has a lot of potential and I hope that she plays a pivotal role in the next two books. 

Overall, this book delivered much more than I expected. I can't wait to read Pandemonium! 

Also, my amazing friend Brodie wrote a great review for Delirium over on her blog Eleusinian Mysteries. Check it out and don't forgot to hit the follow button while you're there! 

-S

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Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the galley!