"The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

 So I've been reading this book on and off since the summer due to other commitments and also logistics of having to constantly return it to the library. You'll have to forgive me if this summary is a little haphazard as a result, but such is life.

This is the sequel to The Lost Hero and the second book of the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. While The Lost Hero followed Jason Grace and his arrival at Camp Half-Blood, this book follows Percy Jackson and his adventures at the Roman counterpart, Camp Jupiter. He's completely lost his memory except for one name, "Annabeth," and he has to navigate his way through a quest with new friends to defeat the god of death. New friends include Frank, a newly recognized son of Mars, and Hazel, a daughter of Pluto. Percy eventually regains his memory, and warns the Romans that Greek demigods are on their way to join forces with them.

The nice thing about this book is that it allows for a return to our favorite protagonist, Percy Jackson. The narration style is still different though, it's all in third person, so it's definitely distinct from the original Percy Jackson series. Still, it's nice to have a familiar face. Nico di Angelo also plays a role in this book, and serves as another bridge to both Camp Half-Blood and the original series. Having said that is it a little jarring to not be in Percy's head anymore. I was able to ignore this by the end of the book, but it's certainly an adjustment.

I also really enjoy the look at Camp Jupiter and the distinctions between the two camps. Camp Half-Blood is really for teens, while Camp Jupiter is more of a functional city where you can retire from killing monsters and all that. It's a little like Riordan picked up on some issues that his original camp could have and plugged them here! And of course getting to see how Roman traditions have been adapted to the modern day is always neat.

The new characters are also very endearing. Frank is described multiple times as a big teddy bear, despite being a child of the god of war, and it's hard to not adore him as a result. There's a prominent story line about his family that really fleshes our his character and background. Seeing how the Roman history gets combined with his Asian ancestry is really cool, and something that I could imagine Asian readers resonating with. Hazel is also a wonderful addition. Her backstory still has some holes to be filled, but we love to see daughters of the gods kicking butt and taking names! Both Frank and Hazel are the underdogs of the camp when we meet them, and if that isn't enough to love them from the get-go then I don't know what is.

No real complaints here, a solid continuation of The Lost Hero that reintroduces what Percy's been up to and catches us all up. Mostly just looking forward to when both parties (Greek and Roman) come together in the next book to actually start the real adventure!